TABLE OF CONTENTS Layouts are the modern paperspace a separate 2D space whose scale is based on the actual size of your paper output. You can have as many layouts (and thus "paperspaces") as you want in a drawing file. Think of layouts as sheets of paper in fact, layouts and sheets are practically synonymous. AutoCAD has evolved from having one paperspace (years ago), to multiple paperspaces in the form of layouts, and then most recently to sheets in the Sheet Set Manager.
The original 3D space where your model resides modelspace has a scale matching the real-world size of whatever it is you're drawing. Viewports relate the scale of modelspace with what you see drawn to a 1:1 scale on a sheet.
The scale of what you're looking at through the viewport is adjustable, so you can be sure it will fit on any sheet you care to lay out. Sheets are further organized into sets, subsets, categories, and model views. We'll open this veritable can of worms later in this chapter, as we discuss the following topics.
Formatting output all starts with laying out your drawing on virtual paper. Layouts typically include a title block and at least one viewport. In addition, every layout has a default page setup, which brings together the plot device driver, the paper size, the plot scale, the plot style table, and numerous plot options. This section has a few tips that make working with layouts less taxing and more...
