please help with setting basic viewports

[jlk]

trying to just get basic VPs set up in the sheet spaces and having a tough time. im used to CAD procedures. i have set one but its too small and nothing shows up.

can anyone help, or point me in the direction of a tutorial?

thanks in advance!

[Horst M.]

There is a lot of stuff in the knowledgebase

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/search/viewport

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/578/Viewport+Tips+%26+Tricks

Also the help section of VW is.?... helpful! (in this case..)

Actually the creation of Viewports is normally very easy and fast.

draw a rectangle (or whatever shape) arround the elements you like to see in your viewport,

goto Menu View-->create Viewport

set the desiered scale name and so on in the upcomming window, and hit OK.

I the case you describe, it sounds like the Sacle is set too high.

or the View of your Monitor is has to zoom in a lot.

To adjust this,

To enlarge the viewport to the size of the Window on your screen, select it and hit CMD and 6 (on the apple).

To change the Scale, select it, and change the Scale in the Object Info Palette.

Horst M.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Horst M.

[jamesmise]

You can select the objects on your design layer that will appear in the viewport. The viewport will be created just large enough to encompass those objects. Or you can draw a rectangle on the design layer and use that as your viewport crop.

When you are on the Sheet Layer that contains that viewport, you use the viewport dialogue box to change the classes, rendering mode etc..

If I design a desk on the design layer. I make a viewport with the desk in front view. On the sheet layer I copy that viewport and move it to the right. I change the view of that viewport to "left".

I copy the original viewport and move it lower on the page. I might change that viewport to top view. (on the viewport dialogue) I might also change the rendering mode to dashed hidden line to show the hidden framing.

I copy the original viewport again and place it down and to the right. Then I can change that viewport to an isometric view and select open gl rendering mode.

So using the original viewport, I now have 4 viewports, showing front view, side view, top view and rendered isometric view.

I believe Archoncad sells a plug-in that will do all this for you in one click.

You might also go back to the design layer and zoom in on a detail of the desk and create another viewport. Place this on the same sheet layer and change the scale (in that viewport's dialogue box) to be much larger. (So you are showing a detailed view of some aspect of the desk)

Hope this helps.

[jamesmise]

And in 2012, you can section a viewport on a sheet layer.

[Jonathan Pickup]

If you are learning or starting with vectorworks, i recommend the Essential Tutorial Manual from

http://www.vectorworks.net/training/guides.php