multiple drawings in Layout tab

[Anonymous]

I have a a drawing from a client that has multiple drawings with title blocks on a layout tab.

I open the Layout tab and I see 10 drawings in title blocks.

What is this all about?

I'm new to Autocad

[Anonymous]

It's one way of making construction or any kind of technical drawings. Nothing unusal. Xref straight into paperspace (layout, erscaled to required drawing scale).

[steven-g]

And no doubt all the layouts are drawn to scale. I have a collegue who does that, luckily I have never had to use the actual drawings. But I would copy / move all the content into model space and scale it appropriatley, hoping and checking that it is actually drawn correctly and that dimensions haven't been overriden or produced by hand, and that some details haven't been stretched to make them fit a particular paper size. (The list could go on)

Those are some of the things I have come across. Could you post the drawing just in case there is a logical reason behind it. Are there individual viewports etc.

[pendean]

Might I suggest you review some AutoCAD course basics (lots of free content on YouTube) and if needed contact your client to walk through their drawing setup with them: that way you can catch up quicker while you explore options here as directed by others.

"new to AutoCAD" is a perfect reason to start learning the program on your own right now. Enjoy.

[Anonymous]

This is the Layout tab with the multiple title blocks shown

How do you print the other title blocks or move the sheet or paper to the other title blocks to print?

[pendean]

Each of those should be it's own layout instead of what you've done which is basically treat paperspace like modelspace: are you ready to simplify mass publishing/plotting as intended inside AutoCAD?

[steven-g]

yep that is how my collegue does it. Just don't ask me how it is supposed to work I believe he just moves everything physically around the sheet each time to print the different layouts, and I have no idea how he swaps from portrait to landscape, other than going into the layout manager and changing the settings, I won't say it is wrong (at least not out loud on a public forum) lets just say it is an unusual method of filling in the hours of a working day. As pendean has stated these should be ideally on seperate paperspace layouts, and preferably with the drawings in model space. And really you should learn how to do that (as should the person who did the drawing originally). The simplest solution at the moment would be to make 9 copies of that particular layout and move each drawing into the correct position for plotting, and delete any other features, and rename the layouts to suit. And I did say simplest not best. As a seperate questions, are those drawings actually in paper space or are they viewports into model space.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response to the screenshot with multiple drawings. Each drawing, on a title block, has view ports on the page. In model space, some drawings represent drawings in paper space but I have found that some model space drawings are just simple drawings then used in paper space with added text and dimensions. Back to the multiple drawings, I guess I can copy each drawing with title block and transfer each to a new layout tab.

[sthompson1021]

I agree that you should seperate the views into their own layouts, but to give you an idea of what is going on with the .dwg as it is now, I would bet that every one of the title blocks has a view name associated with it. While in the layout, enter the VIEW command. See if there are any named views that come up in the layout views . If there are, click on one and then click the set current button and ok. Your screen should zoom into that view. To plot the view, in the plot dialog box set the "what to plot" box to view and then click on the view name. You can setup the rest of the plot dialog box as you need it.

I don't know why some people still like to do it this way but I have run into a few .dwg's from outside firms that have been set up like this. It does take away the ability to use the PUBLISH option and I can't think of any other reason why it would be easier to use then seperate layouts.

[steven-g]

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@sthompson1021 wrote:

 I would bet that every one of the title blocks has a view name associated with it.

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That makes sense, and actually nearly makes it sensible - but only nearly, I'll look out for that next time I come across such a drawing

[noogoona]

I have been working with multiple drawings in a Layout tab and I think I know the reason of doing so. At least in my office, as long as multiple drawings have same scale, I put all of them in a Layout tab, so that I can copy things from one drawing to another easily. Otherwise, I had to use ctrl-C and V instead of copy command. Moreover, if I can see all plans and ceiling plans in one space, then I can easily see what's going on from floor to floor at a glance and the relationship between them, which is the most beauty of doing so.
You should do pagesetup for each drawing by setting the plot area with "window" not with "layout" and by setting scale with what is needed for the drawing, not with "1:1"
If the drawing scale is different, then you should use separate them in different tab.
Batchplot still works in that environment by page setup. I define page setups for each drawing and name them by drawing number. then I can see and designate those page setups in batchplot setting.

[noogoona]

[RobDraw]

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@noogoona wrote:

I have been working with multiple drawings in a Layout tab and I think I know the reason of doing so. 

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I'm not going to tell you to change your ways but this is definitely an old school workflow going back to the days of no paper space and no multiple layouts within a file. It is much easier to manage multiple layouts. There is no need for a separate page set-up for each sheet.

[WeTanks]

Please take a look at this recording.

https://youtu.be/RvtUK1wG8ms