About Section View Drafting Buffers

Section views are created with drafting buffers. When you add AutoCAD annotation or drafting elements or Autodesk Civil 3D note labels within or crossing the drafting buffers, they are bound with the section views, and are moved with the section views if they are moved.

In the following illustration, the drafting buffers around the section views are shown in magenta. Drafting elements that were added to the sheet are shown in red.

When the section views for station 2+50 and 3+00 are moved up or off the sheet, the drafting elements that are inside the drafting buffers are moved with the section views. The text that notes the lane slope is not moved because it was outside the drafting buffer area.

Watch video: Bind Drafting Elements to Section Views and Move Section Views to a Section View Group

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Bind drafting elements to section views and move individual section views to a section view group.

Binding drafting elements with a section view

Drafting elements become bound to a section view when they are added or modified within or crossing the drafting buffer.

Drafting buffer grips

You can use the grips on a drafting buffer to increase or decrease its size. The following illustration shows the grips and the value of the right drafting buffer margin (50.0000) when you hover over that grip. You can select the grip and drag it to resize the drafting buffer, or you can and enter a new value at the command line.

Note: Resizing a drafting buffer after drafting elements already exist does not automatically change the binding behavior of the drafting elements relative to that drafting buffer. For more information about the binding behavior, see "Binding drafting elements with a section view" above.

Settings and styles related to drafting buffers

Settings and styles that impact drafting buffers are as follows:

Behavior when changing the direction of section views or deleting section views

Changing the direction of section views that have drafting elements

If you edit the style of a section view so that the section view direction changes, the drafting buffer is changed to accommodate the new direction, but the drafting elements that are inside or crossing the buffer are not moved. If this results in existing drafting elements being displayed outside of the buffer, the drafting elements will still be bound with the buffer unless you move them to a different location outside the drafting buffer. For more information about the binding behavior, see "Binding drafting elements with a section view" above.

Deleting section views that have drafting elements

If you delete section views that have drafting elements within a drafting buffer, you have the option to delete the drafting elements or preserve them. A task dialog box is displayed with options you can select.
Note: If you select the Always Use My Selection in the Future check box in the task dialog box, and you want to change the behavior in the future, you can edit the Hidden Messages Settings on the System tab of the AutoCAD Options dialog box.