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How to create new viewport on new sheet layer


Doug L

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How do I create a new viewport on a new sheet layer? The 24x36 drawings were done awhile ago, now I need to create 8 1/2 x 11 addendum sheets. This was the process I used:

1. Create new sheet layer, set to 8.5" x 11".

2. Add drawing borders.

3. Add custom title block.

4. Draw a rectangle that will be the viewport.

5. With the rectangle still selected, went to Modify/Convert/Convert to Viewport. Nothing happens except for a system beep. No errors, but nothing is created either.

6. With the rectangle still selected, tried View/Create Viewport. Receive an error: "You have selected only one object or you have selected an already cropped viewport. Please select an uncropped viewport and a crop object to create a detail viewport." Yes, I selected only one object, the rectangle that I wanted to convert to the viewport. What's an already cropped viewport? I didn't crop anything.

So how do I create the viewport, which is supposed to contain the planting design layer. Or it could contain a portion of the planting design sheet layer. Either way would work for me, if I could get it to work. I did it before, on the 24x36 sheet layers, but that was months ago! I have an AutoCAD background and creating viewports was very simple in AutoCAD. But I recall that to create viewports in Vectorworks was very unintuitive, and now its not working.

I thought I followed the VW help steps creating sheet layer viewport by cropping, 1) make active the existing design layer or sheet layer that will display in the viewport (I have just a titleblock on the a blank new sheet layer), and 2) Create a 2D object such as a rectangle.....

Thanks in advance for your help.

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It is not difficult...

You can create a viewport while on a sheet layer, but you must not have anything selected before you hit Create Viewport. Then you hit the Layers and Classes buttons in the dialogue to set your visibilities. I rarely create VP's directly from a Sheet Layer (unless I am just duplicating an existing VP, which is a fast way to make

them, and adjust the settings/visibilities as needed)

Normally I would go to the Design Layer first.

Make a design layer active (your Planting Design Layer), So now you can SEE the drawing that you want to make into a viewport. Adjust the class and layer visibilities how you want them.

Now, you can simply go View->Create Viewport.

Select your Sheet Layer as the place you want this VP to go.

If you want to crop the drawing, you can do so by either drawing a

rectangle or some shape around it before you hit Create Viewport,

OR once it is on the Sheet Layer you can double-click it and select

Crop to enter the crop mode.

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Viewports are generally created from Design Layers. You draw a rectangle to delineate the information you want a view of, and then use the Create Viewport menu command. This will open a dialog box which will allow you to set the Viewport's destination layer and adjust its Classes, Layers and scale.

The easiest way to do what you want is to:

- Copy the Viewport that you want a smaller area view of and paste it into your new Sheet Layer.

- Double click on that Viewport in its new Layer and enter its Crop Space.

- Draw a Rectangle to delineate the area you want a view of.

- Exit and then move the Viewport to where you want it on the page.

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions. All of the above methods worked. Apparently I was still thinking the AutoCAD way of doing things where you go to paperspace 1st (VW sheet layer) to draw the viewport rectangle, and then the model space (VW design layer) automatically appears within the rectangle. The advantage of the VW way appears that you can draw the boundaries of your proposed viewport first (in the design layer), and then make minor crop adjustments in the sheet layer if needed.

However, when I created the new viewport and assigned it to my new smaller sheet layer, none of the text notes nor area labels showed up. That's not surprising since the text exists on layer 0 within the sheet layer, not the design layer. I suppose its a matter of copying those separately and pasting them in the new sheet layer separately. However, they don't align with the design layer (since I moved the sheet layer to 0,0 where the titleblock was, and fall outside of the boundaries of the new smaller viewport! I'll have to manually align and trim them to fit unless there is a better way. And will have to do this 5 times to fit all the revision areas onto separate 8x11 sheets.

Or I could simply export one PDF file of the planting plan, crop the image 5 different times and import the new PDF's back into each 8x11 sheet layer. With this method, they are now image files and no longer update if the original design layer changes, but this may be a faster method for those who are proficient with Photoshop.

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Thanks Mike. I did try that and the notes and labels are not there. Maybe its because I didn't put the notes in Viewport Annotations, but simply on layer 0 in the planting plan's sheet layer! (I gave up on using Annotations because it seemed cumbersome so many extra clicks (5) to edit/move text on the drawing.

So I tried to move the notes by copying them from the sheet layer and pasting them into the Annotations. But they are different coordinate systems and scales and didn't show up at their proper locations.

Tried copying the entire planting plan sheet layer (select all) and pasting into the smaller sheet layer. Everything is there, but when I crop the planting viewport, the text and revision clouds remain overhang off the smaller sheet layer.

I'll keep trying different methods.

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Apparently I was still thinking the AutoCAD way of doing things where you go to paperspace 1st (VW sheet layer) to draw the viewport rectangle, and then the model space (VW design layer) automatically appears within the rectangle. The advantage of the VW way appears that you can draw the boundaries of your proposed viewport first (in the design layer), and then make minor crop adjustments in the sheet layer if needed.

That is one of the advantages. The main advantage, however, is that in VW there is not just one ?model space?; rather, each design layer is a separate one.

Typically layers are stories of a building, but in landscape design eg:

- cadastral plan

- detailed survey

- aerial photo

- existing buildings on site

- reference & context

- existing vegetation

- existing other things

- demolition

- proposed vegetation

- proposed other things

- terrain model

and so on, each on a separate layer. Drawings are put together by selecting which layers & classes are shown in each viewport.

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