Layouts, viewports and plotting

You draw at full size, then put the drawing on paper. Musa CAD keeps the two apart, the way most CAD programs do: the drawing lives in model space, and each sheet is a layout.

Model space and layouts

Model space is where you draw, at real size: a 4 metre wall is 4000 units long in a millimetre drawing. You can plot straight from model space, which is fine for simple drawings.

A layout is a sheet of paper, with a border, a title block and notes drawn at paper size. Layouts are also called paper space. The tabs below the drawing switch between model space and each layout. Right-click a layout tab to add, rename or delete a layout.

Viewports

A viewport is a window on a layout that shows model space at a scale you choose, such as 1:50. A layout can have several viewports, each showing a different part of the model at its own scale.

1. On a layout, type MV for MVIEW and click two corners. The viewport shows the whole model.
2. Double-click inside the viewport to work in model space through it. Zoom and pan until the right part shows, or set its scale with MVIEW’s Scale option.
3. Type PS for PSPACE to go back to the sheet. The viewport keeps the view you left it with.

Each viewport can hide layers of its own with VPLAYER, or with the VP Freeze column of the Layer Properties Manager while you work inside it. Use it to show dimensions in one viewport but not another.

In model space itself, VPORTS splits the window into tiles that each show the drawing from their own view. That is for working, not for plotting.

Command	Type	What it does
LAYOUT	LO	Layouts (paper space sheets): Copy, Delete, New, Rename, Set, ?.
MODEL	MODEL	Switch to model space.
MVIEW	MV	A viewport on the layout showing model space: two corners or Fit; ON, OFF, Scale, Center.
MSPACE	MS	Edit model space through a viewport; PSPACE returns to the sheet with the view you leave.
PSPACE	PS	Switch to paper space (the first layout).
VPLAYER	VPLAYER	Layer visibility per viewport: Freeze / Thaw layers in the current, all or a picked viewport; Reset, Newfrz, Vpvisdflt, ?.
VPSCALE	VPSCALE	Report the scale of a layout viewport.
VPSYNC	VPSYNC	Line layout viewports up with a master viewport, at its scale.
VPORTS	-VPORTS, VIEWPORTS	Tiled model-space viewports: split the current one in 2, 3 or 4; SIngle; Join; Save, Restore, Delete and ? for named configurations.
VIEW	V	Save, restore or delete named views.

Plotting

Type PLOT, or press Ctrl+P. The Plot window sets:

Setting	Choices
Printer/plotter	PDF, or a printer on your computer.
Paper size	ISO A4, A3, A2, A1 and A0, ANSI A (Letter) and ANSI B (Tabloid).
Plot area	Display (what is on screen), Extents (everything), or Window (a rectangle you pick). A layout plots its sheet.
Scale	Fit to paper, or an exact scale such as 1 mm to 5 units. Center the plot, or an Offset.
Plot style (CTB)	In colour, Monochrome (all black), or Grayscale.
Plot object lineweights	Lines plot at their lineweights. Untick it for thin lines everywhere.
Orientation	Portrait or Landscape.

Click Preview… to see the page before you plot. PDFs are real vector files, so lines stay sharp at any zoom.

A page setup saves these settings under a name, so every plot of a layout comes out the same. PAGESETUP manages them.

If a plot comes out wrong, see A plot or PDF looks wrong.

Command	Type	What it does
PLOT	PRINT	Plot or print the drawing to paper or PDF.
PREVIEW	PRE	Show the plot as it will come out, with the last plot's settings.
PAGESETUP	PAGESETUP	Name, change and delete page setups, and choose the one PLOT starts from.
EXPORTPDF	EXPORTPDF	Save the layout in front, or the model, as a PDF file.
PUBLISH	PUBLISH	Plot the model and the layouts chosen into one PDF, a page each.

Many sheets at once

PUBLISH plots the model and any layouts you choose into one PDF, one page each. To plot a whole folder of drawings, use the command line instead:

for f in *.musa; do musacad --plot "$f" "${f%.musa}.pdf" --paper A3; done

The command line lists every plot option, such as --scale 1:50, --window and --monochrome.

Dashes in viewports

With PSLTSCALE at 1, the default, dashed lines seen through a viewport are scaled by the viewport’s scale. Dashes then look the same length on paper in every viewport, whatever its scale.

Next

• Save, share and exchange drawings in Working with files.