Explore the intricate process of assembling an A3.1 sheet file, starting from incorporating the building elevation and roof plan to altering the layout environment, inserting title block text, and setting up viewports. Gain insights into how to manage the scale of the different elements and efficiently navigate through the CAD 301 plan model file.
Key Insights
- The assembly of the A3.1 sheet file involves incorporating the building elevation and the roof plan, with the former at a quarter inch scale and the latter at an eighth inch scale.
- Modifying the layout environment includes creating a new layout, adjusting its size, deleting the default viewport, and renaming it. A VDCI color table file is used and the orientation is set in landscape.
- Setting up viewports involves using the 'no plot' layer, creating two viewports for the roof plan and building elevation, and adjusting the scale according to each element.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
I would like for us now to begin assembling our A3.1 sheet file. I've called up the PDF and you can see that we have the building elevation in the top and we have our roof plan down below. If you remember from earlier on, we created a two-thirds and a one-third horizontal no-plot view.
The roof plan is at eighth-inch, the building elevation is at quarter-inch. So I'm going to go back into my model file and I'm going to go file new, use the template and I will save the file with the name VDCI A3.1 and overwrite the file. So I'm going to begin by reference attaching in my plan model.
So I'm going to go to insert, reference attach, I'm going to go and choose my CAD 301 plan model file. And I'm going to insert it at 0,0, a scale factor of 1 as a standard attachment and go OK. So I brought the model file in.
The next thing I want to start doing is to work on our layout environment. So you can see at the bottom, I have my 8.5 × 11, I have my 11 × 17, we need to create a new 22 × 34. So I'm going to right-click and choose a new layout.
You can see it says layout. I'm going to right-click and rename it to be VDCI 22 × 34. I'm going to go into that layout.
Again, by default, it's an 8.5 × 11 sheet of paper, which is not what we want. It automatically creates a viewport, which I do not want. So I will delete out the viewport.
I now need to go and start creating and resizing the layout. So I will go to the layout, right-click, choose the page setup manager. There's the 22 × 34.
I'm going to modify it. I want to choose the printer, drawing to PDF. My paper size will be an ANSI D 34 × 22 expanded.
Again, that gives us a narrower printing area. I'm going to say plot the layout. That's fine.
I'm going to choose our VDCI color table file. So I've said drawing to PDF, ANSI D expanded, and everything else is fine. I'm just confirming over here its landscape orientation.
I'm going to go to the Home tab, confirm I'm on layer zero. The first thing I'm going to do is to XREF in the title block. So I go to the Insert tab, Reference Attach.
I'm in my CAD 301 folder. I'm going to slide down and choose my VDCI TTLB 2234. Open it. I'm going to insert it at 0,0, a scale factor of 1, OK.
Now we've XREF'd in the title block. The next thing I need to do is to insert my title block text file. So I'm on the Insert tab, Block Insert.
I will browse. I'm going to choose my VDCI TBTX 234. Look up here.
I'm going to deselect this because I'm going to say specify the insertion point at 0,0, scale factor of 1, OK. My drawn by would be you, checked by the boss. The scale is as noted.
And this is especially important because we're going to have a drawing that will have two different scales on it. Again, the building elevation at the top will be quarter-inch. The roof plan will be eighth-inch.
I'm going to press TAB. And my sheet number will be A3.1. And I go, OK. So I have that information in, CTRL+S to save.
I'm going to start working on the bottom and go up. So I'm going to begin by bringing in the drawing title 1. Remember, it contains attributes.
So I will insert, browse, slide down. And I will choose my VDCI drawing title 1. I'll say, OK.
Open it. I'm going to say specify the insertion point on screen. Again, a scale factor of 1, OK.
I'm going to bring it in and place it at the end of this bottom line right down here. Because I have said specify insertion point on screen, my response to the prompts are up here at the top. So this is going to be the second image.
Again, the building elevation will be up here. The roof plan will be down here. This will be image number 1.
The roof plan will be image number 2. The name of the drawing will be roof plan. And the scale, one-eighth inch equals one foot, zero inches.
So I have the drawing title inserted. Now, the thing is, we need to also populate the drawing title up here. But we don't know exactly where it's going to go.
So what we're going to do is we're going to bring in our 2-thirds horizontal no-plot view and then use that to help us position where the drawing title will go above. Now, hopefully you know and remember that if I were to say insert the no-plot view, that it would bring it in as a block. I would then have to erase it to get it out of the drawing and then purge it out of the drawing.
What I'm going to do instead is to reference attach it and then detach it. So I'm going to go to reference attach. I'm in my 301.
I'm going to slide down and choose my no-plot view horizontal 2 thirds. I'm going to go to open. I'm going to say specify insertion point on screen and go OK and bring it in.
I will now move it. So I will say move this block from the end of the bottom left to the upper side of my drawing label. I will then copy my drawing label.
I'm going to choose from the end over here and copy it up to here. And it wants to copy again. I hit escape.
What I'm going to do right away is I'm going to change the values within the drawing label. So I will double-click. The drawing label number will be 1. The drawing name will be front building elevation.
And the scale will be 1-quarter inch. So I selected the 8, typed a 4, and deleted it. Zoom Extents Zoom real-time and save the file.
I now need to remove my no-plot. I'll go to the Insert tab. I'll go to the Xref Manager, which means going to this little arrow right here.
I will then select. I'm going to select my no-plot view horizontal, right-click, and I will detach it. And I will close the image.
CTRL+S to save. Now we have everything prepped in our layout environment to get ready to start creating the viewports. So I will go to my Home tab.
I will make no-plot my current layer. And I want to create a viewport. So I will go View, Viewports 1. I'm going to create one viewport from the end of the lower side of the upper drawing title to the right-hand side down there.
Go up to here. I will go back to View, Viewports 1. Create one from here over there. And CTRL+S to save.
Now, again, what's happening is that when I have two viewports looking at the same model file, by default the program does a zoom extents within the model space environment. So I'm not concerned at all about the fact that I'm seeing the roof plan in two different areas. If I double-click within the spatial environment, you can see that we are not at the proper scale.
So what we're going to do in a few minutes is we're going to go back into our roof plan drawing and to import in the 2-thirds horizontal around the building at a scale factor of 96.