Lesson 03 | Displaying Objects
When you use the software, you draw all objects at full scale. Sometimes you need to view the whole drawing, sometimes just smaller details. To assist you in viewing different areas of the drawing, there are a number of zoom and pan tools. You can easily magnify small areas of your drawing to provide a closer view or shift the view to a different or larger part of the drawing. You can save views by name and restore them later.
In this lesson, you explore different methods of using these tools and develop your use of the interface.
Many of the zoom and pan options operate transparently. This means that you can use the options while you are in another command.
After completing this lesson, you will be able to use zoom and pan commands to control the drawing view display, use the wheel mouse to pan and zoom in the drawing, and regenerate the drawing view.
In the following example of a typical drawing, it would be nearly impossible to work on if it were on a sheet of paper that was the size of common computer monitors. Using the display tools, you can magnify any portion of the drawing to fill the available space on your monitor.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify tools that control the drawing view display.
- Use the Pan Realtime command to perform real time pan operations in the drawing.
- Use the Zoom Realtime command to perform real time zoom operations in the drawing.
- Use different Zoom commands to control the view magnification.
- Use a wheel mouse to zoom and pan in the drawing.
- Use the Regen command to regenerate the drawing.
Display Tools
Most of the time you will use the wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out of display views in your drawing. Additional zoom tools are located on the Navigate panel in the View tab on the toolbar ribbon.
Command Access
Note
There are additional options for the Zoom command, but they are beyond the scope of this course. See Help for additional command information.
Pan
You can reposition the center of your view on the drawing by using the Pan command. Just like panning with a video camera, panning your drawing changes only the position of your view of the drawing, not the location or magnification of objects in the drawing.
Command Access
When the Pan command is active, the cursor changes to a hand icon as shown above. Click and drag the cursor to pan the drawing view.
Command Options
While in the Pan command you may access other Pan and Zoom options when you right-click in the drawing window to display a shortcut menu.
Procedure: Panning in Real Time
The following steps outline how to pan dynamically in real time.
- On the ribbon, click View tab > Navigate panel > Pan.
- Click and drag the cursor in the direction that you want to pan the drawing view. Release the button when you are in your desired position.
- Continue to click and drag as required.
- Press ESC or ENTER to exit the Pan command.
Panning Considerations
- Panning has the same effect on the drawing as using the horizontal and vertical scroll bars.
- When you pan the drawing, you are not moving geometry, only changing the position from which you view the drawing.
Zoom Realtime
The Zoom command increases or decreases the magnification of the objects displayed in the drawing area. When you zoom out, you see more of the overall drawing. When you zoom in, you magnify parts of your drawing to view them in greater detail.
Just like zooming in and out with a camera, using Zoom does not alter the actual size of the object. It simply changes the relative magnification of objects displayed in the drawing area.
Command Access
When the Zoom Realtime command is active, the cursor changes to the icon above. Click and drag the cursor up to increase magnification or down to decrease magnification.
Procedure: Zooming in Real Time
The following steps outline how to zoom dynamically in real time.
- On the ribbon, click View Tab > Navigate Panel > Zoom drop-down > Realtime. Press ENTER.
- Click and drag the cursor up to increase magnification.
- Click and drag the cursor down to decrease magnification.
- Continue to zoom in and out as required.
- Press ESC or ENTER to exit the command.
Zoom Command Options
The Zoom command has multiple options available to customize the Zoom.
Command Access
Following are the most frequently used Zoom command options for viewing different areas of the drawing.
Note: Not all Zoom command options are discussed.
| Zoom Window
|
ZOOM, Z; Pick 2 points to define the window in the drawing area
To use the Zoom Window option, use any method listed above to start the command, click in the drawing to specify the first corner of the window (1), and then click to specify the second corner of the window (2). As a result, the drawing view is magnified and fills the drawing space with the area defined by the zoom window.
|
| Zoom Extents
|
Use the Zoom Extents option to zoom to the extents of the drawing, that is, the area of the drawing in which objects are placed. When you zoom to the drawing extents, you magnify the drawing view so that all geometry in the current space (model space or paper space) is visible.
ZOOM, Z; > E then press ENTER |
| Zoom Previous
|
Use the Zoom Previous option to return to the previous view.
ZOOM, Z; > P then press ENTER |
Wheel Mouse Features
The wheel mouse is a variant of the standard pointing device that is modified with a small wheel between the left and right buttons. You can rotate this wheel in small increments. You can use the wheel to zoom and pan in your drawing without using any commands. When zooming in, the location near your cursor is the focal point of the zoom and thus remains on the screen.
The ZOOMFACTOR system variable controls the incremental change, whether forward or backward. The higher the number of the variable, the greater the zoom.
How to Use the Wheel Mouse
| Do this… | Description |
| Roll the wheel forward | Zoom In |
| Roll the wheel backward | Zoom Out |
| Double-click the wheel button | Zoom Extents |
| Hold down the wheel button and drag the mouse | Pan |
| Press and hold the SHIFT key and the wheel button and drag the mouse | Constrained Out |
| Press and hold the CTRL key and the wheel button and drag the mouse | Pan (Joystick) |
Tip
In some situations, when using the mouse wheel to pan or zoom, the actions have no effect on the drawing. For example, you might only be able to zoom out to a certain point. When this occurs, you must regenerate the drawing by clicking Regen on the View menu.
Wheel Button Modes
You can set the wheel button to function in two different modes. The value of the MBUTTONPAN system variable controls whether panning is supported.
- If MBUTTONPAN is set to 1, the PAN command is activated when you use the wheel.
- If MBUTTONPAN is set to 0, the Object Snap menu is displayed when you use the wheel.
Regen
Use the Regen command to regenerate all the geometry in the drawing. Use the Regenall command to regenerate all the geometry when there are multiple drawing viewports. When you regenerate the drawing, the screen coordinates for all objects in the drawing are recomputed and the drawing database is reindexed for optimal display performance.
Command Access
Automatic Drawing Regeneration
By default, when you create a new drawing, the REGENMODE system variable is set to 1. This enables the drawing to regenerate automatically whenever you perform an action that requires regeneration.
Guidelines When Regenerating Large Drawings
- Because regeneration recalculates the screen coordinates for all objects in the drawing, it usually takes longer to regenerate large drawings than smaller ones.
- If you experience performance decreases on larger drawings, consider setting REGENMODE = 0 to prevent automatic regeneration. You can manually regenerate the drawing when you need to.