Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Rather than just reading about it, you may also want to open a few of the AutoCAD 2012
sample drawings and click the Model and Layout buttons or tabs to witness the variety
of ways in which paper space is used.
The AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT sample drawings are no longer installed with
the program, but they're still available — online. Download them from
The upside of the change is that users of either program now have access to the
other's sample files.
Will that be tabs or buttons?
The Autodesk documentation sometimes refers to the
Model tab
or to
layout tabs,
and
sometimes (like just a second ago) I do here as well. In its out-of-the-box condition,
AutoCAD does display actual, selectable tabs at the lower-left edge of the drawing win-
dow, clearly labeled Model, Layout1, and Layout2 (refer to Figure 5-4). You can gain a
fraction more screen space if you hide the tabs, but even when they're hidden, they're
still referred to as tabs. Here's how to toggle the way that tabs are displayed:
To hide layout tabs:
Right-click the visible Model tab or any layout tab,
and choose Hide Layout and Model Tabs from the pop-up menu.
To show layout tabs:
Right-click the Model button (the one with the icon
and the Model tooltip, not the Model or Paper Space button, which is sometimes
confusingly labeled MODEL) — or the Layout button right next door — and
choose Display Layout and Model Tabs.
Hiding the tabs does give you a bit more drawing area, but there's a drawback — the
Layout button can only control a single layout (whichever layout happens to be cur-
rent). You have to use the Quick View Layouts feature (described in the next section) to
switch between layouts, but if your drawing only has one layout, hiding the tabs is well
worthwhile.
