When working in 3D, it is a good practice to use multiple viewports. In AutoCAD you can divide the drawing area into multiple viewports with different configurations. An easy and quick way to switch to the multi-viewport is to click on the Single viewport button located in the View panel in the Home tab in the 3D Modeling workspace, as shown in the following figure. The button will expand to a small list with two entries, the second of which is the Multiple viewports option:

When clicking on the Multiple viewports button, the drawing area will automatically be divided into four equal viewports. Each viewport can have a different view angle and visual style, in addition the boundaries can be clicked and dragged to resize the viewports, as shown in the following figure:

In the top-left corner of every viewport you will find quick information and controls for different aspects of each viewport :

• On the left, you will find a plus sign, which you can click to expand a menu where you can maximize the viewport for better visibility and restore back the multi-viewport configuration. You can also control the visibility of the ViewCube, the navigation bar, and the steering wheels, along with changing the viewport configuration.
• In the middle, you will find the name of the preset view used. If you are not using a preset view, it will display Custom view. You can click it and switch to any of the other preset or user-created views. You can also switch between parallel and perspective orientations and access the view manager.
• On the right, the name of the visual style is displayed. You can click this to switch to a different visual style, and can also open the Visual Style manager.

The multi-viewport configuration in AutoCAD is not limited to just four equal viewports; there are other multi-viewport configurations to choose from, and they can also be modified. To access the other viewport configurations, you can click on the Viewport Configuration button located in the Model Viewports panel in the Visualize tab in the 3D Basics workspace. The same button is available in the Model Viewports panel in the Visualize tab in the 3D Modeling workspace. This will expand a list of the available multi-viewport configurations, ranging from one up to four viewports with different configurations. The Viewport Configuration button's location is shown in the following figure:

Next to the Viewport Configuration button you will find the Join button, which can be used to modify the viewport configuration as follows:

1. Click on the Join button
2. Choose two adjacent viewports to be joined
3. The viewport configuration will be modified

The following figure is an illustration of the previous steps:

Now that we have learned how to set up the visual style and viewport configurations, and how to effectively navigate and rotate the view angle, let's have a look at the coordinate system in AutoCAD.