Creating Sheets

Once the view frames are in place, you can then use the Create Sheets command to automatically generate layouts that display what is contained within the view frames. In the case of plan and profile sheets, the Create Sheets command will also create a profile view for each view frame that corresponds to the station range shown in plan view. Each plan and profile view will then be arranged in a single sheet, providing two views of the same design area. This plan and profile sheet configuration is a very common way of documenting the design of linear features such as roads, railroads, and pipelines.

To create plan and profile sheets based on the view frames in your drawing, follow these steps:

The Exercise File can be downloaded at the end of the article  

1. Open the drawing named Creating Sheets.dwg located in the Chapter 19 class data folder.

2. Click the Output tab of the ribbon, and then click Create Sheets. This will open the first dialog box in the Create Sheets Wizard: Create Sheets – View Frame Group And Layouts.
3. Verify that the All Layouts In Current Drawing option is selected under Layout Creation and that North is selected under Choose The North Arrow Block To Align In Layouts. Click Next.

Sheet Placement and Storage

When you’re using the Create Sheets command, there are three options for the final destination of the sheets that you create. The option used in this exercise is to simply create the new sheets as additional layout tabs in the current drawing. You could also create a new drawing and place all of the new layout tabs there. In this case, your current drawing would be XREFed to provide the graphical information for the plan view. An XREF, or external reference, is the way AutoCAD shows one drawing within another. For the profile view, the alignment, profile, and pipe network (if applicable) would be data referenced into the resulting file and used to create a new set of profile views. As you learned in “Leveraging a Dynamic” Environment, Civil 3D uses data references to show one drawing’s design data within another. Yet another option is to create multiple new drawing files with a set number of layouts in each drawing. If your goal is to improve the performance of each individual sheet, then this option is the best choice. If your goal is simplicity and accessibility, then the option used for the exercise is the best choice.

4. Examine the settings in the Create Sheets – Sheet Set dialog box. Notice that the Create Sheets command integrates with the AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager function. This added benefit enables you to store and manage the resulting sheets in an AutoCAD sheet set if desired.
5. Click Next. This will advance the wizard to the Create Sheets – Profile Views dialog box.
6. Under Other Profile View Options, click the Choose Settings option. Then click Profile View Wizard. The Create Multiple Profile Views – Profile View Height dialog box opens. This is the first in a series of dialog boxes contained within the Create Multiple Profile Views Wizard.
7. Change the Profile View Datum By option to Mean Elevation. Click Next to advance to the Create Multiple Profile Views – Profile Display Options dialog box.

   Tips:This option will cause the profile to show in the middle of the profile view, roughly halfway between the top and bottom of the grid.

8. Scroll to the right until you see the Labels column. For the Jordan Court FGCL profile, select the Curves-Grades-Breaks label set. For the EG – Surface (11) profile, select the _No Labels label set Figure 1.

   Figure 1.  Assigning label sets to the profiles

9. Click Finish to return to the Create Sheets – Profile Views dialog box.
10. Click Create Sheets. A warning dialog box will open, informing you that you must save the drawing to continue. Click OK.
11. When you’re prompted for the profile view origin, pick a point in the open area to the north of the site. Four new profile views will be created along with four new layout tabs. Also, the Sheet Set Manager window will open, displaying the names of four sheets Figure 2.

    Figure 2.  The results of the Create Sheets command

12. Click the first new layout tab. Note how the layout has been automatically configured to show the plan in the top view and the corresponding profile in the bottom view Figure 3.

    Figure 3.  A plan and profile sheet resulting from the Create Sheets command

13. Click the remaining layout tabs to review the sheets that have been configured. Notice how all of the lot labels read upright, regardless of their orientation of the plan view. This is a function of the area label style used to label the lot numbers.

Creating Multiple Sheets Using Plan Production

• Creating Multiple Sheets Using Plan Production : Creating View Frames
• Creating Multiple Sheets Using Plan Production : Creating Sheets

Download Exercise File :

• Creating Multiple Sheets Using Plan Production - Metric     --- ( 9.7 )
• Creating Multiple Sheets Using Plan Production - Imperial  --- ( 10.12 MB )