Paper Space Viewports in BricsCAD
Quick answer: A layout can hold multiple viewports, each a separate window into your model space content, with its own view, scale, and content. Unlike model space viewports, a paper space viewport is a genuine entity you can copy, move, scale, or delete like anything else in the drawing. This page covers the concepts; the actual step-by-step for creating and editing them lives on separate dedicated pages.
Layout Viewports Are Entities
A layout viewport isn’t just a display setting, it’s created as its own entity, one you can copy, delete, move, scale, and stretch the same way as any other drawing entity. You can even snap to its borders using entity snap.
While working in model space from within a layout, click any viewport to make it current, then add or modify entities there directly. Changes made in one viewport show up immediately in any other viewport displaying that same portion of the drawing. Zooming or panning, though, only ever affects the current viewport, not the others.
Controlling What Each Viewport Shows
Each viewport has its own layer visibility settings, independent of the others, and you can turn off a viewport’s content display entirely if needed.
To preserve a viewport’s current scale, lock its display. Once locked, you can no longer zoom or pan within it, which keeps its scale from being changed by accident.
Content That Belongs to Just One Layout
Beyond viewports, you can add print-related entities directly to a paper space layout, keynotes, annotations, title blocks, that aren’t part of the model itself. These belong specifically to that layout; they won’t appear in other layouts or in model space.
The ALIGNSPACE Command
ALIGNSPACE adjusts a viewport’s angle, zoom factor, and pan position based on alignment points you specify in both model space and paper space, useful for lining up a viewport’s view precisely with a reference point.
Displaying the Paper Sheet and Printable Area
Three distinct elements make up the layout display: the viewport itself, the printable area (controlled by DISPPAPERMARGINS), and the paper sheet background (controlled by DISPPAPERBKG).
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I move or resize a paper space viewport the same way I would any other entity? Yes, it’s a genuine entity, copy, move, scale, stretch, and delete all work on it directly.
How do I stop a viewport’s scale from being accidentally changed? Lock its display. A locked viewport can no longer be zoomed or panned.
Do annotations added in one layout show up in other layouts? No, print-related content added directly to a layout, like title blocks or keynotes, belongs to that specific layout only.
What controls whether the printable area is visible on screen? DISPPAPERMARGINS. The paper sheet background itself is controlled separately by DISPPAPERBKG.