Expert: Bill DeShawn - 1/6/2009

Question
QUESTION: Bill,
I'm working with AutoCAD MEP 2008 and I just started having this problem yesterday. When I create a viewport and go to select inside it to pan around, it reverts to zooming to the extents of the drawing inside the viewport. Is there a setting somewhere that is allowing this?
Thanks in advance,
Dale

ANSWER: Dale:
First off, after you zoom to the desired zoom factor in your viewport, go to paper space immediately, with PICKFIRST system variable set to 1, left click on the viewport and then right click on the viewport to see the cursor menu it will then give you.  Scroll down to Display Locked->, and then select Yes.  Now no matter what you do in the viewport, the zoom factor will not change.  If you need to be "all the way in", you can select the little icon that looks like a TV at the status line (usually at the bottom).  Hitting that button invokes the VPMAX command and you are in Model Space just as effectively as if you hit the Model Tab, except even better, because your view is where you want to be.  Hit that button again, and it invokes the VPMIN command and puts you back where you were in paper space.  What's causing the zoom extents might be an accidental double-click of your mouse.  But if that happens now, the zoom factor of the viewport won't change.  Any panning or zooming will temporarily make paper space active and set you right back in model when done panning or zooming.  When your are in the viewport "all the way (VPMAX invoked)", a zoom extents should not ever affect your zoom factor of the viewport.  The "Maximize Viewport" button is your best access to model space.

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bill,
I must not have worded my initial question properly. What I am doing is double clicking inside the viewport, not on the frame, to "activate" it I guess. This usually allows me to go in and fine tune what area of the model that the viewport is showing. What's happening now is when I double click inside the viewport from paper space, it changes the zoom factor to show the extents of model space. All I simply want to do, is be able to adjust the positioning of the model in the viewport, while maintaining the zoom scale. Sorry for the confusion.
Thanks again,
Dale

Answer
Dale:  Actually, I did understand.  What I'm describing here is a remedy.  But there is something else that can cause this behavior.  It's the UCSFOLLOW system variable.  Make sure it is set to 0.  Get back to me and let me know how it goes.

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn