Wednesday

Advanced plotting using Layouts

12 Comments Jan-31-2007 | Posted by Eren Pala | Printable Version | Level |

Those who make drawing with AutoCAD® mainly suffer from being not able to put properly what they have drawn to the paper. Most of the AutoCAD® users use the traditional Plot command and take their actions from Plot dialog box. However, since AutoCAD® 2000, we can also make paperspace orientation as if we are making an AutoCAD® drawing. In order to do this operation properly, there are layouts in AutoCAD®. Layouts give us a lot of features like management of paper and taking scaled print outs. Now, let’s take a closer look at these features together.

When we create a new drawing in AutoCAD® there is a drawing space ( Model Space ) and in addition to this, 2 numbers of layouts. We can add new layouts to them as we like.

Fig. 1.

First of all, let’s start by opening an existing drawing. After opening the drawing, press the  layout1 tab under the screen. When we open the layouts first time, “Page Setup” window will come up automatically.

Fig. 2-a. Page Setup- Plot Device.

In this screen, there are settings regarding the plotter and the relevant paper. From the Plot Device, you can select the plotter or printer you want to take print out from and make the relevant settings for it. The reason why we are selecting the device first is that, paper and printable area on the paper changes from device to device. After selecting the device, we can select the plot style we want from the plot style table in the bottom. What we call plot style is roughly whether the drawing will be colored, black and white, or grayscale. If we used colors other then black and white in the drawing and we would like to take print out from a black and white device, then we should select “monocrome.ctb” from here. If the other settings are used, then the light colors will be faded. Autocad.ctb is suitable for us.

Fig. 2-b. Page Setup- Layout Settings.
 
In the “Layout Settings” tab, there are settings like paper dimensions, paper layout, what will be printed on the paper etc. This part is very similar to AutoCAD® “Plot…” window. From “Paper Size” part, we are selecting the paper size. Paper size is directly related to the loader part of the device. All of the paper sizes and types that are supported by the device appears in this list. Later, from the “Drawing Orientation” part, we can select if the paper is oriented portrait or landscape. At this point, assume that incoming direction of your paper is Y axis, and the direction where the head of your plotter moves forward and back is X direction. If you rotate the paper with “Landscape” option, then the axis will also change. From “Plot Area” part, we can select which part of our drawing will be printed. As we are taking print out from layout, “Layout” must be kept selected or the settings that we have done through the layout will be useless. From plot scale part, we are determining the drawing ratio. Note that this is not the drawing scale. This ratio determines each drawing unit we use in the drawing correspond to how many mm. For example, If you have assumed each drawing unit in your drawing as 1 cm, then you should choose 10:1 ratio. Or, the easier way is to write 10mm=1 drawing unit in custom part. Regarding this subject you can check out the “Scaling in Autocad drawings and layouts” article written by Prof. Dr. Günay ÖZMEN or “Understanding scale concept and units in Autocad…” article written by Orhan Toker. After making the necessary settings, a paper space drawing area like the one shown below will come up.

Fig. 4.

We have exited the endless AutoCAD® screen and now we are working inside the boundaries of the paper we have chosen. The dashed lines seen here shows the borders of plot area on the paper. There will be no plotting outside the dashed lines. Frame, seen in the middle of the drawing and in which our drawing is seen, is called “Model View”. You can create any number of “Model View” and we can show any part of the drawing we want with any scale we want. MVIEW command is used to create “Model View”. Use of this command is pretty easy, and it is only drawing a rectangle.

Now, let’s have a look at how to manage the Layout screen. “UCSICON” that is seen in triangular shape on the lower left side shows us that we are on “Paper Space” now. All the operations we make on the “Paper Space” will directly be shown on the paper and are only seen in the relevant layout and can’t be seen from other layouts.

Fig. 5.

If the “UCSICON” icon is inside the “Model View” screen as shown in Fig. 5, then it means that we are inside the “Model Space”. Whatever changes we make in the “Model Space” will affect the drawing. Already no changes are recommended in the “Model Space” mode. In this mode only scaling operations are done. If you are going to make any changes in the drawing, you should do it in the “Model Space” tab.

There are a couple of ways for passing from “Model Space” to “Paper Space”.

• By writing mspace ( short way ms) into the command line you can go to the “Model Space”; and by writing pspace (short way ps ) you can go to the “Paper Space”.
• By using the model/paper button that is just near the command line, we can go from one mode to another.
• In addition to this, if we double click on “Model Space”, “Model Space” will be active. In the similar manner if we double click on “Paper Space”, “Paper Space” will be active.

Now, let’s talk about how we manage the layout screen. The triangular “UCSICON” on the lower left corner of the screen shows us that we are currently in “Paper Space”. All of the changes we make on “Paper Space” directly takes effect on the paper and only appear in the current layout. They don’t appear in other layouts. As I mentioned before, Model View is the view/appearance of the drawing inside the layout on the paper. If we go to “Paper Space” and erase the rectangle on the paper, we give no harm to the drawing. By this way, we only erase the view/appearance of the drawing on the paper. In order to create a new “Model Space”, we must use mview (mv) command. After executing the command, we will be prompted some options.

• ON: It is used to turn on the closed “Model View” windows that we select.
• OFF: It is used to turn off the Model View windows that we select.
• Fit: Creates an mview window that fits exactly on all of the area that is printable on the paper.
• Lock: It is used to lock an mview window that we select.
• Object: It is used to convert any entity that we select inside the “Paper Space” into Model View window. 
• Polygonal: It creates a Model View window by using a polygon that we draw.
• 2/3/4: By using these numbers, we define the numbers of Model View windows that we want to divide the screen into. After defining the numbers, we also have to define their locations. 

Without selecting any of the options, we can create a “Model View” directly by drawing a rectangle. We can scale the view inside the “Model View” windows. To do this, we must first go to the model space. When we are in Model Space, we can zoom according to scale by using zoom command and using zoom scale, which is in the format of 1/50xp. Note that, if the unit that we use in the drawing is different then mm and if we didn’t adjust the ratio, as I explained above, from the Page setup-Layout settings, then the scale will not hold. For example, if the unit that we use in the drawing is cm, then in order to print a 10 cm line in 1/1 scale, if we enter zoom 1/1xp then AutoCAD prints 10 units as 10mm. Thus, our 10 cm line will be printed as 10 mm.

Let’s examine this with an example.

1. Let’s open any existing drawing and press on layout1.
2. After making the necessary changes in Page setup window, let’s close the window by confirming it.
3. Let’s copy a letterhead that we use in our paper to layout1 or let’s simply draw a new letterhead. We mustn’t go out of the dashed lines that represent the printable area.
4. Let’s create a Model View window of any shape we want by using Mview(mv) command.
5. If we don’t want the frame of this window to be visible on the paper, then let’s create a new layer with name mv and turn off its plot property.
6. Let’s enter Model Space and adjust the scale.

Bye,

Bu yazinin Turkce’sini okumak icin basiniz.