Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published April 2016

“Best of” Basics: Irregular Viewport

When you need a viewport shape other than a rectangle, the first order of business is to be able to view the objects in Model Space at the desired scale. From there, you can create a polyline to essentially ‘crop’ the objects in Model space, then turn it into a viewport.

The best drawing for testing this is in the path…

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 20xx\Sample\Database Connectivity

If you have AutoCAD 2014 or prior, the drawing name is db_samp.DWG

If you have AutoCAD 2015 or later, the drawing name is Floor Plan Sample.DWG

How to Create an Irregular Shaped Viewport

1. Right-click on a layout tab and make a new layout with a large viewport.

2. Double-click in the viewport, then set the desired scale from the scale list on the Status bar. You may want to start with 1/64″ = 1′-0″ so you can see all of it.

3. Return to Paper space and create any closed polyline, spline or circle to be the viewport.

   Note: If you are creating a Polyline, you must use the Close option if it is to be converted into a viewport. If you did not use the Close option, use Pedit and select the polyline, then use the Close option.

   In this illustration, I created a polyline around the perimeter of the floorplan. (Ideally, this would be on a dedicated layer on which you typically create your viewports).

4. On the Layout tab, click Clip.

5. When prompted to select the ‘viewport to clip’, select the rectangular viewport.

6. When prompted to select the ‘clipping object’, select the polyline (or whatever object you created in Step 3, above).

AutoCAD will convert the polyline into a viewport and erase the original rectangular viewport!

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