Viewport confusion

[mac@stairworks]

I'm having trouble figuring out viewports.

When you create a viewport the dialog box asks if you want to create a new sheet layer, new design layer or on an existing layer.

How do you know which to use?

I created a viewport on a new sheet layer and tried to add dimensions but the dimensions were scaling different. I thought it was possible to add dimensions to viewports.

I've watched the VW videos but they give no details at all.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[michaelk]

General rule of thumb(s):

Sheet layers viewports are the viewports that face out to the world and get graphically placed on "paper".

You can dimension and annotate Sheet Layer Viewports. Double click the viewport, choose "Annotation". Everything you do inside that "annotation space" will be at the same scale as (and change scales with - and move with) the viewport. Many people put almost all dimensions, notes, callouts, etc in the annotation space of viewports.

The reason you were unable to scale a sheet layer viewport accurately is that you were on a sheet layer and sheet layers are always 1:1. But the annotation space of the viewport can be whatever scale you want. Independent of the scale of the design layers you created everything in.

Sheet Layer Viewports are easy to duplicate, rescale, section, change views, change rendering modes, etc for different purposes.

Design layer viewports live on a design layer and have the scale, render, view attributes of that layer at that time. They are often used as references to another drawing. Or as internal links, i.e., if something is easier to draw at an angle normal to itself, but will be installed in the real world at a complicated orientation.

There is no annotation space in a Design Layer Viewport. It's either a link to another drawing - with a way to control the visibility of the layers in classes in that other drawing OR a croppable collection of design layers from the same drawing - with a way to control the visibility of layers and classes of that viewport.

hth

mk

Edited March 2, 2013 by michaelk

[mac@stairworks]

Thank you Michael. Those are the kinds of things I wanted to know. Makes perfect sense.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.