Datasheet
30 Chapter 1: Getting Familiar with AutoCAD
multiple viewports of various sizes, each displaying different parts of your drawing.
When you deleted that viewport, you essentially closed your view into your drawing in
the model space, so your rectangle and circle disappeared from view. They didn’t really
go anywhere. It’s just that your view of them was deleted.
You might have also noticed that a Layout1 tool displays a white area over a gray back-
ground. This white area represents the area of the paper onto which your drawing will be
printed.
The white area also shows a dashed line close to its edge. This dashed line represents
the printable area of your paper. The current default printer connected to your computer
determines both the paper area and the dashed line.
If you have a printer that accepts paper of different sizes, you can select a different
sheet size, and the new sheet size will be reflected in the white area shown in the layout.
You’ll learn how to control sheet sizes and layouts in Chapter 12.
As you might guess, you use the layout to lay out your drawing for printing. You
can print from the model space if you want, but you have much more control over your
printer output from a layout.
turning on the Layout taBs
AutoCAD can be set up to display layouts as tabs at the bottom of the drawing area. To turn
them on, right-click the Model or Layout1 tool located at the bottom of the AutoCAD win-
dow, and then select Display Layout and Model Tabs. The tabs will appear just below the
drawing area. To hide the tabs, right-click any tab, and select Hide Layout and Model Tabs. If
you want to leave the tabs off, you can still switch from model space to a layout by clicking
the Model or Layout1 tool. If you have multiple layouts, you can use tool just to the right of
the Layout1 tool to select a layout.
Understanding How Command Options Work
Nearly every AutoCAD command offers a set of options shown at the command-line
prompt. These options let you alter the behavior of a command to suit your current
drawing. To see how command options work, and to get a feel for the drawing process in
general, in this exercise you’ll draw an arc and then place it exactly in the inside corner of
the rectangle:
1. Click the Arc tool in the Draw panel.
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