AutoCAD Tips to Work Smarter - March 2003
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Viewports - Locking and Unlocking
For Paper Spaces users, one of the best features introduced in AutoCAD 2000 was the ability to lock a viewport's display. Locking a viewport means no more accidental scale changes and allows transparent Paper Space zooming and panning.
However, the process to unlock, execute a display command and re-lock a viewport is cumbersome. It involves switching to Paper Space and selecting the viewport. Next, you right-click and select Display Locked from the menu and choose No. Then you switch to Model Space, use a display command, and perform the steps to lock the viewport. Messy, very messy.
I've created the toolbar at the right to simplify the process of locking and unlocking viewports.
The first button locks all the viewports on the current layout.
This is accomplished by using the command line version of the Vports command. To create a toolbar button macro using the Vports command the command name must be preceded with a hyphen in the button macro. This is true of many commands. Click here to learn more!
The figure below details the properties of the Lock Viewports button. Click here to learn more about toolbar customization!
The second button unlocks all the viewports on the current layout.
The underscore characters before each command and keyword allow the macro to function in any language.
The third button combines the functions of the first and second buttons, but performs the Pan command in between. This makes if very easy to Pan the image in Model Space, but make sure the viewport is locked.
Each backslash character pauses and lets the user make a selection. Note: The Pan command execute with backslashes will not be a Real-time pan.
Too much to tackle on your own? Click Here to download the CCAD Vports toolbar.
Installation
Unzip this file to your AutoCAD\Support folder or any other folder on the AutoCAD search path.
Use the Customize Menu command in the Tools menu to load the CCAD_Vports.mns file.
The CCAD Vports toolbar will display.
Reference:
I hope you found this Tip Sheet helpful.