Scope Boxes

Our template already has a lot of views created, which makes it easy at the beginning of a project, but a lot of work to adjust the crop boxes of all these views… if it weren't for scope boxes. A scope box can control the size of several views at once and makes sure they all match each other in size. Changing the size of a scope box will change the size of all views accordingly. It's a huge time-saver!

It’s not always easy to get people to use scope boxes. Often, they are one of the first things to get deleted from a project because “I didn’t want to see those red boxes.” As a result, we have now turned off scope boxes in all our view templates. They could even be added to their own workset that’s invisible in all views. Consultants will appreciate this as well since our scope boxes would otherwise show up in their model & views as well.

Some of the scope boxes currently set up are Overall for 1/16" views, and areas A, B, C & D for 1/8" views. The choice to use 4 areas was based on our typical project size, but if fewer are needed, they can easily be deleted. To make adjustments, a 'Scope Boxes' view has been set up where you can move & stretch or delete them as needed. For clarity, all model elements are set to halftone.

Some of the view types that have scope boxes assigned in the template:
- overall and area floor plans (demo and new)
- overall and area reflected ceiling plans (demo and new)
- overall life safety plans
- overall and area equipment plans
- overall and area floor finish plans

Views have been named accordingly:

To assign a scope box to a new view, change the view’s properties under ‘Extents’:

To create a new scope box, either copy an existing scope box or create a new one: