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.