VectorWorks Drawing Setup (2)

Creating Standard Viewports

Viewports are created on sheet layers, and display a specific portion of a drawing with a combination of visible, grayed, and/or hidden design layers and classes. Viewports can be cropped, rotated, and annotated, and the sheet layer print settings saved. Several viewports can be included on one sheet layer.

The Create Standard Viewports command creates standards-compliant viewports and their associated sheet layers, with the layer and class visibilities of a standard drawing.

Viewports are created in five categories. The available viewport types are:

• Site Plan Drawings
  
• Project Plan Drawings
  
• Floor Plan Drawings
  
• Auxiliary Plan Drawings
  
• Notation Drawings
  

Creating Viewports

To create standard viewports, select File -> Document Settings -> Create Standard Viewports.

The Create Standard Viewports dialog box opens. Select a drawing category from the Type of Drawing list. The available drawing types display in the Drawing Types list on the left, with a short description beneath. Select the viewport to be created in the Drawing Types list and then click Add to move it to the Viewports to Be Created list on the right.

For auxiliary view viewports (sections and elevations), types with a -Man suffix (such as Sections-Man) typically indicate that the elements of the section or elevation are to be drawn manually on, for instance, Mod-Section or Mod-Elevation layers, which are created along with the viewports. The visibility of all other layers is set to Invisible for these viewports.

Types with a -VP suffix (such as Sections-VP) are for creating a view or a section viewport of the model from existing Mod- layers. No new layers are created and the visibility of all existing Modlayers is set to Visible for these viewports.

The Preferences dialog can be opened by clicking on the Preferences button, the preferences apply as viewports are added to the list for inclusion in the drawing. You can set the default scale for each type of viewport and select a drawing border and, if desired, title block to add automatically to each sheet layer. The scale settings affect only the viewport scale, not the layer scale of any model layers.

Standard Naming

The Standard Naming command controls the layer, class, and viewport names used in a project. These names can be changed to a user-defined system other than the default VWArch naming system. Standards can be mapped for office-wide use or to convert an existing file to the office standard. This command can also be used to assign specific attributes to classes in standards, and to change the names of layers, viewports/views and classes in the current standard. The command does not create new layers, classes, or viewports/views.

To set the standard naming of layers, classes, and views, select File -> Document Settings -> Standard Naming, the Standard Naming dialog box opens, so that you can select a naming standard for the file, and choose whether auto-classing should be enabled for objects.

Custom Standard Naming

You can customize the Standard Naming to suit the user's needs and requirements, using the Standard Naming command and selecting one of the user standards, and using the Layer Mapping and Class Mapping tools.