Expert: Bob - 4/16/2007

Question
How do I set up a sheet so that model space contains the information for foundation thru roof and each of the four layouts within that drawing show information only pertaining to its respective floor. I have been drafting with autocad for 8 years.

Answer
Hi -- you did not give the AutoCAD release, but I will discuss it in a way that should be right. I urge you to get a good book on your release, aimed at architecture, to have handy. You would be best to study a bit, and I am going to make some assumptions, since you have used AutoCAD 8 years, not spend all evening writing every detail
-- This would take me  a four hour class or more to teach
---write back if you need more. If it is totally not understandable, get the book, do the lessons, write back.
-- you also did not give the purpose of your drawing -- normally I would expect many sheets for each floor
-- and normally, this would be 4 drawings, using xrefs to show all floors in one drawing, the way many people work  (less confusing than drawing 4 floors on top of one another and keeping track of what layers to turn off)
STEPS --to get what you ask
1- draw it
2--create 4 viewports in the layout, center the building in each, determine what scale fits the page, lock the viewports (I personally would make one VP, get it perfect, lock it, and copy 3 times.)  Scaling and locking VPs is too long to teach here, if you dont know it, sorry.
3- double click in the viewport that is for the basement, drop down the Layer Properties toolbar display, and freeze the appropriate layers in that VP. (the symbol that looks like a snowflake over a rectangle)
4-  do the same for the other 3 VPs.

THIS SHOULD TAKE <10 MINUTES, AFTER YOU HAVE TRIED IT A FEW TIMES, IF THE DRAWING AND ITS LAYERS ARE CORRECT.

Good luck

BOB