Autodesk 00308-011408-9F30A - VLA AUTOSKETCH R8-MEDIA W9X/NT, User Manual, Page: 32 / 400

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Chapter 3 Screen Layout
The active window contains the drawing on which you are currently working
and is the only one in which you can make changes. Normally, the title bar
of the active window is displayed in a color different from those of other
windows. Clicking a drawing window makes it active. You can resize,
minimize, maximize, and close each drawing window independently.
Page
The large rectangle that appears in the drawing window when you load a
drawing is the page. The shaded bands along each edge of the page are the
margins. You can draw in the margins and off of the page, but any part of a
drawing that falls in this area does not normally appear on scaled output.
AutoSketch reads the default margins from the default Windows printer
driver. For more information, see “Setting the Page Size” on page 51 or “Set-
ting the Margins” on page 54.
The pattern of lines, crosses, or dots on the page is called the reference grid. It
has three components:
■
Snap grid
■
Major grid
■
Minor grid
The snap grid is invisible. It is the grid to which points “snap” when you use
Gridpoint snap. The major and minor grids are comprised of lines, crosses,
or dots, and appear onscreen for reference only. They do not appear on
printed output. You can also create guidelines whose purpose is similar to the
reference grid. Guidelines are lines (which extend infinitely) or circles to
which you can snap points to help you draw. For more information, see the
chapter titled “Customizing the Grid,” which begins on page 59.
When you create a new drawing using the Standard Blank Drawing template,
AutoSketch automatically assigns a page size and orientation based on the
default printer. If you prefer a different size or orientation, you can redefine
the page using Page Setup on the File menu. If you choose a page size that is
larger than the paper for which your printer is configured, AutoSketch auto-
matically tiles the drawing.
Tiling is the process of printing a drawing on multiple sheets of paper. Several
factors affect tiling, including page size, page orientation, and margin set-
tings. You can display the tiling pattern onscreen by checking the Page Tiling
check box on the Appearance page of the View Options dialog box.