AutoCAD Page setup and Printing Basic
Contents[hide] [1234] 1Introduction 2Layout: Model Space vs.
Paper Space 2.1Page Setup 3Viewports 3.1Creating viewports
3.2Activating a Viewport 3.3Set viewport scale 3.4Hide the viewport
border from the plot 4Line weights and printing colors 4.1Color
Tables 4.2Using Color Tables 4.3Object Color 5Plotting 5.1Preview
the plot 5.2Plotting a Layout 6Related informationIntroductionThis
tutorial covers how to make a basic page setup in AutoCAD in order
to print your drawing(s).Printing in AutoCAD is (historically)
calledplotting.
This tutorial assumes that you're drawing is set up
inmillimeters(in model space, 1 unit represents 1 mm). Please make
sure you're drawing andunitsare set up correctly!Layout: Model
Space v.s. Paper SpaceDrawings are constructed inModel Space,
visible in the Model tab in AutoCAD. There is also one or
moreLayoutTabs. These display the contents of a Layout, also
referred to asPaper Space. As the name suggests, these are to
create layouts intended for plotting (printing) your drawings on
paper.
Switch to theLayout 1tab which should be present by default in
new drawings:
By default, AutoCAD creates a white sheet with oneviewportthat
displays the contents of your model space. More on that a little
further on. First you have to setup your paper:
Page SetupClick right on the Layout tab and choosePage Setup
Manager...:
The following dialog will display:
AutoCAD selects the active Layout by default, so you can proceed
by clickingModifyfor the selected Layout. The Page Setup dialog
will be displayed:
Here you can set paper sizes, the type of printer that will be
used, etc. In this example we're creating anA3Layout to be printed
toPDFusing the Adobe PDF Plotter.1. Select the Adobe PDFplotter(or
other printer that suits your specific goal)2. Set thePaper Sizeto
the desired format; A3 in this example3. Make sure thePlot Scaleis
set to1 mm = 1 unit4. Choose the desiredDrawing orientationThat's
all for now. We will make the final (very important) configurations
a little later on.ViewportsYour drawing should display one or more
parts of your drawing that you've created in Model Space. This is
done by means of viewports, which are literally a view port into
your Model Space. By default AutoCAD creates one viewport for
you.You can move, scale and transform this viewport just like any
other AutoCAD object in Model Space.It's recommended to place your
viewport object(s) in a separatelayer.Creating viewportsYou can
create a new viewport through the menuView>Viewports>1
Viewport Youre asked to pick both opposite corners for a
rectangular viewport.Activating a ViewportWhen youdouble click
inside a viewportit becomes active. The border is displayed as a
thick line and the Paper-/Model Space indicator in the bottom
switches toMODEL:
When you double click outside a viewport (somewhere on your
paper), the viewport is deactivated and you're back in Paper
Space.
Set viewport scaleWhen a viewport is active, you can use the
regular navigation and zoom tools to select the part of the Model
Space that is displayed and at which zoom level (scale).To get your
scale accurate, for instance at1 to 200 (1:200), you can use
thezoom command. We assume your drawing is set up inmillimetersin
Model Space.1. Typez[enter] for zoom2. Enter the scale:1/200xpfor a
scale of 1:200. Don't forget the suffixxp which tells AutoCAD to
relate the zoom scale to Paper Space units.If your drawing was set
up in meters instead of millimeters, i.e.: one model space unit
represents 1 meter, you should use1000/200xpin the example
above!
Hide the viewport border from the plotWhen you plot your layout,
it will also plot the border of the viewport (the lines of the
viewport object). If don't want the borders to be plotted, you can
use thePlotsetting of the layer your viewport is in. It's assumed
you've created a separate layer for your viewport(s).Open the Layer
manager and click the small plotter icon in thePlotcolumn for the
layer your viewport is in. A red line will appear through the icon
indicating that the layer will not be plotted; the contents of the
viewport will still be plotted though.
Line weights and printing colorsThere are several ways to print
your lines in a certain color and line weight. In this tutorial
we're using the method using Color Tables.Color TablesThe Color
Table translates the object's color into properties such as color
and line weight. You can create a Color Table from scratch, but to
make thing a bit more convenient, we will be using a pre-made Color
Table. You can modify this one later when desired.You can download
our pre-made exampleFrom our website(zipped). The colors are set to
correspond with the following line weights:
Using Color TablesFirst we have to make sure AutoCAD can find
the Color Table we're going to use. The file needs to be in a
specific location:1. Downloadthe pre-made Color Table from our
website and save it.2. Open the location where you saved the file
and unzip it.3. Right-click thezwart-wit.ctbfile and choosecopy4.
in AutoCAD go toFile>Plot Style Manager
An explorer window opens:
5. Paste the file you've copied earlier into this location6.
That's it, AutoCAD can now locate the file. You can close the Plot
Style ManagerNow AutoCAD can find the file, but it doesn't know yet
that it should use this Color Table. So next we're going to assign
this Color Table to the Layout(s).1. Open thePage Setupfor your
Layout.2. ForPlot style tablechoose zwart-wit.ctb from the
pull-down. If it's not there, you probably didn't copy the ctb file
to the correct location.3. Optionally you could checkDisplay plot
stylesif you want to see the effect of the Color table in your
Layout view.
Object ColorSo the color of an object determines how it will be
printed. It's recommended to use the layer color to set the color
for an object. So organize your layers and layer colors in such a
way that it suits your desired printing properties.You could set
the color for each object individually, but then it's harder to
make changes afterwards. For a few exemptions this may work, but
avoid using 'per object' colors as much as you can.
PlottingOnce you've completed the basic setup, you're ready to
plot your Layout.
Preview the plotWhen you've enabledDisplay plot stylesin the
Page Setup, you can get a rough idea about how your drawing would
look when it's printed.
Using theLWTbutton in the bottom toolbar, you can enable or
disable the displaying of line weights in your Layout.To get the
most accurate preview, you can useFile>Plot Preview, or the
Previewbutton from the Page Setup dialog.Plotting a LayoutClick
right on the tab of the Layout you want to plot. ChoosePlot.When
you've selected a 'real' plotter, your drawing will be plotted as
soon as you clickOKin the Plot dialog. In this tutorial we've
selected the Adobe PDF plotter. Once you clickOK, your drawing is
plotted to an Adobe PDF file. You will be prompted to select a
location where to save the PDF file.If you're using the Adobe PDF
plotter, using the Plot preview function isn't really necessary.
You can just plot to a PDF file and see if it's what you
wanted.AutoCAD Page setup and Printing Advanced
Contents[hide] [1234] 1Introduction 2Viewports 2.1Rotate the
view inside a viewport 2.2Non-rectangular viewports 3Color Tables
3.1Modifying a Color Table 4Exporting/Printing 3D viewports with
hidden lines as Vector drawings 5Related
informationIntroductionViewportsRotate the view inside a
viewportWe're using a number of UCS-related functions. It might be
convenient to activate the USC toolbar:RMB-clickon an empty part of
you toolbar space, chooseACAD>UCS.To rotate the model space
within one of the viewports, the following steps must be taken:1.
Activate the viewport2. ChooseRotate Zfrom the UCS toolbar, or use
the commanducs, z. Enter the rotation in degrees (counter
clockwise). The UCS is now rotated within the viewport.3. Enter the
commandplan. SelectCurrent UCS(default) and press enter. The model
space within the viewport will now be rotated so as to align the
viewports UCS with the paper space UCS.Non-rectangular viewportsYou
can draw any shape you want to be used as a viewport. This must be
a closed (poly)line. Use theClose option when drawing a polyline to
make sure it's closed.Go toView>Viewports>Objectand select
the closed line to be turned into a viewport.
Color TablesModifying a Color TableIn the Page Setup dialog,
click the Edit button next to the list where the Plot style table
is selected:
The following dialog will show:
For each color you can view or edit the settings, such as: print
color, line weight, etc.
Exporting/Printing 3D viewports with hidden lines as Vector
drawingsIf you have a 3D solid model that you want a line drawing
of with the hidden lines removed, you could set the display mode
to3D Hidden. But this will automatically export the viewport as
abitmap image and not vectors. Use this procedure to be able to
export or print is in vector format:1. Enter thedispsilhcommand,
press enter and set the value to 1 (this removes the facet edges
when the hide command is given)2. Set the Visual style of the
viewport to 2D wireframe.3. enter the commandhideWhen you print the
viewport to PDF (or similar), the lines should be nice vectors you
can work with inIllustrator.