AutoCAD® 2012 FOR DUMMIES®

Plotting the Layout of the Land

In the section “Plotting success in 16 steps,” earlier in this chapter, I show you how to plot the model space representation of your drawing by making sure that the Model tab is active when you open the Plot dialog box. In most industries, however, model space plotting went the way of the dodo 20 years ago. Paper space gives you many additional options for controlling the look of your output without having to modify the underlying geometry. So most of the time, you will want to plot a paper space layout instead.

Paper space is the environment that's specifically designed for outputting hard copy of your drawings. If you need a refresher on paper space or layouts, have another look (or a first look!) at Chapter 5.

The path to paper space layout plotting success

As I explain in Chapter 5, AutoCAD gives you two alternative ways of switching between full-screen model space and the paper space layouts stored in the drawing. If you choose to display the Model and Layout tabs, you simply click the appropriate tab to select the one you want. If instead you hide the Model and Layout tabs, use the Model and Layout buttons, plus Quick View Layouts, on the status bar. For the complete lowdown on using Quick View Layouts, refer to Chapter 5. In this section, I explain using this feature to print your paper space layouts.

Plotting a paper space layout is pretty ...