Multiple Viewports

[Dexie]

Is there any way of producing a number of viewports at the same time. I use small viewports which focus in on plan details to be used in a Key/ledgend in a drawing sheet.

Is there any way to draw say 10 rectangle and create 10 individual viewports on the shame sheet layer in one hit. It would save hours.

[Ray Libby]

No, but you can duplicate existing viewports, move the crop, or delete it and draw a new one. This is my method and seems easier than going back to the design layer to create a new one.

[Gytis]

Ditto to what Ray says. You could even use Duplicate Array and immediately have ten little neatly aligned VPs, awaiting editing.

[Jonathan Pickup]

a quick way to duplicate a viewport and move it is:

on a windows machine drag the viewport to a new location with the control key held down

on a Macintosh drag the viewport to a new location with the option key held down

[Dexie]

Thanks for the suggestions, all of which I do.

But wouldn't it be a grat facility?

Something for the wish list I think.

[Guest]

Added

[LSlagel]

I'm having another problem with multiple viewports-

I made a viewport of my floor plan (call it viewport "A").

Then I copied viewport "A" and used Edit Annotations to draw a section in the viewport (call it viewport "B").

Now I want to viewport a detail out of viewport "B", but Vectorworks won't let me. I also tried copying viewport "B" and changing the scale, but the Edit Crop tool will only let me crop the original plan and not the section I drew.

Any suggestions for how I can pull out my detail? Thanks!

[Guest]

The section from Viewport B should have been created in another viewport w/ an object type called Section Viewport

If you want to detail the section, then you'll want to do so in viewport C -- which I think you either haven't found yet or are missing.

[LSlagel]

Katie- I chose to draw my own section insetad of using a Section Viewport because I find them limiting. Is there any way to create a new viewport from an existing viewport? Thanks.

[Guest]

How are you creating the section then ?

You can duplicate a viewport .. as methods described above.

You can also create a section vp from an existing vp, but it sounds like that's now what you are looking to do.

PS - What do you find limiting about SVPs?

[LSlagel]

I created a section by duplicating the plan. In Edit Annotations, I pulled guidelines from the major points and then drafted each important line (as if I were drafting by hand). I feel like I can control my line weights better this way, which is difficult to do with SVP's.

I have tried duplicating my viewport but I can only crop the original vp and not the annotations. I think I need to take it out of annotations and copy it into the design layer.

[mdarch]

you'll have to copy your section (ie edit annotations, select everything, copy, exit out, go to a design layer), paste it onto a design layer, and then viewport that for your detail

[Guest]

Or just delete the annotations you don't need/want in the duplicate VP.

[DDDesign]

Viewport crops don't work on annotations as you've discovered, but what about using the clip command or trim to line tool to trim away the annotations you don't need in the new vp. Or the old trick of pasting a white object with stroke set to white or none?

Another thing that might help with your manual sectioning is you can convert the whole viewport to lines (convert command).

[Don@Black Dog]

I think mdarch's point is more like it. You need to get the primary drawing back into the design layers.

Now, you can copy a viewport with everything, just by CTL/click and move (in windows)then edit to your hearts content. But I think the real issue is work flow. The viewport is not the place to do primary drawings such as sections or elevations.

Better to make a Sections Design Layer (or Elevations) and using the classes for line weights, or a new batch of classes such as Sec-1,2 and 3 with specific line wieights (ah, the old days...)turn on the Mod-Floor layer in the back ground and draw your sections or elevations on the new Sections layer. that way, as mdarch mentioned, youcan viewport the sections tot he Sheet layers and better control the final output, including different viewports for different parts of the drawing, and for details.

Another issue is found in older threads, which is the Section Viewport should establish lineweights based on a heirarchy of distance from the cut line, rather than the classes, or along with them, somehow. This, of course, taps into the discussion of whether drawings hsouel be set up in the design layers or sheet layers, but I find the Sheet layers with Viewports much handier.