How to Use AutoCAD : Layers and Plotting

01 Organization : Layers and Lineweights

When drawing by hand, some lines are drawn darker than others. We might imagine that
theoretically all (or most) lines drawn a certain lineweight could be called a “layer.” AutoCAD allows
us to create a layer system to help keep our lines organized by type.

Layers will be given specific properties (color, lineweight, linetype, etc) and states of activity (on/off,
etc).

Open 01 drawing template.dwg from the class “downloads” page. Open the LAYERs dialog box
to view the layers.

LAYER : opens LAYERs dialogue box. Layers can be

On or OFF (visible or invisible)

Frozen or Thawed (also invisible, but saves space while working in very large drawings)
Locked or Unlocked (modifiable or unmodifiable)
Set to a COLOR (the color will be used later for printing)
Set to a LINETYPE (dashed, dotted etc)
Set to a LINEWEIGHT (LEAVE THIS VALUE AT DEFAULT, you will adjust it in the PLOT
STYLE menu NOT HERE)
Set to Print or Not to Print

To adjust any of these, select the property. A new menu will open with options.

(Almost) Any drawn object can be moved to any different layer.

To put an object on a specific layer, select the object with the mouse, open the LAYER
pulldown menu at the top of the screen and choose the new layer. ESC to end the
command.

To set a layer to be the current layer, open the LAYER pulldown menu (without any object
selected) and select the new layer to become active.

Note that the layer DEFPOINTS will never print. Any object on this layer will NEVER print
under any circumstances. Sometimes we will create other layers that do not print for
formatting and construction line purposes.

Also note that all External References (much later) should be placed on Layer 0.

02.1 Plotting : Plot Styles (.ctb file)

PLOT : Opens the plotter dialogue box, which displays the default settings for paper size, plotter,
etc.

Open the PLOT STYLE pulldown, at the top-right corner of the menu, (click on the arrow at the
bottom right corner of the menu if it does not display) and choose acad.ctb. Click on the button to
the right and open the PLOT STYLE

Each color at the left-hand side, corresponds to the colors we have chosen for our Layers in the
LAYERs Manager.
 Each color can be given traits for printing such as:
Color (sets the actual color the printer will print. Usually this is set to black or gray for our
purposes, although we can print in color if we like)
(Dither, Grayscale, Pen Number, Virtual Pen Number, and Screening need NOT be changed)
Linetype (should be set to OBJECT LINETYPE)
Lineweight (adjust the values HERE to determine to the lineweight of each layer/color.

For example, cut lines should be on the layer a p 01 cut, who’s color is set to color #4 Cyan. In the
PLOT STYLE menu, select color 4 (from the left side), open the LINEWEIGHT pulldown (from the
right side) and choose 0.40 mm. Repeat for each color you use.

Once you have set the lineweights for each color used, click Saveas name it something specific.
(your_name.ctb). Keep it with you at all times, email it to yourself, save to your USB.

The .ctb files are stored on each local computer. However, once you log out of an IIT computer,
you settings, including your .ctb file will be deleted. You will need to take your .ctb file with you to
print your lineweights from another computer.
From the File menu, choose Plot Style Manager, your_name.ctb will be in that menu. Copy it and
save it to your disk or email it to yourself. When you move to a new computer, paste your
your_name.ctb file back into this folder.

02.2 Plotting : MODELSPACE

Type PLOT and choose the desired Printer/Plotter, Page Size, and Plot Style. From the Plot Area
option, choose Window and select the area to print. If printing to a specific scale, choose the Scale.
Click Preview to see what will be printed.

02.3 Plotting : Viewports

Use TILEMODE (TM) to switch between Paperspace (0) and Modelspace (1). Go to Paperspace.

Think of Paperspace as the virtual piece of paper to be printed to : 8.5x11, Arch D etc. The paper
(and margin : dashed line) will be displayed as a white rectangle in front of a gray background.

Notice the tabs at the bottom of the screen, right click the LAYOUT tab to modify the name or
copy/move the Layout and to setup the plot.

To create a viewport and display the objects drawn in Modelspace, type MV (Make Viewport) and
create a rectangle to define the viewport. All of the objects in Modelspace should be displayed in
the viewport.

Scaling : Turn on the VIEWPORTS toolbar by right-clicking over the toolbar at the top of the screen
and choosing VIEWPORTS. Select the viewport just made and from the VIEWPORT menu, select
the desired scale in the window. The viewport will be re-scaled.

Double-click inside a viewport to work in Modelspace or to pan the window. Double-click outside
the viewport to return to Paperspace, or use the commands MS and PS. The size of the viewport
can be modified with the Stretch command or by stretching the viewport’s grips.

Place the viewport on a layer that does not print (- mv)

Multiple viewports may be created to show different drawings and different scales.

From Paperspace, type PLOT. This time, SCALE should be set to 1:1. (The scale of the drawing
has been modified at the VIEWPORT, not the plotter.)