To use the Viewports without Leaving the Drawing Window

To make it so that when you enter a group, symbol, or viewport you don’t leave the window you’re working in and can still view the background, go to Tools> VectorWorks Preferences. Choose the Display tab and check the “Show other objects while in groups” box and click OK.

Viewport Standard

Each drawing on a sheet shall have its own viewport

• Viewports shall be set to Black and White by going to the object info palette -> Advanced Properties -> (check) Black and White Only
• All notes, dimensions, and call outs shall be done in the Viewport with the exception to standard details where the text is on the Design Layer assigned to that details scale.

Drawing Tags

Drawing tags shall be inserted from the Resource Browser and shall never be resized.

• One tag shall be inserted per Viewport, in the Annotations of the viewport
• Tags shall be Arial, plain style
• The end of the tag line shall be anchored to a loci on the title block
• You can add the following file to your resource browser favorites:
  • Y:002 CAD Standards\VectorWorks Defaults\Symbol Library\Drawing Tags.vwx

Referencing into another Drawing

·         View, create viewport, (or right click in the viewport tab, new)

o    Name the viewport – “acad import”, “master”, etc.

o    Create on new design layer

§  As a standard, name the design layers as follows for each type of reference:

·         acad import for any existing autocad file needed to design a new building

·         master for any masterfile being referenced into individual sheets (A101, A102, etc.)

o    Select the source – choose file to import (Select “path relative to current document” then OK

o    Click on the layers tab and choose layers you want to show

o    Hit ok

·         If you need to update the reference go to the last tab of the navigation toolbar (where you see your classes, design layers, and sheet layers) and if the reference appears red it needs to be updated.  Right click and hit update.

Setting up a Viewport

To create a new Viewport on a Sheet Layer, select View -> Create Viewport… near the bottom of the pulldown. In the new dialog box, fill in the Name: box with the label exactly as you want it to appear on the drawing tag. The drawing tag will be in caps if the Name: box is in caps.

Next, select the sheet layer you want the viewport to appear on in the Create on Layer: pulldown. This pull down has all available layers listed in it.

Pick the layer you want to be showing by clicking the Layers: button. The next pulldown, Scale:, lets you select the scale you want. The View: pulldown allows you to choose a view for your viewport. For a plan, you want Top/Plan and so on.

The Rendering: pulldown lists modes for rendering the viewport. Wireframe is used for Top/Plan views while Hidden Line is used for elevations of a modeled building. The Projection: pulldown should bet set to 2D for everything that isn’t an artistic rendering. 

Click OK and the viewport is created.

One final step is to set the viewport to black and white to ready it for printing. This may be done now, but I usually choose to wait to do this when I am ready to print. You can select all the viewports on the sheet at once, so it doesn’t save time to do it now or later. To change a viewport to black and white, select the viewport(s) and go to the Object Info palette. At the bottom, click the Advanced Properties… button and check the Black and White Only box and click OK.