Model space and paper space

When you start a drawing session, your initial working area is called Model Space. Model Space is an area in which you create two-dimensional and three-dimensional entities based on either the World Coordinate System (WCS) or a user coordinate system (UCS). You view and work in model space while using the Model tab.

In general, model space consists of a single view that fills the screen. If needed, you can create additional views, called viewports, which can show different views of your drawing or 3D model. All viewports are displayed in a tiled manner. You can work in only one of these viewports at a time but all viewports are updated simultaneously. Click in a viewport to make it the current viewport. You can print the current viewport only. The VPORTS command lets you manage your viewports in model space.

BricsCAD provides an additional work area, called Paper Space. Paper space represents a paper layout of your drawing. In this work area, you can create and arrange different views of your drawing similar to the way you arrange drawings on a sheet of paper. In paper space you can also add keynotes, annotations, borders, title blocks, and other print-related entities, which you don't want to see in model space.

Each drawing has at least one Layout in which you can have one or more Layout Viewports. Such layout viewports are to be considered as a view window on the entities in model space. Layout viewports can be placed anywhere in a paper space layout. Each viewport has its own scale and layer visibility. All viewports in the same layout can be printed simultaneously.

The MVIEW command lets you manage your viewports in paper space.

Although not necessary to print your drawing, paper space offers a lot of advantages:

  • Create multiple layouts to print the same drawing with different print settings, such as pen widths, printer configuration files, lineweight settings, drawing scale, and more.
  • Add print-related entities that are not essential to the model itself, such as keynotes, annotations, title blocks, etc.
  • For a single layout, create multiple layout viewports to print multiple views of your drawing at different scales.

Switching between model space and paper space

  • To switch between Model Space and Paper Space layouts, use the Model and Layout tabs at the bottom of the graphic window.
  • When working in a layout, you can access model space through a paperspace viewport:
    • Double-click inside a viewport to access model space. Double-click outside a viewport to go back to paper space.
    • Click the Paper/Model field in the Status bar to toggle between the workspaces. This method has to be used when it is not possible to click outside the viewport.
    • Use the MSPACE and PSPACE commands. These commands are available in the right-click context menu of the Paper/Model field in the Status bar.

Using the layout tabs

  • The name of the active tab is displayed in bold.
  • Click the navigation buttons at the left hand side to switch.
  • Drag layout tabs to change their order.
  • Click the button between the navigation buttons and the Model tab to open the Layout Manager dialog box.
  • Right-click a layout tab to display a context menu.
    • New: Create a new layout.
    • From Template: Imports a layout from another drawing.
    • Rename: Renames the layout.
    • Copy: Inserts a copy of the layout.
    • Move Right / Move Left: Moves the layout.
    • Export…: Exports the layout to a new drawing.