10. Advanced View and Publishing Commands

View Tools

View tools and navigation tools are used to work perfectly in drawing area. All these commands are available in View Ribbon and most frequently used tools are also available in Navigation toolbar. Many commands from View and Navigation are used in 3D workspace. For the purpose of 2D working we are discussing some of View and Navigation commands.
View Ribbon:

Navigation Toolbar:

How to move or PAN drawing workspace

Tool: (View/Navigate Panel) or Navigation Toolbar
Command: PAN
This is the most common navigation command.This command moves the drawing workspace to adjust the drawing space to the screen. Position the cursor at the start location and press the mouse button down. Drag the cursor to the new location. You can also press the mouse scroll wheel or middle button down and drag the cursor to pan.

How to use Zoom command in drawing workspace to work perfectly

Tool: (View/Navigate Panel) or Navigation Toolbar
Command: ZOOM
This is the most common navigation command. Using this command you can Increases or decreases the magnification of the view in the current viewport. You can change the magnification of a view by zooming in and out, which is similar to zooming in and out with a camera. Using ZOOM does not change the absolute size of objects in the drawing. It changes only the magnification of the view.
This command can be run by choosing different options from command prompt as well as individual tools are available for each command prompt option.
Command prompt:

Tools available on View Ribbon:

Command prompt options:
1) All: Zooms to display all visible objects and visual aids like grid dots. The model fills the window using the greater extents calculated by all visible objects, or the extents of all visible objects and some visual aids.

2) Center: Zooms to display a view defined by a center point and a magnification value or a height. A smaller value for the height increases the magnification. A larger value decreases the magnification.

3)Dynamic: Pans and zooms using a rectangular view box. The view box represents your view, which you can shrink or enlarge and move around the drawing. Positioning and sizing the view box pans or zooms to fill the viewport with the view inside the view box.
Step-1: To change the size of the view box, click, resize it, and click again to accept the new size of the view box.
Step-2: To pan with the view box, drag it to the location you want and press Enter.


4) Extents: Zooms to display the maximum extents of all objects. The extents of each object in the model are calculated and used to determine how the model should fill the window.

5) Previous: Zooms to display the previous view. You can restore up to 10 previous views.
6) Scale: Zooms to change the magnification of a view using a scale factor.
· Enter a value followed by x to specify the scale relative to the current view.
· Enter a value followed by xp to specify the scale relative to paper space units.
For example, entering 2x causes each object to be displayed at double in its current size on the screen.
7) Window: Zooms to display an area specified by a rectangular window. With the cursor, you can define an area of the model to fill the entire window.
8) Object: Zooms to display one or more selected objects as large as possible and in the center of the view. You can select objects before or after you start the ZOOM command.
9) Real Time: Zooms interactively to change the magnification of the view. The cursor changes to a magnifying glass with plus (+) and minus (-) signs.
Holding down the pick button at the midpoint of the window and moving vertically to the top of the window zooms in to 100%. Conversely, holding the pick button down at the midpoint of the window and moving vertically to the bottom of the window zooms out by 100%.
When you reach the zoom-in limit, the plus sign in the cursor disappears, indicating that you can no longer zoom in. When you reach the zoom-out limit, the minus sign in the cursor disappears, indicating that you can no longer zoom out.
When you release the pick button, zooming stops. You can release the pick button, move the cursor to another location in the drawing, and then press the pick button again and continue to zoom the display from that location.
To exit zooming, press Enter or Esc.

How to use Steering Wheel instead of Zoom and Pan Command

Tool: Navigation Toolbar
Command: NAVSWHEEL
This steering wheel is generally used in 3D operations. Following steering wheels are displayed when you click on down arrow:

From above list select 2D wheel to use steering wheel for 2D operations. You can also perform zooming and pan operation using Steering wheel. This command gives you a combination wheel of zoom, pan, and rewind operations.

To use this wheel, place your mouse pointer inside the required operation and drag up or down. Here Rewind operation gives you the facility to go previous views dynamically.

How to save screen view to use later

Tool: (View/ View Panel)
Command: VIEW
Using this command you can save your screen view with a name. This is the very useful command when you want to take snapshot of different areas and views from drawing. This command save the current screen view with a name and you can later restore the view.
This command displays the dialog box of View Manager:

In above dialog box, by clicking on NEW button you can give a view name in following dialog box:

How to restore Views

View panel in View Ribbon contain different view restore options:

1) How to Restore saved View

In view ribbon you get a full list of user saved views and preset views:

You can select any view to make current or you can also set any view to current by using previous View Manager dialog box.

2) How to restore previous View:

Click on the Previous View tool to get previous view.

What is Viewport

Viewport is the view device (place) where you can map your different views on a single screen to view or print at one place. You can create viewports in model space as well as in paper space. AutoCAD gives viewports command in viewports panel of View ribbon.

How to change Viewport configuration in Model space

Tool: (View/Viewports Panel)
Command: VPORTS
By default in 2D working we use single view port. By choosing down arrow on this tool you can change from single to multiple viewports.

In case of multiple viewports you can work in each viewport individually by clicking on it. You can perform zoom and pan to view different parts of drawing in different viewports. For example:

This tool is not available in paper space. You can restore again single viewport by selecting SINGLE option from viewport configuration.

How to change Viewport configuration in Paper space

Tool: (View/Viewports Panel)
Command: +VPORTS
Paper space is used to prepare views for printing purpose. You can change from model space to paper space by clicking on any layout from on screen. By default Layout1 contain no viewport to display the drawing.
Note: Right click on “Layout1 Tab” to create new paper space layout. You create many paper space layouts to complete you print requirements.

This tool is used to create multiple viewports on paper space. This tool open a dialog box to select from preset viewport configuration and also gives the facility to save the viewport with a name.

Select any viewport configuration from above dialog box and press OK button. Draw a rectangle on paper space and you get the drawing on paper. You can draw multiple set of viewports on paper space. By double clicking inside any viewport you can work into viewport just like a model space. Here you can generally perform zoom and pan to set perfect view of your drawing for printing purpose. Double click outside the viewport to return to paper space mode.

After modifying each viewport you can enhance you drawing printing:

How to move, resize and delete Viewport in paper space

Viewports are like a rectangle object in paper space. You can select any viewport by clicking on its border. After selection you can perform following operation:

1) Move: Drag viewport rectangle from border to relocate the viewport.

2) Resize: Drag from any anchor point to resize the viewport

3) Delete: Press DELETE key to delete the selected viewport object.

How to create Viewport other then rectangle shape in Paper space

Tool: (View/Viewports Panel)
Command: -VPORTS
By default viewport is rectangle. This command helps to draw a different shape viewport. This command provides two options:

1) Create Polygonal:

2) Create from Object:

How to clip (cut) Viewport or change existing viewport shape in Paper space

Tool: (View/Viewports Panel)
Command: VPCLIP
Using this command you can cut extra part of any viewport by drawing or specifying any shape just like previous command.

How to publish a model space or paper space drawing

Publish means print or plot a drawing view on paper or export to any file format other then AutoCAD. AutoCAD provides these commands in OUTPUT ribbon and also in Application Button. You have already study some commands in Application Button but here you find it more meaningful. Following is the OUTPUT ribbon:

1) PLOT Tool: (Same as previous)
2) Batch Plot : (Same as previous)
3) Preview : You can preview your drawing to be print on paper so you can adjust your paper setup..

4) Page Setup Manager: This command help to change paper size, orientation, margin and other properties. This command open following dialog box:

In the above dialog box you can create or modify page settings. Click on Modify button to open following page setup dialog box:

In above dialog box you can select paper size, orientation, print scale etc.
5) View Details : This tool displays information about plot and publish jobs completed in the current session. You can view detailed information about all completed plot and publish jobs or any error that have occurred. You can also copy information into clipboard to maintain print records.
6) Plotter Manager : This tool displays a folder that contain available plotters. Here you can add or edit a plotter configuration. In the folder, you can start the add-a-plotter wizard or double-click a PC3 file to open the Plotter Configuration Editor.

7) “Export to DWF/PDF” Panel: This panel contains tools to export AutoCAD drawing into file format other then AutoCAD so you can easily view them without the need of AutoCAD.

Export to DWF/PDF: This tool gives the choice to save drawing into DWF or PDF format. PDF format is generaly used to view drawing without the need of AutoCAD, so you can send the drawing anyone. This command opens the following Save AS dialog box:

Export: Here you can specify what to export. Selects which part of the drawing to export. If you are in paper space, you can select the current layout or all layouts. If you are in model space, you can select the objects currently displayed, the drawing extents, or a selected area. This will give the following choice:

display: Export the current view displayed on the screen at this time.
Extents: Export upto drawing extents.
Window: Preview or Export the specified area using following option.
Window: Specify an area (rectangular window) to export in model space. This option is only available in model space and when Export option is set to “Window”.
Page Setup: Select here to use current page settings to export the drawing or override these settings and specify new setting. You can also use following option to setup page.
Page setup: Open page setup dialog box when previous page setup setting set to Override.
Preview: Display a preview based on settings of previous option. It is a good choice to see a preview before export the drawing contents becaue it will show you exactly what is exported.
Displays the export to DWF/PDF options.