help, I'm freaking out

plabill

I've done my design, I've created some layout. Where do I go to create that big sheet where I can see my plans/views etc and then put measurements and notes etc...
I've been browsing the help, youtubing videos and can't figure it out. I suck and I'm getting angry now. silly i know. Just 6 months in. thank you

Michael Mayer

There is Model Space where you create your Geometry
and there is Paper (or Layout) Space where you create/adjust your Sheets and add Viewports.

You can switch between these with the Tabs at the bottom of the View Window.
You can find some nice (although older) Videos on Bricscad's YouTube Channel
about how to work with Paper Space and (generated) Viewports.

Measurements and Notes will normally be added in the Annotation Space of a Viewport.

plabill

Thank you @Michael Mayer
I'm new to Bricscad. 6 months in now. I've become not bad with drawing. Good enough that I barely use Sketchup anymore which I was pretty descent. Now I'm at this point where I'm trying to create my plans and I'm watching all the videos and it's not working and my manhood is taking a dive. I want to literally cry. I've taken autocad. it was a 30hr crash course. It went so fast I missed most of it. All I'm learning now is by myself with the help area on their website and youtube. I need Bricscad friend so that I don't give up. I have the pro version V19. looking fwd to try the V20.

So those layout pages are the ones that you can print in ie 11x17 or 24x36?
Is there a way I can use the blocks that I created to turn them into view ports and then select each view ie top, front etc...?
I found the measurement tools but what about arrows? door opening directions etc???
I'm frustrated but I want to believe at some point I'll be good.
I'm promoting it to all my designer friends meanwhile I'm not telling them I can't figure out the annotation part :-(

plabill

Sometimes you find those templates that have the nice border and themes and title blocks etc... isn't there such a thing? I believe there was something like that with autocad?

Michael Mayer

Unfortunately I do mostly 3D only and do not need 2D plans.
Played a bit with Viewports, generated Sections for checking
my Models only.
But there are many forum members much more experienced
with that stuff.

I just remember these things from feature lists, help and videos.

plabill

I create in 3D then want to do elevations. How do u do your elevation plans?

Anthony Apostolaros

If you create a viewport in a Layout tab, and then go into that viewport and navigate to a certain view of the model, and then leave the viewport and lock it, then that viewport will always have that view of the model. Navigating to a different view in the Model tab won't affect the view in a locked viewport.

You can set selected layers to be frozen in a particular viewport, without being frozen or turned off anywhere else. And you can give each layer a bylayer color or other property that only applies to that viewport.

You can copy a viewport and paste it onto another Layout tab. You can grab any of the 8 grips around its perimeter and drag it to change the size, shape, or target location of the viewport.

As far as ready-made page setups, when you pull down File and select New, it prompts you for a template file. If you pick "Sheet-inch-Arch-D.dwt" then you'll have a 24x36 Layout tab in the file. To get more tabs that size, right-click on the tab itself and select "Copy." To create your own custom page setup, or to edit the ones that are built in, right-click and select "Page Setup."

If you don't want to make your own title block, there are plenty that you can download for free. Just google "autocad title block template."

Tom Foster

At bottom of drawing area, do you have tabs Model Layout1 Layout2? Click Layout 1 - you've switched from Modselspace to Paperspace (or Layoutspace).
Is there an outer dashed rectangle and an inner solid-line rectangle? The latter is a window - a Viewport - into your Modelspace.

Is the Viewport rectangle enclosed by a thin line or a heavy line? If thin, double-click inside the Viewport - it goes heavy-line - now you can scroll or zoom within the Viewport, to compose the partial view of your Modelspace that you want to have on your 24x36 paper sheet.

Double-click outside the Viewport - the enclosing line goes thin-line. Click on that line - it gets handles - now you can drag/re-size the Viewport to where you want it on your sheet.

At top menu, in View>Viewports, click two points on your screen to create an additional Viewport, which again can be positioned/sized on your sheet and after double-clicking inside it, its view into your Modelspace can be scrolled or zoomed.

At bottom of drawing area, right click on tab Layout1>Page setup and have more fun with that.
When you choose a printer and click OK, notice that the dashed rectangle in Paperspace has expanded to show the printable area for that printer.
Set the Standard scale - 1:48 or whatever - that you want that Viewport to display its bit of Modelspace at. The image may disappear, out of the Viewport - pan around to find it. Zooming changes the Standard scale - re-set it in Properties panel.
Tinker around till everything looks right.

Click on each Viewport's enclosing rectangle, see Properties panel, lots of info about that Viewport.
Misc>Display locked, determines whether that Viewport is locked, once you've composed it, otherwise scroll/zooming may inadvertently destroy its composition.

Louis_Verdonck

@plabill
"I've done my design, I've created some layout. Where do I go to create that big sheet where I can see my plans/views etc "
Did you create a 3D model? Are you using BIM? All previous comments are about 2D drafting where the linework sits in Model space and layouts are used to create the documentation drawings.

plabill

@Anthony Apostolaros said:
If you create a viewport in a Layout tab, and then go into that viewport and navigate to a certain view of the model, and then leave the viewport and lock it, then that viewport will always have that view of the model. Navigating to a different view in the Model tab won't affect the view in a locked viewport.

You can set selected layers to be frozen in a particular viewport, without being frozen or turned off anywhere else. And you can give each layer a bylayer color or other property that only applies to that viewport.

You can copy a viewport and paste it onto another Layout tab. You can grab any of the 8 grips around its perimeter and drag it to change the size, shape, or target location of the viewport.

As far as ready-made page setups, when you pull down File and select New, it prompts you for a template file. If you pick "Sheet-inch-Arch-D.dwt" then you'll have a 24x36 Layout tab in the file. To get more tabs that size, right-click on the tab itself and select "Copy." To create your own custom page setup, or to edit the ones that are built in, right-click and select "Page Setup."

If you don't want to make your own title block, there are plenty that you can download for free. Just google "autocad title block template."

@Tom Foster said:
At bottom of drawing area, do you have tabs Model Layout1 Layout2? Click Layout 1 - you've switched from Modselspace to Paperspace (or Layoutspace).
Is there an outer dashed rectangle and an inner solid-line rectangle? The latter is a window - a Viewport - into your Modelspace.

Is the Viewport rectangle enclosed by a thin line or a heavy line? If thin, double-click inside the Viewport - it goes heavy-line - now you can scroll or zoom within the Viewport, to compose the partial view of your Modelspace that you want to have on your 24x36 paper sheet.

Double-click outside the Viewport - the enclosing line goes thin-line. Click on that line - it gets handles - now you can drag/re-size the Viewport to where you want it on your sheet.

At top menu, in View>Viewports, click two points on your screen to create an additional Viewport, which again can be positioned/sized on your sheet and after double-clicking inside it, its view into your Modelspace can be scrolled or zoomed.

At bottom of drawing area, right click on tab Layout1>Page setup and have more fun with that.
When you choose a printer and click OK, notice that the dashed rectangle in Paperspace has expanded to show the printable area for that printer.
Set the Standard scale - 1:48 or whatever - that you want that Viewport to display its bit of Modelspace at. The image may disappear, out of the Viewport - pan around to find it. Zooming changes the Standard scale - re-set it in Properties panel.
Tinker around till everything looks right.

Click on each Viewport's enclosing rectangle, see Properties panel, lots of info about that Viewport.
Misc>Display locked, determines whether that Viewport is locked, once you've composed it, otherwise scroll/zooming may inadvertently destroy its composition.

@Tom Foster
is there a way to create some kind of blocks/views/or plane sections and then in layout viewport just select one and it appears? or do I have to do everything manually? like double click, drag designs over, select view, ? when I move things around, it shows other parts of my design...

plabill

@Tom Foster
is there a way to create some kind of blocks/views/or plane sections and then in layout viewport just select one and it appears? or do I have to do everything manually? like double click, drag designs over, select view, ? when I move things around, it shows other parts of my design...

plabill

@Anthony Apostolaros thank you. I'm still trying. sounds all great but when I try it's a different story. I'll keep trying. thanks

Tom Foster

I'll leave that to someone else - beyond my current workflow.

Anthony Apostolaros

You can create a saved view in model space and then restore it in a viewport.
-view s 1 to save the current view and give it the name "1"
-view r 1 to see that view again later, or in a viewport

When trying something new, I usually close the file I'm working on and open a new one, or else save the file I'm working on and then Save As temp.dwg and try things out in that temporary file. That's so I can experiment boldly without worrying about damaging anything. I learn more quickly when I feel free to just crash around and see what happens. You can damage a drawing file, but you can't damage Bricscad. At worst, you might have to close it and restart it.

plabill

@Anthony Apostolaros I will try that. Also, how do I get rid of the viewport lines? can I do that?

Louis_Verdonck

@plabill said:
@Anthony Apostolaros I will try that. Also, how do I get rid of the viewport lines? can I do that?

Put the viewports on a dedicated layer (e.g. viewports) and switch off the Plot property of that layer (click on the printer image). Doing so you can still select the viewports to edit them, but they will not be printed.

Anthony Apostolaros

I usually put viewports on the non-print Defpoints layer that comes with any template file. I usually don't have anything else on that layer in a layout tab, though in the model tab I draw all construction lines on that layer and frequently delete everything on it in modelspace.

plabill

@Louis Verdonck it worked. Thank you. Sorry, I'm still very green. Thanks

@Anthony Apostolaros Thank you. I may try that at some point but it sounds too complicated for now LOL... when I'm more experienced.