The PAN command moves the display in the direction and distance that you indicate without changing the magnification. Real-time panning moves the drawing as you move the cursor.

To leave Pan mode, press Esc or Enter, or start any command by using the ribbon, a menu, or toolbar. You can also right-click to open the shortcut menu and choose Exit or one of the other display options. If you pan by using the mouse wheel, you don't need to press Esc or Enter to leave Pan mode.

You can use the scroll bars to pan vertically and horizontally as you would with any Windows program. However, you can't easily predict just how much the drawing view will move. Therefore, the scroll bars are less useful than the PAN command.

Note

You can turn the display of the scroll bars on and off. Choose Application Button

The ZOOM command has many options that let you fine-tune the process. Start the command by choosing View tab

Table 8.1. Zoom Options

Button	Option	Description
	Previous	Redisplays the most recent display of your drawing. This option has its own button on the status bar.
	Window	Lets you define a rectangular window as the boundaries of the new display. Use the Window option to zoom in on any area already displayed in your drawing. When you use Zoom Window, the command displays everything in the window that you specify but reshapes the display to fit your screen. As a result, you may see objects that were outside the specified window. You can move the mouse past the drawing area to define the window past the edge of the screen — the display moves to allow you to pick a corner. You don't need to specify this option separately, because the command initially prompts you to specify the first corner of a window. When you do so, you're prompted for the opposite corner.
	Dynamic	Enables you to zoom and pan in one operation. This option is covered in the following section.
	Scale	Lets you enter a number to scale the display relative to the drawing limits (a kind of absolute scaling). Enter a number followed by x to scale the display relative to the current view (relative scaling). Enter a number followed by xp to scale the display relative to paper space units (discussed in Chapter 17). A number less than 1 (such as 0.5) reduces the size of the objects on the screen (by half when you use 0.5). A number greater than 1 (such as 2) increases the size of the objects on the screen (to twice the size when you use 2).
	Center	Lets you specify a new center for the display, and then a new magnification/height. The current magnification/height is shown in brackets for your reference. Type a smaller number to increase the magnification, making the objects larger. Type a larger value to decrease the magnification, making the objects smaller.
	Object	Lets you zoom in to selected objects.
	In	Uses the Scale option with a value of 2x. See the Scale option. It's only available from the ribbon drop-down list.
	Out	Uses the Scale option with a value of 0.5x. See the Scale option. It's only available from the ribbon drop-down list.
	All	Zooms the display to the greater of the drawing extents or the drawing limits.
	Extents	Zooms to the outer extents of the drawing. You can also double-click the wheel of your mouse.

When you use one of the Zoom options, you see the objects in your drawing become larger or smaller in a smooth transition. The smooth transition helps you to orient yourself to the new display. To turn off this feature, use the VTOPTIONS command. In the View Transitions dialog box that opens, uncheck the Enable Animation for Pan & Zoom check box.

Note

When you undo consecutive ZOOM or PAN commands, they count as one operation. Because people often use several ZOOM or PAN operations together, combining them helps you to get back to your previous state more quickly. To disable this feature, choose Application Button

The Dynamic option of ZOOM enables you to pan and zoom in one operation. When you start ZOOM Dynamic, you see the virtual screen area of the drawing in a blue, dashed rectangle; this view box represents the drawing extents or limits, whichever is greater. Your current view is bounded in a green, dashed rectangle. Your mouse cursor changes, based on the two modes of ZOOM Dynamic. Each time you click the left mouse button, you switch modes. Here's how the two modes work:

When the view box displays the view that you want, click the right mouse button and choose Enter (or press Enter). The command pans and zooms to show that view. Figure 8.1 shows the screen during a ZOOM Dynamic operation.

Figure 8.1. Using ZOOM Dynamic.

STEPS: Panning and Zooming

First display the view that you want to save on the screen. Then choose View tab

Figure 8.5. The View Manager dialog box.

The Views pane lists the following types of views:

When you choose a view in the Views panel, you see its properties in the central panel of the View Manager dialog box. The available properties depend on the type of view. You can use the properties panel to change most of a view's properties; some are for information only and are not editable. Some of the properties only apply to 3D views, and some are not available in AutoCAD LT. Table 8.2 lists the properties that may appear in the View Manager.

To create a new named view, click New to open the New View / Shot Properties (or New View in AutoCAD LT) dialog box, as shown in Figure 8.6. Type a name for your view in the View Name text box. To specify a view, you use the View Properties tab in AutoCAD.

Figure 8.6. The New View / Shot Properties dialog box, with the View Properties tab active.

View names can be up to 255 characters and can include spaces. As explained in Table 8.2, you can save a category, a layer snapshot, a User Coordinate System, a live section, and a visual style with a view. Select the Current Display option button to use the current display as the view. Otherwise, click the Define View Window button, and specify a window around the view that you want. Press Enter to return to the New View / Shot Properties (New View in AutoCAD LT) dialog box.

Click New again to define another new view, or choose OK to return to the View Manager dialog box, where you see your new view listed. Click OK to return to your drawing.

The View Manager enables you to easily display any view that you have saved. Follow these steps:

You can use the View Manager to manage named views. You can also find these features by right-clicking inside the View Manager.

You can create a presentation that displays one named view after another, as a way to show the drawing, perhaps to a client or colleague. In essence, you create a slide show from named views in your drawing. Each view can have a transition, as well as timing for the transition and the display of the view itself; together, these properties are called a shot. A looping feature lets you create an ongoing display of views. This feature, called ShowMotion, is not available in AutoCAD LT. You define the shot on the Shot Properties tab of the New View / Shot Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 8.7.

Figure 8.7. Use the Shot Properties tab of the New View / Shot Properties dialog box to create and configure a presentation of your drawing.

To configure the shot, first choose one of the view types:

Next, choose a transition from the Transition Type drop-down list. Then enter a duration for the transition in the Transition Duration text box. Finally, use the Duration text box to specify how long the view displays. Click OK when you're done.

Figure 8.8. The ShowMotion feature creates a slide show from named views.

Use the navigation tools to do the following:

To edit the properties of a shot, right-click the thumbnail of an individual shot and choose Properties, or use the EDITSHOT command and enter the name of the shot. The View / Shot Properties dialog box opens, where you can change the settings of the shot.

STEPS: Working with Views

Using named views provides three additional advantages:

I explain these techniques in the next three sections.

A drawing with a view

After you've saved views, you can use them to open a drawing so that a view is immediately displayed. Click Open on the Quick Access toolbar. In the Select File dialog box, choose the file that you want to open and check the Select Initial View check box. Then click Open. In the Select Initial View dialog box, choose the view that you want to display, and click OK.

Partially opening a drawing

You may have a very large drawing that is slow and cumbersome to work with when it is completely loaded. For example, if you have a surveyor's drawing of an entire county, but you need to work only with one plat, you can open a named view containing only that plat. This feature is not available in AutoCAD LT.

To partially open a drawing from within AutoCAD, follow these steps:

1. Click Open on the Quick Access toolbar to open the Select File dialog box.

2. Choose a drawing and then click the Open button's drop-down list. Choose Partial Open to open the Partial Open dialog box, as shown in Figure 8.9.

   

   Figure 8.9. Use the Partial Open dialog box to open only the part of a drawing contained in a named view.

3. Choose a view from the list of named views.

4. Check the check box of one or more layers. To include all the layers, click Load All. If you don't include at least one layer, no objects are loaded. (Chapter 11 covers layers.) Click Open.

After you've partially opened a drawing, you can load more of the drawing. Enter partiaload

Using named views with sheet sets

You can combine layouts from more than one drawing into a sheet set. (AutoCAD LT doesn't include this feature.) Sheet sets are a powerful way to organize many layouts. I cover them in detail in Chapter 26. However, at this point you should know that named views have a value beyond helping you display an area of your drawing. They can become your final layout for plotting.

Suppose that you're drawing a mechanical model with a top view, a side view, and a section view. In the final plot, you want to display these three views on one sheet of paper. Without sheet sets, you would create three floating viewports and individually pan and zoom to get the three views. (For more information on floating viewports, see the "Floating viewports" sidebar in this chapter, as well as Chapter 17.) Using the sheet-set feature as you work, you can create named views of the three parts of the drawing. Then you can use those same views to create the floating viewports for plotting.

Creating tiled viewports involves deciding how you want to divide up the screen. A set of tiled viewports is called a configuration. A few simple configurations come with AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, but you can create your own by further dividing up any of the viewports. You can also join two adjacent viewports. Finally, you can always return to the default of one viewport.

Creating tiled viewports

If you have named views in your drawing, you can specify a view for each viewport to display. Click a viewport in the Preview pane and choose a named view from the Change View To drop-down list at the bottom of the dialog box. You can also choose a visual style from the Visual Style drop-down list if you are using AutoCAD. If your drawing is in 3D, you can choose 3D from the Setup drop-down list, and AutoCAD creates standard orthogonal views in the viewports. When you've specified your viewport configuration, click OK to return to your drawing.

The Viewports dialog box is usually the best place to start creating viewports. However, if the standard configurations do not meet your needs, you can use one of them as a starting point and then use the other options.

Figure 8.11. The Viewports dialog box makes it easy to choose a configuration.

Notice the Apply To drop-down list at the bottom-left corner of the Viewports dialog box in Figure 8.11. By default, the tiled viewport configurations apply to the entire display, meaning that they replace your current configuration. You can also choose to apply the configuration to the viewport that is currently displayed in the drawing area. The active viewport has a bold border and crosshairs. To make a viewport active, click anywhere inside that viewport. Then choose View tab

Let's say that you have four equal viewports, and the top-left viewport is active. If you choose the Four: Equal configuration from the Viewports dialog box while the top-left viewport is active and apply it to the current viewport, the top-left viewport is divided into four viewports. Now you have seven viewports in the drawing.

Removing tiled viewports

One way to remove a tiled viewport is to join it to another viewport. To join one viewport to another, choose View tab

The only other way to remove all tiled viewports in one step is to return to the single viewport configuration. Choose View tab

After you've created the viewport configuration that you want, the first step is to create the views that you need in each viewport. Just click in a viewport, and zoom and pan until you have the view that you want.

One of the great advantages of viewports is that you can draw from one viewport to another. In a large drawing, you may need to draw a line from one end of the drawing to another, but when you display the entire drawing, you can't see the detail well enough to specify where to start and end the line. To draw from one viewport to another, just click the viewport where you want to start. Start a command, specifying any necessary coordinates. To continue the command in a second viewport, click to activate that viewport. Continue the command, specifying coordinates as necessary.

You can also use viewports to edit your drawing. All commands except those that change the display — such as zooming, panning, and creating views — can be started in one viewport and continued in another.

You can save a tiled viewport configuration. Then you can restore it when needed. Viewport configuration names can be up to 255 characters and can include spaces.

After you create a viewport configuration that you like, choose View tab

After returning to one viewport or using a different configuration, you can restore a named viewport configuration. Choose View tab

STEPS: Creating, Naming, and Restoring Tiled Viewport Configurations

Understanding the UCS options will help you create a new UCS more easily, based on the information that you have available. To create a UCS, choose View tab

Table 8.3. UCS Options

Button	Option	Meaning
	World	Specifies the default UCS, with the X axis horizontal, the Y axis vertical, and the origin at the initial 0,0 location.
	Origin	Specifies a new 0,0 point of your choice, relative to the current origin.
	View	Aligns the X and Y axes with the current view. Used in 3D drawing. This option arbitrarily sets the origin.
	X	Keeps the current origin and rotates the Y and Z axes around the current X axis. You specify the angle. This is used in 3D drawing.
	Y	Keeps the current origin and rotates the X and Z axes around the current Y axis. You specify the angle. This is used in 3D drawing.
	Z	Keeps the current origin and rotates the X and Y axes around the current Z axis. You specify the angle. This option can be used in 2D drawing.
	Object	Enables you to align the UCS with an object. In general, this option uses the most obvious object snap as the origin and aligns the X axis with the object. For example, when you choose a line, the endpoint nearest your pick point becomes the origin and the X axis aligns with the angle of the line. When you choose a circle, the X axis points toward the point that you pick on the circumference.
	Z-Axis Vector	Specifies which way the Z axis points. This option is not used in 2D drawing.
	Face	Aligns the UCS with the face of a 3D solid.
	3 Point	Enables you to specify three points. The first point is the origin, the second point indicates the positive direction of the X axis, and the third point indicates the positive direction of the Y axis.

After you create a UCS, you can save it so that you can easily switch back and forth between the World Coordinate System and your UCS. To save a UCS, follow these steps:

To restore a saved UCS, return to the same dialog box, choose the UCS that you want to use, and click Set Current. To delete a saved UCS, select it in the UCS dialog box and press the Del key. You can also select a UCS, right-click, and choose one of the options from the shortcut menu. When you're done, click OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 8.16. Use the UCS dialog box to save and restore a UCS.

When you start a new drawing, the UCS icon is at the bottom left of your drawing at 0,0. By default, the icon remains at 0,0 even if you pan around the drawing. The icon may, therefore, end up in the middle of your drawing. If 0,0 is off the screen, then the icon reverts to the bottom left of your drawing.

You can turn off the UCS icon completely. If you aren't working with customized UCSs, you often have no reason to see the UCS in a 2D drawing. If you want the UCS icon on, you can also display it only at the bottom left of your drawing. This keeps the icon out of the way so that it does not obstruct your drawing.

If you create a new UCS, keeping the UCS icon at the 0,0 point (the origin) of your new UCS helps you to get your bearings. A plus sign appears in the icon to indicate the origin. However, if the origin is out of the current display or so close to the edge that the icon won't fit, the UCS icon appears at the lower-left corner of your drawing anyway.

To control the UCS icon, choose View tab

You can customize the look of the UCS icon. To do this, choose View tab

Figure 8.17. Use the UCS Icon dialog box to customize the look of the UCS icon.

Choose between 2D and 3D styles. The 3D style shows the Z axis, but you won't see it when you're looking at your model from the top (called Plan view). If you choose the 3D style, you can check the Cone box to display a cone effect for the arrows of the X and Y axes. Either way, the Z axis has no arrow, which enables you to distinguish it from the X and Y axes. You can also choose a line width from 1 to 3, 1 being the default.

You can change the size of the icon. Just drag the slider up and down to get the result you like. Finally, you can change the color of the icon, both in model space and in paper space layouts. (I cover paper space layouts in Chapter 17.) Click OK to close the dialog box.

In this exercise, you practice drawing with a custom UCS to create the basic framework for the drawing shown previously in Figures 8.13 and 8.14, a bearing housing for a commercial dryer.

STEPS: Drawing with a Custom UCS

The ISOPLANE (short for isometric plane) command rotates the crosshairs to the special angles required for isometric drawing. You then toggle the ISOPLANE setting from left to right to top, to draw on each of the three "planes." As you do so, the angles of the crosshairs, snap, and grid change to the appropriate angles.

These angles are 30 degrees for the X axis, 90 degrees for the Z axis, and 150 degrees for the Y axis. As you toggle among the planes, you see the crosshairs take on various configurations of these angles. Figure 8.19 shows the standard isometric cube. You can see three sides — left, right, and top. In the figure, the crosshairs are set to the right isometric plane.

Isometric drawing is not often used for precise drawing because specifying the exact points that you need can be difficult. Also, true 3D drawing has mostly supplanted isometric drawing. Isometric drawings are sometimes still used for piping work as well as for illustrations.

Tip

Use snap points and object snaps as much as possible in an isometric drawing. Also, you can enlarge crosshairs to better visualize the isometric planes. (Choose Application Button

Figure 8.19. The isometric cube.

To start Isometric mode, right-click the Snap button on the status bar and choose Settings to open the Drafting Settings dialog box. On the Snap and Grid tab, in the Snap Type section, choose Grid Snap (if it is not already selected), and then Isometric Snap to enter Isometric mode. While you're there, turn on Snap and Grid if you want them on. Click OK. After you're in Isometric mode, press F5 to toggle from plane to plane.

Drawing lines in Isometric mode is fairly straightforward if the lines are parallel to one of the isometric plane angles. Circles and arcs in Isometric mode must be drawn as ellipses and elliptical arcs. When you're in Isometric mode, the ELLIPSE command has an Isocircle option.