.. index::
   single: Layouts
   single: Paper Space
   single: Model Space
   single: Printing
   single: Plotting

Layouts, Viewports and Printing
===============================

A drawing is built at full size in **model space** and presented at a chosen
scale on paper through a **layout**.  A layout is a sheet of a definite size —
A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 or a custom width and height in millimetres — carrying
**viewports**: rectangular windows onto model space, each with its own centre,
scale and rotation.

The tab strip along the bottom of the drawing area holds the **Model** tab and
one tab per layout.  Switching tabs switches the canvas: on **Model** you draw,
on a layout you compose the sheet.  When a layout tab is active the ribbon
grows a **Layout** tab with the commands below.

.. index::
   single: Creating a Layout
   single: LAYOUT command

Creating and Managing Layouts
-----------------------------

Right-click the tab strip, use the **Layout** ribbon tab (**New**, **Delete**,
**Rename**, **Page Setup**), or run ``LAYOUT`` (alias ``LO``):

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 20 80

   * - Option
     - Action
   * - **New**
     - Adds a layout and its tab.  Layer definitions are copied from model
       space, and stay in step with it: a layer added, renamed or recoloured
       in model space is pushed to every layout on the next tab switch.
   * - **Delete**
     - Removes the current layout and everything drawn on it.
   * - **Rename**
     - Renames the current layout.  The name is what appears on the tab and in
       the DWG/DXF layout table.
   * - **List**
     - Prints the layouts in the drawing to the command line.
   * - **Set**
     - Switches to a layout by name.

Layouts are saved in ``.iqz``, and read from and written to DXF and DWG, so a
sheet composed here opens as a layout in AutoCAD and vice versa.

.. index::
   single: Paper Size
   single: Page Setup
   single: PAGESETUP command

Page Setup
----------

**File › Print › Page Setup…**, the **Page Setup** button on the *Layout*
ribbon tab, the tab's right-click menu, or ``PAGESETUP`` opens the page setup
for the active layout.

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 26 74

   * - Setting
     - Meaning
   * - **Paper size**
     - A0 (841 × 1189 mm), A1 (594 × 841), A2 (420 × 594), A3 (297 × 420),
       A4 (210 × 297), or **Custom** with an explicit width and height in
       millimetres.
   * - **Orientation**
     - Portrait or landscape.  Landscape swaps the effective width and
       height of the sheet.
   * - **Margins**
     - Non-printable border, in millimetres, on each of the four edges.
   * - **Plot style table**
     - The CTB table that maps drawing colours to printed pen colours,
       widths and screening.  See :doc:`11_format`.
   * - **PSLTSCALE**
     - ``1`` (the default) normalises linetype dash lengths to paper units,
       so a dashed line looks the same in every viewport regardless of its
       scale.  ``0`` scales dashes with model space.

A layout can hold several **named page setups** — for example one for A3
draft prints and one for A1 final plots.  Save the current settings under a
name with **Save…** in the Print dialog and pick it again later; **Delete**
removes one.

.. index::
   single: Viewports
   single: MVIEW command

Creating Viewports
------------------

On a layout tab, ``MVIEW`` (alias ``MV``) or the **Viewport** button on the
*Layout* ribbon tab creates a window onto model space:

- **Fit** (the default) — one viewport filling the printable area of the
  sheet.
- **2Points** — click two opposite corners to place a viewport of your own
  size.

The new viewport shows the whole model-space extent.  To set what it shows:

1. **Double-click inside the viewport** to activate it.  The border
   highlights and the mouse now pans and zooms *model space through the
   window* rather than moving the sheet.
2. Pan and zoom to the view you want.
3. **Double-click outside** the viewport to go back to paper space.

Select a viewport (a single click on its border in paper space) to edit it in
the Object Inspector: centre, scale, rotation, size, lock and border options
are all properties there — see :doc:`08_inspector`, *Viewport Properties*.

.. index::
   single: Viewport Scale
   single: Locking a Viewport

Scale, Lock and Freeze
----------------------

- **Scale** is the ratio of paper units to model units.  Setting *ViewScale*
  to ``0.001`` on a metre-based drawing gives a 1:1000 plot.
- **Lock** freezes the view.  A locked viewport ignores zoom and pan while it
  is active, which is what stops an accidental scroll from silently changing
  the plot scale of a finished sheet.
- **Frozen layers** are per viewport: a layer listed there is hidden in that
  window only, and stays visible everywhere else.  This is how one sheet shows
  contours and the next one shows only the road centreline, from a single
  model.

.. index::
   single: VPCLIP command
   single: VPFADE command
   single: VPSCALEBAR command
   single: MVSETUP command

Viewport Commands
-----------------

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 20 12 68

   * - Command
     - Alias
     - Action
   * - ``VPCLIP``
     - —
     - Clips the viewport to a shape other than its rectangle:
       **Rectangle**, **Circle**, or **Polygon** (pick the corners).  Only
       the model geometry inside the clip is drawn.
   * - ``VPFADE``
     - ``VPF``
     - Toggles fading of everything outside the active viewport, so the
       window under edit stands out.  Requires an active viewport —
       double-click into one first.
   * - ``VPSCALEBAR``
     - ``VPSB``
     - Toggles a scale bar drawn along the selected viewport.
   * - ``MVSETUP``
     - ``MVS``
     - Reserved for viewport rotate/scale/title setup.  **Not implemented in
       this release** — it reports so on the command line.  Use the Object
       Inspector for viewport scale and rotation in the meantime.

.. index::
   single: Draw Order
   single: DRAWORDER command

Draw Order
----------

Sheet composition often needs one object drawn over another — a hatch behind
its linework, a wipeout over a detail, a title block on top.  ``DRAWORDER``
(alias ``DR``) sets the display order of the selection, with four shorthand
commands for the common cases:

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 22 78

   * - Command
     - Action
   * - ``FRONT``
     - Brings the selected objects to the front of everything.
   * - ``BACK``
     - Sends them behind everything.
   * - ``ABOVE``
     - Places them immediately above a reference object you then pick.
   * - ``BELOW``
     - Places them immediately below a picked reference object.

Draw order is a drawing property: it is saved and restored, and honoured by
the screen, the PDF export and the printer alike.

.. index::
   single: PLOT command
   single: Print dialog

Printing
--------

**File › Print › Print…**, **Ctrl+P**, the **Print** button on the *Layout*
ribbon tab, or ``PLOT`` (alias ``PRINT``) opens the Print dialog.

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 24 76

   * - Group
     - Contents
   * - **Layout**
     - Which layout to plot.  Model space can be plotted directly too.
   * - **Printer/Plotter**
     - The system printer to send the job to.
   * - **Paper size**
     - Paper size and Portrait / Landscape.
   * - **Plot area**
     - **Layout** (the sheet as composed), **Extents** (everything drawn),
       **Window** (click **Pick Window** and drag a box), or **Display**
       (what is on screen now).
   * - **Plot scale**
     - **Fit to paper**, or an explicit ratio typed as two numbers
       (for example ``1`` : ``1000``).  **Center on page** centres the result.
   * - **Plot offset**
     - X and Y shift of the plotted area on the paper, in millimetres.
   * - **Plot options**
     - **Plot lineweights** (honour per-object and per-layer widths),
       **Plot with plot styles** (apply the CTB table), and **Plot stamp**
       (print the file name, date and scale in the margin).
   * - **Plot style table**
     - Selects the CTB table, with **Edit…** opening the plot style editor.
   * - **Page setup**
     - **Save…** stores the current dialog settings on the layout as a named
       page setup; **Delete** removes one.
   * - **Preview**
     - A live thumbnail of the sheet as it will print.

**Print to PDF** at the bottom of the dialog writes the same output to a PDF
file instead of a printer.

.. index::
   single: PDF Export
   single: PLOTPDF command
   single: PLOTALL command

Plotting to PDF
---------------

- ``PLOTPDF`` (alias ``PDF``), **File › Print › Export PDF…**, or the **PDF**
  button on the *Layout* ribbon exports the **active layout** to a PDF file at
  its page setup's paper size and scale.
- ``PLOTALL``, **File › Print › PDF All…**, or the **PDF All** button writes
  **every layout in the drawing** to one PDF, one page per layout.

The PDF is written by IQcad's own vector engine, not by a print driver: text
stays text, lines stay lines, and the file opens at any zoom without
pixellation.  Surfaces, survey points, parcels, gradings, culverts,
alignments, profile views, point-cloud sections and tunnel sections have
dedicated renderers so that styled output matches the screen: an
alignment, for example, plots with the centerline, ticks, station labels,
arrows, PI markers and PI detail tables its alignment style enables, on
the alignment's component layers, and a profile view plots its grid,
profiles, labels, strips and title exactly as the viewport shows them.
See :doc:`12_export_import` for the plain **PDF Export** of model space.