This article guides you through the process of creating the A401 roof plan sheet file using the VDCI plan model. It covers topics such as incorporating the roof plan model, inserting the title block, setting up your viewport, and plotting the final drawing.
Key Insights
- The process starts by creating a new file with the VDCI fundamentals template, saving it as an A401 sheet, and attaching the VDCI plan model to this sheet file.
- The article further explains the process of inserting a title block, setting up the viewport, and adjusting the paper space line type scale to ensure an accurate representation of the drawing in paper space.
- Finally, the tutorial guides you through plotting the final drawing, ensuring all plot settings are correct, and saving the file as a PDF in the correct location for future reference.
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We can now create the A401 Roof Plan sheet file. Before we go, let's make sure that the VDCI Plan Model is saved—Control+S to save—and now let's create our A401 sheet.
File → New, use the VDCI Fundamentals template, and then go File → Save. I'll browse to my Sheets folder. I'll click on CAD 201 A201, and then come down and edit this text so that instead of A201 it says A401. I'll hit Save, and now we are in our sheet file.
Remember, we're going to XREF attach our model, and then insert our Title Block. Let's start with our model file. I'll go Insert → Reference Attach.
I'll find my VDCI Plan Model, and we can see the preview of the Roof Plan. I'll hit Open. In this case, we are attaching it.
The scale is set to 1. The insertion point is set to 0,0. Everything looks great.
Let's hit OK. Now we're zoomed way in—I can tell you that right now.
If we do a Zoom Extents, we'll see our model. Notice that the hidden line is back to a line type scale of 1. This is actually okay in our sheet file because we're about to see this in Paper Space, and that's all that matters in this sheet file. So let's jump into Paper Space by going to the VDCI 8.5 × 11 tab.
Here we are in Paper Space, and here we want to insert our Title Block. We can go to the Insert tab, Recent Blocks, and we can actually see the Title Block here in our Recent Blocks. Now we're not going to use the VDCI Title Block from Recent Blocks.
Instead, I'm going to Browse for it—but before I do that, let's check our options. The Insertion Point should be unchecked because we want it at 0,0. Our scale should also be unchecked, and set to a scale factor of 1. We do not want Repeat Placement.
So all of these are unchecked—0,0, scale 1. In the newer versions of AutoCAD, it's extremely important to remember to set your options before you Browse for your block. Now I can Browse, and you can see I entered my Title Blocks folder.
If you ended up in another folder, just hit the Up Folder arrow → Blocks → Title Blocks → VDCI → TTLB → CA. I'll hit Open, and there we go. It’s placed automatically in position.
The name will be your name. The date is today's date. The Sheet Number is A401, and the Drawing Title—again, this is a multi-line Attribute—is "Roof Plan."
I'll hit OK and OK. Zoom Extents, Control+S to save. Again, if your XREF image isn’t loading, we can go to the XREF Manager.
That’s this button down in the bottom right. It’s going to show me that the Title Block image is not found, and we can simply Load that saved path—and there it is. Sometimes these images just get lost in translation, so we’ll hit Open, and now it’s loaded into our drawing.
Zoom Extents, Control+S to save. Now we would like to draw our Viewport, which again is a window into Model Space. So I’ll go back to the Home tab first and change our active Layer to A-No-Plot.
We do not want this border printing on our final sheet. Now go to the contextual Layout tab, choose Rectangular Viewport from the Layout Viewports panel, and with my running Object Snaps on, Endpoint to Endpoint—and there is our drawing. Now remember, when I double-click into the Viewport, we can see that the scale is not set appropriately.
We will need to Zoom out—Z, Enter, W, Enter—to set our Zoom Window. Again, that's Z, Enter → W, Enter → Shift + Right-click → Endpoint from this corner to Shift + Right-click → Endpoint of this corner. Once we see the scale set appropriately, we can lock the Viewport, double-click outside, and then go back to the Home tab and set Layer 0 as our current Layer.
Finally, one thing that’s optional—because it won’t impact the way this prints as a PDF—but it makes it easier to view, is to go down the list and turn off our A-No-Plot Layers. There we go. Finally, let’s Regen All—R E A, Enter—and we can see that our hidden line is not updating.
This has to do with our Paper Space Line Type Scale, which is a separate command: PSLTSCALE. Now you can see that it's set to 0, which means "use the real-world model and print what we see there." If we set this to 1 instead—1, Enter → R E A to Regen All—
Now it is using the actual scale as you would see it in Paper Space. So it’s a Paper Space line type object, and we can see it in Paper Space when we set PSLTSCALE to 1. Now we can Plot this drawing.
Let’s go File → Plot. In this case, we want to go through our settings and make sure everything is correct. DWG to PDF looks great. We are on ANSI Full Bleed A. We’re plotting the Layout 1:1.
Everything here looks great except for our Plot Style Table. It looks like our VDCI Color Table file is here, but in some cases, it might be missing for you. In this case, I want to show you a trick to add a Plot Style Table—or a Color Table file—directly into the Autodesk folder where it will always be found by your drawings.
In this case, I’m going to type in STYLES MANAGER, and you’ll see the suggestion. As soon as I hit ENTER, a File Explorer window opens—hopefully in front of AutoCAD so you can see it.
This is where the Color Table files and the Style Table files are found for all AutoCAD settings for your version. If you’ve used a different version in the past, you might not see your user-created Color Table files in this folder. I’m going to open a second File Explorer window and move it to the side.
Go to Local Disk C → CAD201 File Downloads → and remember, in Sheets is our VDCI Color Table file. I can drag it into this folder—hold Control to copy—and now it is in both locations. So no matter what, I should see this Color Table file when I create new drawings.
I can close both of these windows, and now let’s go back to File → Plot. Make sure we choose our VDCI Color Table file. Let’s Preview.
Everything looks good here. I’ll right-click → Plot, and now we can save this PDF file. Again, I don’t want to go to Documents.
Instead, let’s go to Local Disk → CAD201 → Sheets, and in this case, I’ll rename the file to A401. So this should read: CAD201_A401_[Your Initials]. I’ll hit Save.
Here it is—our CAD201 A401 drawing. In the next video, we will begin work on our S-Foundation Plan.
I'll see you there.
