AutoCAD Blog | Autodesk: Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll confirm I’m a big fan of AutoCAD’s Express Tools. Not only are they major time savers, but they also serve as inspiration for this AutoLISP coder. I’ve written about numerous tools, but today I’m going to focus on a particular group: the Layout Tools in AutoCAD.
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There are so many features in autocad that it is honestly impossible to know it all. And then, express tools came along and added even more! At a certain point, we are almost reinventing the wheel for each individual person's drafting workflow, but there are certainly some nice features here to take note of. The big one in our detail-obsessed office is the paper-space alignment tool. I will confess that I am one of those people that needs everything aligned perfectly, and if possible centered on the screen. My personal solution to this is dynamic view-port blocks at all the scales I use. Not only can I snap to these lines in model-space, but it gives me a way to break up several plates and easily visualized finished sheets in the model. This works for my workflow given that I draft everything in one file if I'm TDing a show by myself, but thats just me. Additionally, I've found that the CHANGESPACE command works well for aligning paper space annotations to modelspace objects. Some of the other tools available to merge layouts, align viewports, and change scaling notation are cool, but in the grand scheme of things not something I see myself using. One thing is for sure, there are now even more ways to skin the AutoCAT
Much like Elliot said, AutoCAD has so many functionalities that it is near impossible to know all of them. I have been working with AutoCAD for nearly 2 years and every time I open the application I learn a new command to make my drawing more neat and clear. This article was rather interesting because of the few articles I have found that is dedicated to layout in paper space. Express tools are not something I am super familiar with but this article really broke them down into manageable explanations. The align space function can be really helpful whenever a drawing layout demands orthographic projections. Orthographic projections are so important in the theatrical industry because sometimes the shop building scenery is nowhere near the detailer so the drawing needs to have all of the answers to ensure scenery is built properly. Finally, I think I would use the synchronize viewports command whenever I am working with detailed callouts of certain aspects of a unit.
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