Upperspace - Makers of DesignCAD - Award winning CAD software

The first installment of this multi part series covered opening a drawing in Paper Space Mode. Then explained how to create a Paper Space template with a single layout containing one large view frame and a small title block. The second part discussed creating multiple view frames, changing the size of view frames, creating different view frame shapes, and the shading options. If you haven't read the previous installments, please go back to "Part 1: Understanding Paper Space Mode (Title Blocks)" located at http://www.upperspace.com/newsletter/dec02/#paperspace and then "Part 2: Understanding Paper Space Mode (Title Blocks)" located at http://www.upperspace.com/newsletter/jan03/#paperspace. Then come back for this month's submission.

This month, we'll look at view frame scale, layer visibility, and saving multiple layouts and paper sizes to a single template.

First, let's look at view frame scale. Select the view frame in the upper-right corner of the Paper Space. Now select the INFO BOX command from the VIEW menu, press Ctrl+I, or click its tool button in the Paper Space Bar. The Info Box appears.

The Width and Height values in your Info Box may be slightly different from what you see here, but the rest of the options should be the same.

Look at the DRAWING DISPLAY SIZE area of the Info Box. Right now the RELATIVE TO FRAME is selected and set at 100%. This means that the drawing is currently being displayed at the maximum size that the drawing will fit in the view frame. If you wanted to set the display size of the drawing in the selected view frame to a real-world scale, you could select the Specific Scale option and enter the scale value of paper units to drawing units.

Let's look at this a little closer. Assuming that your drawing has been set up so that one inch equals one drawing unit, if you wanted to print the drawing at .25 (or 1/4) scale, you would need to set the option to One Inch=4 Drawing Units. In this example, one inch on the printed drawing will equal four inches in the drawing. If the drawing has been set up so that one foot equals one drawing unit, then for a .25 (or 1/4) scale you would need to set the option to One Inch=48 Drawing Units (12 inches per foot, .25/12 = 1/48). These calculations are based on using a SCALE of 1 in the Print dialog box when you print the Paper Space. If a different print scale is used, additional calculations are required.

As an even simpler example, set the drawing display size to SPECIFIC SCALE and enter one ONE INCH=.5 DRAWING UNITS. This doubles the displayed scale for the view frame to 2:1.

Note: To work with meters, centimeters, or millimeters rather than inches, select the CURRENT LAYOUT CONFIGURATION command in the LAYOUT menu. In the Paper Space Configuration dialog box that appears, change the UNITS option. This will change the One Inch=X Drawing Units option to One Meter (or selected unit of measure)=X Drawing Units. The variable X will not be converted to the new unit of measure, but will maintain its previous value. Also, be sure that the same unit of measure is selected in the SCALE option in the Print dialog box; otherwise, the scale of the printed Paper Space will be incorrect.

Now, let's look at layer visibility. Select the octagon-shaped view frame. Open the Info Box again. Click the LAYER AND LIGHT SOURCE button. A modified Options dialog box that contains only the Layer and Light Source tabs appears. These are the only settings that normally appear in the Options dialog box that are applicable to Paper Space Mode and can be assigned on a frame-by-frame basis.

Click the LAYER tab to bring it to the front. Click the light bulb icons to the left of the layer numbers for layers 1-6 to turn the visibility for these layers off. Click the OK button.

The items in layers 1-6 are made invisible in the selected view frame. All that is still visible is the muffler for the engine. The drawing is scaled in the view frame, and the muffler is displayed at the maximum size that will fit in the view frame.

If you want the changes to be available for other drawings, don't forget to use when you make changes. The template will then be available to other drawings.