Anyone got a trick for displaying the layout box in plan view?

[perryh]

Scott,
Of course your methods are much faster then mine ( S.A.M. method). I would love to be able to use it to its fullest capacity but unfortunately ,I'm old and my brain can't deal with 8000 layers and the junk in the trunk. I am surviving on the modified version of the SAM though, and it still saves me gobs of time. Thanks for that improvement to Chief, you would think they would have their own video's on it.

[JJohnson]

Sure would be nice to see the layout view bounding box in the background of a plan view. Once I've got a layout pretty well setup it can be tough to adjust the view, so if I'm adding notes or graphics I fin myself bouncing back and forthe from layout to proof, back to plan to repostion, back to layout to proof - or failing to do that and adding a note half of which is invisible

Tools/Display Settings/Show Sheet

Adjust sheet size and position plan same as its position on layout page.

[mkennedy]

Scott, that might be a case where you could create a layer set when sending the view to layout? Seems like the anno set ought to be fairly static and a separate layerset created on the fly might be just the ticket. IDK, I'm not wild about creating layersets, but I sort of think layerssets\annosets ouhgta b emore tightly know - given that they're not, I suppose I should learn to use that to my benefit somehow.

JJ - thanks, but not what I'm looking for, by a very long shot. There's been enough dialogue here defining the need so I won't repeat it.

[JJohnson]

JJ - thanks, but not what I'm looking for, by a very long shot. There's been enough dialogue here defining the need so I won't repeat it.

Sorry about that. Should of been more specific.

Thought that by now you would find there is no way to get layout box borders to auto adjust when
adding content outside the original edges, or have borders of views sent, show in plan view.

You can, however, adjust the borders to edges of layout after sending first time, then use show sheet to let you compose the layout page while in plan view.

This should cut back on the "bouncing back and forth to proof" you were trying to avoid.

And I also never never draw or put text, except for page titles, in layout view ever. Learned that the hard way.

[mkennedy]

JJ -
I'm not sure I'd even WANT the borders to auto adjust. I just want to see them so that I can position a note or a diemension block in plan without having ot get clipped off on the layoutsheet.
I often have more than one view on the layout sheet, so I can't set the layout view border to mathe the sheet siz, beacuae A) I'l get stuff on top of stuff and B) Even if I don't it's areal PITA grabbing the the view or graphic that's behind the other view or graphic.
Unlike you, I put ALL my general notes in layout. I have scaled note blocks FRAMING, CONCRETE, WINDOWS, and so on. I drop them on the layout. I also send details to layout. I know there are other options and other opinions, but in my hard earned and lengthy experience, this is what best suits my needs. I'm open to modification. Do you put your notes in a CAD detail? In the plan? Do you put your details in a single CAD detail? Or multiple? In the plan or in a separate DETAILS plan? Are the notes in with the details or in their own NOTES plan? I've tried various permutations on this theme and ultimately found that I was fastest at using note blocks and details from the library, droppped straight into layout.
On the original topic, I tried doing a view to CAD of the layout shout, selecting the layout border\contents and copy pasting\hold position then scaling the block, but that didn't seem to work.
On a new tangent - do we have a no plot line\style\type? I'll have to see what I can find.

[Glenn Woodward]

JJ -

On a new tangent - do we have a no plot line\style\type? I'll have to see what I can find.

Matt,

Yes, a white line or fill won't print.

I often have more than one view on the layout sheet, so I can't set the layout view border to match the sheet size, beacuae A) I'll get stuff on top of stuff

I think the suggestion was that you match the sheet size in plan view to match the layout border size, not the other way around.

[mkennedy]

Glenn, thanks. I was actually thinking a non white line, one that I can see, that would not print.
I think I got the gist of the tip now.
I went to the layout sheet, grabbed the layout view, got the vertical dim, grabbed it again to get the horizontal dim, went back to plan, set the display settings to show sheet, grabbed th eshhet and then edited the sheet size to match the dimensions I noted from the layout view. Very nice - thanks JJ and Glenn.

[mkennedy]

JJ - Glenn
Thanks for your patience - I have tried a plan using the display sheet. It works well, to an extent. I tried sending noteblock to plan, which was nice, I could position the note blocks and see their placement on the sheet, which was eyeballed to closely represent the layout.
Worked until I wanted to send two views to the layout. Then the plan\sheet I was working on doesn't show the other plan\sheet\rest of the layout.
So, back to the drawing board. I will use the display sheet, for what it's worth, but CA still would benefit from a reference like "display layout".

[johnnyprc]

Glenn, thanks. I was actually thinking a non white line, one that I can see, that would not print.
I think I got the gist of the tip now.
I went to the layout sheet, grabbed the layout view, got the vertical dim, grabbed it again to get the horizontal dim, went back to plan, set the display settings to show sheet, grabbed th eshhet and then edited the sheet size to match the dimensions I noted from the layout view. Very nice - thanks JJ and Glenn.

Doesn't a white line do that? You can see it, but when you send to layout it doesn't print. Other than that I suppose you could setup a layer that is then different from your MRLS print set. Perhaps I don't understand fully.

[mkennedy]

Johny, I use a white background so white lines are invisible. I've been using CA so long, I don't really remember the evolution, but I think we used to have no option but to use a white background. As I remember, when CA introduced the option I tried black, which I would have prefered, being an OtherCAD guy, but there was some reason why neither black nor grey backgrounds suited my taste.
Maybe I'll revisit the matter and try a black background.
I wouldn't mind having grids I could snap details to, construction lines I could use to align plans and views in layout, it can be useful to have notes attached to blocks indicating scale and border size as well as name.
On my wishlist, the no plot layer or line isn't all that high. I'd rather have better blocks, schedules, text, data extraction. I've given up the linework part of the 2d CAD 'cause I'm able to get my models so close, so quickly, I rarely have to do anything other than details in 2d CAD. And I'm getting pretty close there.

[JJohnson]

mkennedy Do you put your notes in a CAD detail? In the plan? Do you put your details in a single CAD detail? Or multiple? In the plan or in a separate DETAILS plan? Are the notes in with the details or in their own NOTES plan? I've tried various permutations on this theme and ultimately found that I was fastest at using note blocks and details from the library, droppped straight into layout.


I do use a seperate details plan, and sometimes seperate simplified plans for outside elevations etc.

When you send a cad detail to a plan page and want it to show at a larger scale in on the layout page, you change the
aspect from say 1 height 1 width, to 3 height 3 width, which makes 1/4 " = 12" scale detail into 3/4" = 12".

I am still somewhat experimenting with this approach. Not sure it will be best to place absolutely everything on a plan page
first.

[mkennedy]

I find that noteblocks display\snap better when placed directly in layout. I don't like to display layout borders, I find that I often want things placed overlapping each others "white space".
Layout views snap to the the layout border NOT to a border (pline or whatever) in the view. By using noteblocks placed directly into layout the noteblocks snap to the text box, making my life a little simpler. In addition, I can set the noteblocks to auto size by height or width as desired, so I can arrange things to be visually pleasing, neat and tidy more quickly than if I have to deal with layou views.
I'm bouncing back and forth with details. I generally decide the detail scale before annotation and apply an annoset accordingly. I leave lineweights to be determined by layout scale but size the text, arrows tick marks and so on. I have tried dropping details right into layout, this actually works nicely - I set the fill on the detail border in the detail, then it displays similar to text with the detail hiding the layout graphics it's superposed on. I can drop details right on the relevant layout and key them with a leader.
I think what I'll try next is a saved details plan, with standard details for common configurations and a white out box that will hide chiefs auto sheet number. I'll label that sheet D-1 with a text box placed over the whiteout box, right in the plan, (and D-2, D-3 if a job needs more detail sheets) OR I'll just give up on CAs auto numbering, number sheets manually and see if I can assign a value to the sheet number that will populate a sheet index. I've always keyed my detail by detail number\sheet, maybe I could simplify my life by just using detail number? An numbering details continuously from one sheet to the next?