Display one or more scaled views of your design on a standard-size drawing sheet called a layout.

After you finish creating a model at full size, you can switch to a paper space layout to create scaled views of the model.

Paper Space

When your drawing is ready to export, go to the Views tab and switch from Model view to one of the Layouts. The paper space views are labeled Layout1 and Layout2.

If you go to one of the layouts, you'll see a rectangular object in the center of the sheet. This is called a layout viewport.

Layout Viewports

On each layout, you can create one or more layout viewports. Each layout viewport is like a closed-circuit TV monitor that displays part of model space at a scale that you specify. You can select a layout viewport as you would any other object.

If you double-click inside a viewport, you can pan and zoom to change the view. Double-click outside the viewport to exit the viewport.

You can click the border of the viewport and use the grips to move or resize it. When the viewport is selected, you can use the COPY command to copy the viewport and add more viewports to a single layout sheet.

Specifying the Scale of a Layout

When you're outputting a drawing, you'll probably need to display your model at a certain scale. To set the scale:

1. Click a layout viewport's border to select it.
2. Click the Properties tab to open the Properties panel.
3. In the Properties panel, go to Viewport Scale and choose a scale from the list of options.

Exporting a Drawing

The AutoCAD web app doesn't have all of the printing and plotting features that the desktop version of AutoCAD does, but you can still export your drawing as a PDF.

In AutoCAD, the terms printing and plotting can be used interchangeably for output. Historically, printers would generate text only, and plotters would generate vector graphics. As printers became more powerful and could generate high-quality raster images of vector data, the distinction largely disappeared.

To plot a drawing as a PDF

1. Click PLOT in the top-right of the header. Alternatively, type PLOT in the command line and press Enter.
2. Choose among the following options:

What to print: If plotting from model space, the extents are limited to the current display. If plotting from paper space, choose Current Layout or All Layouts.

Scale: If plotting from model space, the PDF will Scale to Fit. If plotting from paper space, the PDF will plot at 1:1, as determined by the Paper Size selected in Layout Properties.

Plot style: Choose acad, Grayscale, and monochrome, or None.

Paper size: Choose among the standard supported AutoCAD paper sizes.

Orientation: Choose portrait or landscape.

3. Click Plot to PDF.

You'll receive a notification with a link to download the PDF when it is ready. Download the PDF to save it locally.

Table of Contents: The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD on the Web

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