In this lesson I will show you how to create the so-called Layouts and you will learn how to set their parameters. I will use an architectural plan as an example, because this drawing contains everything I need.

Before I move on to something more specific, I will start the Options command from the keyboard and as soon as a new frame appears on the screen, go to the Display section. The options related to Layouts are located in the lower left corner, and I will take the opportunity to activate the one at the top of the list. This will allow me to change Layouts more easily in the future as their names will appear in the lower left corner of the screen.

By turning on the second option, you will more easily determine the area on which the drawing will be printed (Display printable area), and the third will allow you to better see the edge of the paper because it will be shaded (Display page shadow). The last two options should remain disabled for now, because I would not want the automatic creation of new Layouts to be used. Now that all the parameters are set as they should be, I will close this box by selecting the OK button and return to the drawing.

Now I can select as the active palette the one that contains the functions for working with the screen (View) and check if the File Tabs function is active. Since this is not the case for me, I will click on the icon of the same name so that the names of the currently active drawings will appear on the screen. If I place the cursor over one of them, I will be able to select Layot1 instead of the standard display and display its contents. I was able to achieve the same effect through the sections located in the lower left corner of the screen. It is enough to click on one of them and change the working mode in one move. If that is not enough for you, by pressing the right button you can display the help menu and activate one of the additional options. Admittedly, some of them will be available to you through the File Tabs function, and this especially applies to the Plot and Publish functions.

Regardless of the fact that the basic parameters of each new Layout are already set, I will look for the Page Setup Manager item in the Output section and launch the function of the same name with one move. I have to mention that in AutoCAD page setup is done in a similar way as dimension lines via predefined styles. They are automatically assigned to a certain Layout, but it is also possible to change them. So I will first select the first page (Layout1) and click the Modify button. As soon as a new frame appears on the screen, I can review the currently valid parameters and adjust them to my needs. To that end, I will first select the Printer name option to display all the devices available to me. As you can see, this list is quite long, but unfortunately there is not a single printer on it. If you have such a device, you will be able to choose it and finally materialize your project. I will have to settle for the electronic version, so to that end I will select the DWF6ePlot option from the list. The next parameter that needs to be set is the paper size, and I will choose one of the standard formats. You can see its exact dimensions on this sketch, so it won’t be difficult for you to choose the appropriate scale based on them. I currently have it set to 1:1 which means that one AutoCAD unit on paper will be exactly one inch long. If that doesn’t suit you, you can easily switch to millimeters or use another ratio. I will return to the original values and close this box with OK. You probably noticed that the white area representing the sheet of paper has automatically taken on a different shape to match the currently selected format. This means I can close this frame and finally create a new Layout.