Creating View Frames for Plan/Profile Sheets

Use the Create View Frames wizard to quickly create view frames along an alignment.

The view frames that are created represent rectangular areas along the alignment that will be
displayed on plan/profile or plan-only sheets.

Before you create view frames, the desired alignment must already exist in your drawing. Depending
on the type of sheets you want to produce (plan and profile or profile only), you may also need to
have a profile already created. If you are creating a plan only view frame (or sheet set), then you do
not need to have a profile in the drawing. For information, see Preparing for Plan Production.
You can also insert a new view frame into an existing view frame group. For information, see Inserting
View Frames.

Tutorial: Creating View Frames

To create view frames

1. Click Output tab Plan Production panel Create View Frames .

The Create View Frames wizard is displayed.
Note

On any page of this wizard, you can click Create View Frames to create the view frames
using the default choices on the wizard pages. If a criteria is needed that has not been
supplied, then the Create View Frames button is unavailable (grayed out). You can also
click the links on the left side of the wizard to go directly to a wizard page.
2. In the Alignments page, select an alignment.
3. In the Station Range section, choose one of the following:
 Automatic: Selects the entire alignment. So the start station is the start station of the
alignment, and the end station is the end station of the alignment.

 User Specified: When this is selected, you may enter a value or click to specify a
start and end location (stations) along the alignment in the drawing area.
4. Click Next to display the Sheets page.
5. In the Sheets page, in the Sheet Settings section, under Choose The Sheet Type You Want
To Generate, select one of the following:

Option Result (Conceptual Image)

Plan And Profile

The sheets that will be created will contain plan views and profile views.

Plan Only

The sheets that will be created will contain plan views only (no profile views).

Profile Only

The sheets that will be created will contain profile views only (no plan views).

6. In the Template For Plan And Profile Sheet field, click to open the Select Layout As
Sheet Template dialog box and browse to the template to use for the sheets that will be
created. The template you select must have viewports defined as plan and/or profile,
depending on the sheet type selected in this dialog box (Plan And Profile, Plan Only, or
Profile Only).
7. Click OK in the Select Layout As Sheet Template dialog box.
Note

If you select a template that does not have appropriately defined viewports for the sheet
type you select (Plan Only, Profile Only, or Plan and Profile), AutoCAD Civil 3D detects this
and displays a warning message. For more information see, Setting Up Drawing Templates for
Plan Production.

8. In the View Frame Placement section, select one of the following or accept the default:

Option Result (Conceptual Image)

Along
Alignment

The view frames will be aligned along the alignment. Typically, this is the preferred
method for making the most efficient use of paper when plotting.
Rotate To
North

The view frames will be rotated according to the north arrow orientation of the drawing.

9. Optionally, you may select the check box next to the Set The First View Frame Before The
Start Of The Alignment option, and then enter a value in the value field.
This sets the distance before the start station of the alignment that the first view frame is
placed. Entering a distance here provides the specified amount of space before the
selected alignment start so that the alignment start does not coincide with the edge of the
viewport. If this check box is not selected, then this field is ignored, and the first view frame
may be placed at the start of the alignment. Often the view frame start will be as desired
without altering this option.
10. Click Next to display the View Frame Group page.
11. On the View Frame Group page, specify a name, and optionally, a description of the view
frame group object that will be created using this wizard.
12. On the View Frame section, specify a layer, name, style, and label style for the view
frames.
13. In the Label Location field, choose the desired location to place the view frame labels. For
example, choosing Top Left places the view frame labels at the top left side of the view
frame.
14. Click Next to display the Match Lines page.
15. On the Match Lines page, if you chose Plan Only, you can choose to insert match lines on
the view frames by selecting the check box next to Insert Match Lines. Match lines are only
displayed in model space and in plan views. They are not displayed in profile views.
Note

If you do not want match lines included on the plan only view frames, clear the check mark
from this option. This disables the options on this page. If you selected to create plan and
profile or profile only sheets, this check box is automatically selected, and you cannot edit it
(not available, grayed out).
16. In the Positioning section, you may select one or both of the following options, and enter
desired values in the text fields. Both these options let you adjust where match lines are
placed, and how they may be moved after creation, so that they do not obstruct important
drawing data.
 Snap Station Value Down To The Nearest: When this check box is not selected
(cleared), match line positioning on the view frame is determined by using a rounding
value based on derived stations. When this check box is selected, the match lines are
positioned on the view frames based on the rounding calculation value entered. The
rounding calculation always rounds down. For example, if the calculated station for a
match line is 48+37.69, then a rounding of 100 would place the match line on 48+00.

When Snap Station Value Down To The Nearest is

the station will round to
set to ...

100 18+00
 50 18+50

10 18+60

1 18+65

27+45.3 to 50 27+00 to the next lowest multiple

of 50

 Note

 This option will not accept values that cause the match lines to be placed in undesirable
locations, such as before the previous match line or before the beginning of the
alignment. If a rounding calculation would result in the match line being placed in an
undesirable location, then the rounding calculation is ignored and the match lines are
placed at calculated station.

 Allow Additional Distance For Repositioning (Increases View Overlap): Because the
location of match lines is calculated automatically, it is possible that after you might
need to move the match line slightly. For example, in some cases match lines or match
line labels may be obscuring data of interest. You can use this option to increase the
margin by which you can move (reposition) match lines. Using this option will have a
side-effect of increasing the overlap area of view frames. When this check box is
selected, you can move the match lines in plan view by the distance specified with this
option. This ensures that the match line remains within (between) the intersection of the
two neighboring view frames. You should enable this option if you want to be able to
move the match lines by a certain distance. Note that having this option enabled is
useful if you need to force an overlap of view frames when, on a straight line alignment,
adjacent edges or sides of two view frames are at the same location, thereby not
allowing enough room for labels.
17. In the Match Line section, specify a layer, name, and style for the match lines that will be
created.
18. In the Labels section, specify the labeling criteria for the match line labels, including
location.
19. Click Next to display the Profile Views page.
Note

The Profile Views page is not available (grayed out) if a sheet type of Plan Only was
chosen on the Sheet Set page of this wizard.
20. On the Profile Views page, verify that an appropriate profile view style and band set have
been selected. If desired, you may select a different profile view style and band set.
Note

It is important to understand that the profile view style and band set for the profile view
cannot be changed later when you are using the Create Sheets wizard to create sheets.
For more information, see Understanding Profile View Options.
21. Click Create View Frames to create the view frames.
When the wizard has completed creating the view frames, you will notice the following:
 The view frames and match lines are created in the drawing.
 In the Prospector tree, the following objects are created: one view frame group, one or more
view frames in a view frames collection, one or more match lines in a match lines collection.
Note
If the Insert Match Lines check box on the Match Lines page was not selected (cleared), then match
lines are not created.
Now that the view frames are created, you may want to adjust the location or labels of the view
frames and match lines. See Moving View Frames or Moving Match Lines for more information.
After you are satisfied with how your view frames and match lines are positioned, the next step is to
create the sheets using the Create Sheets wizard. See Creating Sheets for step-by-step information.
Ribbon

Output tab Plan Production panel Create View Frames

Menu
General menu Plan Production Tools Create View Frames

Toolspace Right-Click Menu

Prospector tab: right-click View Frame Groups collection Create View Frames

Command Line
CreateViewFrames

Dialog Box
Create View Frames Wizard