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Set Model Space Viewports

May 20, 2011

    In large or complex drawings, displaying different views reduces the time needed to zoom or pan in a single view. Also, errors you might miss in one view may be apparent in the others.

     Viewports created on the Model tab completely fill the drawing area and do not overlap. As you make changes in one viewport, the others are updated simultaneously. Three model space viewports are shown in the illustration.


Use Model Space Viewports

You can do the following operations at the model space viewport:

  • Set Snap, Grid, and UCS icon modes; Pan; Zoom; and restore named views.

  • Save orientations of UCS with individual viewports.

  • When executing a command, you can draw from one viewport to another.

  • Name a viewport arrangement in order to you can reuse it on the Model tab or insert it on a layout tab.

When you work on 3D models, it is much helpful that setting up different UCS in individual viewports.

Split and Join Model Space Viewports

From the separated viewport, you can continue to split or join them.

The illustrations below show several default model space viewport configurations.


Select and Use the Current Viewport

To make the desired viewport the current viewport, you click inside it through the existing viewports. When the cursor stays at the current viewport, it is displayed as crosshairs instead of an arrow.

You cannot change the current viewport when a view command is in progress.

Working with multiple views of a single drawing

You can open and work with several views of the same drawing simultaneously.

     After you divide a single window into multiple windows, you can control each window separately. For example, you can zoom or pan in one window without affecting the display in any of the other windows. You can control the grid, snap, and view orientation separately for each window. You can restore named views in individual windows, draw from one window to another, and name window configurations individually so you can reuse them later.

     As you draw, any changes you make in one window are immediately visible in the others. You can switch from one window to another at any time, even in the middle of a command, by clicking the window's title bar.

     You can divide a single drawing window into multiple tiled windows (called viewports) on the Model tab. You can control the number of windows created and the arrangement of the windows. You can also save and restore named window configurations and display a list of the current and saved window configurations.

To create multiple views

  1. Choose View > Viewports.

  2. In viewports menu, choose 1, 2, 3, or 4 viewports.

  3. Type h if you want the horizontal orientation, or type v if you want the vertical orientation.

Command line VPORTS



You can divide a drawing window into two windows arranged vertically (A) or horizontally (B); three windows arranged left (C), right (D), above (E), below (F), vertically (G), or horizontally (H); or four tiled windows (I).

To join two views

  1. Choose View > Viewports > Join.

  2. Click anywhere inside the window you want to keep.

  3. Click anywhere inside the adjacent window you want to join to the first window.

Command line VPORTS

To name and save a window configuration

  1. Choose View > Viewports > Save Viewports.

  2. Type a configuration name, and then press Enter.

The name can be up to 31 characters in length and can contain letters, numbers, the dollar sign ($), hyphen (-), and underscore (_).

Command line VPORTS

To restore a named window configuration

  1. Type –vports and press ENTER.

  2. On the command line, type restore.

  3. Type the name of the window configuration you want to restore.

Commands Reference

VPORTS: Creates multiple viewports

System Variables Reference

MAXACTVP: Sets the maximum number of viewports that can be active at one time in a layout

TILEMODE: Makes the Model tab or the last layout tab current

CVPORT: Sets the identification number of the current viewport

VIEWCTR: Stores the center of view in the current viewport

VIEWSIZE: Stores the height of the view in the current viewport  

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