Understand the Layout Process

When you use a layout tab to prepare your drawing for plotting, you follow a series of steps in a process.

You design the subject of your drawing on the Model tab (in model space) and prepare it for plotting on a layout tab (in paper space).

There is one Model tab and one or more layout tabs at the bottom of the drawing window.

NoteThese tabs can be hidden, appearing instead as buttons on the status bar at the bottom-center of the application window.

You can initialize a layout by clicking on its tab to activate the previously unused layout. A layout does not contain any plot settings before initialization. Once initialized, layouts can be drawn upon, published, and added to sheet sets as sheets (after the drawing has been saved).

Process Summary

When you prepare a layout, you typically step through the following process:

Create a model of your subject on the Model tab.
Click a layout tab.
Specify layout page settings such as plotting device, paper size, plot area, plot scale, and drawing orientation.
Insert a title block into the layout (unless you have started with a drawing template that already has a title block).
Create a new layer to be used for layout viewports.
Create layout viewports and position them on the layout.
Set the orientation, scale, and layer visibility of the view in each layout viewport.
Add dimensions and annotate in the layout as needed.
Turn off the layer containing the layout viewports.
Plot your layout.

You can also use annotative objects if you want to annotate your drawing in model space and scale the annotations automatically. For information about using annotative objects and scaling annotations automatically, see Scale Annotations.

Quick Reference