Expert: Bill DeShawn - 7/13/2011

Question
i am using AutoCAD 2011.
i have dwgs from the general contractor company and i am trying to print from their tabs but the tab i need to print is not showing the background floorplans even though it shows in model space. i have checked the layer manager thoroughly and i see nothing frozen, off, etc. including the toggles to turn off certain layers just in paperspace.
the source company is extremely large and very difficult to get to talk to the right people so i'm inquiring elsewhere.
any help would be appreciated!

Answer
Kim:
The layer(s) you want to see in the viewport, need to be selected while the viewport is active.  It can't be done while you are in paper space and your cursor is relative to paper space instead of the model space viewport.  You cursor needs to be confined to the viewport.  That is when you can freeze or thaw layers on the "VP Freeze" column of the Layer Properties Manager Palette.  Also, AutoCAD also considers paper space (working in a layout when a viewport is not active) a viewport, too.  Therefore it is subject to the same viewport layer overrides as a visible viewport.  The VPLAYER command is a command line method of accomplishing the exact same thing.
If you still need help with this, send me the drawing.  Go to my website, listed below, click on my email icon and attach the drawing and any referenced drawings (xrefs) and images.  I'll get back to you promptly with what I found out.

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