Set up a sheet with a title block and viewports

What you will make

An A3 sheet with a title block, the whole plan in one viewport at 1:100, and a second viewport showing one corner at 1:20.

Model and sheets

You draw the building on the Model tab, at full size: a 6 m wall is 6000 units long in millimeters. A sheet (a layout) is a piece of paper, measured in millimeters or inches. A viewport is a window cut in the sheet that shows the model at a scale.

Before you start

1. Open or draw a plan on the Model tab.
2. Press EscEsc so nothing is selected.
3. In Current settings, set Units to the unit you drew in, for example Millimetres.

Units matter: a viewport scale such as 1:100 means one millimeter on the paper shows 100 real millimeters, so CadCraft needs to know what one drawing unit is. A drawing left as Unitless is taken to be in the paper's unit (millimeters on ISO paper, inches on US paper).

Make the sheet

1. Click the + button to the right of the tabs under the drawing, or type LAYOUT and press ReturnEnter, or click New sheet.

A new tab, Layout1, opens. You should see a sheet on a darker desk: a border, a title block in the lower-right corner and one viewport above it showing the whole model at the largest standard scale that fits. The history names the paper: ISO A3 for metric and unitless drawings, Tabloid (ANSI B) for drawings in inches or feet.

1. Click Extents to fit the sheet on screen.

Choose the paper

1. Press EscEsc so nothing is selected. The right panel heading reads "Sheet: Layout1".
2. In Name, type A-101 Plan and press ReturnEnter. The tab is renamed.
3. In Paper, choose a size.
4. In Orientation, choose Landscape or Portrait.

Set the viewport scale

1. Click the viewport's frame (its edge). The panel heading reads "Viewport".
2. In Scale, choose 1:100.

The model inside the viewport redraws at 1:100, centered where it was. The list offers metric scales from 10:1 to 1:10000; drawings in inches or feet also get architectural scales (1/4" = 1'-0" and the like) and engineering scales (1" = 20' and the like). Fit the whole model sets an exact, non-standard scale that fits everything.

1. If the plan is no longer centered, change View centre X and View centre Y: they are the model point shown in the middle of the viewport.

Show part of the model in a viewport

1. With the viewport selected, click Pick a window on the model… in the right panel (or type VPVIEW and press ReturnEnter).
2. CadCraft switches to the Model tab. Click one corner of the area to show.
3. Click the opposite corner.

You are back on the sheet, and the viewport shows that area at the largest standard scale that fits; the history says which. Show the whole model goes back to the whole plan at a standard scale.

Add a second viewport for a detail

1. Make room on the sheet: select the first viewport and drag a corner grip to make it smaller.
2. Type MV and press ReturnEnter, or click Viewport in the Sheets group.
3. Click one corner of the new viewport on the sheet.
4. Click the opposite corner.

The new viewport shows the whole model. The history says its scale.

1. Click the new viewport's frame.
2. Click Pick a window on the model… and pick a small area round one corner of the plan.
3. In Scale, choose 1:20.

Viewport frames are on the layer Viewports, which is set not to plot, so the frames show on screen but not in the PDF.

Fill in the title block

The title block is made of ordinary lines and text on the layer Title block. It starts with the drawing name, the scale of the first viewport, today's date and the sheet number.

1. Double-click the large title text. The Text box in the right panel gets the cursor.
2. Type the title of the sheet.
3. Press TabTab.

Do the same for the other fields. Use TEXT to write in the empty "DRAWN BY" cell. The SCALE text does not update itself when you change a viewport's scale: edit it by hand.

Draw on the sheet

Anything you draw on a sheet tab is on the paper, in paper units: text 3.5 high is 3.5 mm tall on an ISO sheet. Notes, north arrows and sheet borders belong here.

You cannot edit the model through a viewport yet. To change the plan, go to the Model tab; every viewport shows the change.

More sheets

Each + adds another sheet (Layout2, Layout3 …) with the next sheet number. To delete the open sheet, press EscEsc and click Delete this sheet in the right panel. It goes without asking; ⌘ZCtrl+Z brings it back.

Plot a sheet with Plot this sheet or ⌘PCtrl+P; see Plot to PDF.

Common mistakes

• The viewport shows nothing. The model is empty, or the view is aimed somewhere else. Select the frame and click Show the whole model.
• The scale list shows only ratios and no feet-and-inch scales. Set Units to Inches or Feet on the Model tab.
• 1:100 looks ten times too big or small. The drawing units are wrong. Set Units to what one unit really is.
• Clicking the plan inside the viewport selects nothing. On a sheet you select the sheet's own objects. Edit the plan on the Model tab.
• "Viewports go on a layout." MVIEW only works on a sheet tab.
• A viewport twisted in another program shows square. Twisted viewports are not built yet.