Open a drawing to a named view

When you save and close a drawing, AutoCAD remembers the last displayed view and opens it to that view. That’s convenient for continuing where you left off.

But what if other people are also working on the drawing and they change the display? Or if you know you want to go to another part of the drawing?

You can open a drawing to any named view, controlling what you see when you open the drawing. First you save a named view. Here’s how:

1. Display the view that you want to be able to display.
2. Choose View > Named Views (in AutoCAD Classic workspace) or View tab> Viewports panel> Named (in 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace in AutoCAD 2009) .
3. Click New.
4. Name your view and click OK twice to return to your drawing.
5. Save and exit your drawing.

When you are ready to open the drawing next time, here’s what you do to ensure that you see the view you want:

1. Click Open to display the Select File dialog box.
2. Check the Select Initial View check box, as you see here.

In the Select Initial View dialog box, choose your view and click OK.

All done!

Related posts:

1. All the ways to open a drawing
2. Tutorial: Convert a 3D solid to a 3-view 2D drawing in model space
3. Convert a 3D solid to a 2D drawing with a hidden view
4. Draw with tiled viewports