BricsCAD View Commands Overview
Quick answer: BricsCAD’s view commands, found in the View menu, toolbar, or ribbon tab, cover refreshing the screen, panning and zooming, navigating in 3D, and managing viewpoints, named views, and viewports.
Refreshing the Screen
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
REDRAW |
Refreshes the screen display in the current viewport |
REDRAWALL |
Refreshes the screen display in every open viewport |
REGEN |
Recalculates the screen display in the current viewport |
REGENALL |
Recalculates the screen display in every open viewport |
UPDATEFIELD |
Updates whichever fields are currently selected |
Panning and Zooming
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
RTPAN |
Pans the view dynamically |
PAN |
Pans the view |
RTZOOM |
Zooms in or out dynamically |
ZOOM + I |
Zooms in on the centre of the window by a factor of 2 |
ZOOM + O |
Zooms out from the centre of the window by a factor of 1/2 |
ZOOM + E |
Zoom Extents: displays every entity in the drawing |
ZOOM + W |
Zoom Window: pick two corners of a box to enlarge that area to fill the display |
ZOOM + P |
Zoom Previous: restores the view displayed before the current one |
ZOOM + A |
Zoom All: displays the whole drawing out to its limits or extents, whichever is larger |
ZOOM + L |
Zoom Left: pick the lower-left corner of the next view, then a magnification factor or view height |
ZOOM + C |
Zoom Center: pick the centre of the next view, then a magnification factor or view height |
ZOOM + R |
Zoom Right: pick the upper-right corner of the next view, then a magnification factor or view height |
For any of the ZOOM options above, type zoom, press Enter, then type the option letter and press Enter again.
Navigating in 3D
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
RTLOOK |
Look around within a 3D scene |
RTUPDOWN |
Move up, down, left, and right within a 3D scene |
RTWALK |
Walk left, right, forward, and backward within a 3D scene |
RTROT |
Real-Time Constrained Sphere: rotates the view dynamically. Horizontal mouse movement rotates about the world Z-axis; vertical movement rotates about the screen X-axis |
RTROTCTR |
Real-Time Sphere Center: rotates the view dynamically about a point you define, otherwise behaves like RTROT |
RTROTF |
Real-Time Free Sphere: rotates the view dynamically. Horizontal mouse movement rotates about the screen Y-axis (not the world Z-axis, as with RTROT); vertical movement rotates about the screen X-axis |
RTROTX |
Rotates the view dynamically about the screen X-axis only |
RTROTY |
Rotates the view dynamically about the screen Y-axis only |
RTROTZ |
Rotates the view dynamically about the screen Z-axis only |
RTROT and RTROTF look similar but aren’t identical: horizontal mouse movement drives rotation about the world Z-axis with RTROT, but the screen Y-axis with RTROTF.
Viewpoints, Named Views, and Viewports
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
DDVPOINT |
Opens the Preset Viewpoints dialog |
PLAN |
Restores the plan view relative to the WCS, the current UCS, or a saved UCS |
DVIEW |
Defines parallel and visual perspective views |
VIEW |
Saves and restores named views |
VPORTS |
Manages viewports in model space |
MVIEW |
Creates viewports in paper space |
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between REDRAW and REGEN? REDRAW just refreshes the screen display. REGEN recalculates it, which is more thorough, and slower, than a simple redraw.
What’s the fastest way to zoom to a specific area of my drawing? ZOOM followed by W for Zoom Window: pick two corners of a box, and that area fills the display.
Do RTROT and RTROTF do the same thing? Not quite. Both rotate the view dynamically in 3D, but horizontal mouse movement rotates about the world Z-axis with RTROT, versus the screen Y-axis with RTROTF.
How do I create viewports in paper space specifically, rather than model space? MVIEW. Use VPORTS instead for managing viewports in model space.