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I am trying to export some data to dwg model space and then use that data in a layout via viewport, I am having success but I cannoot get the viewport to focus on specific coordinate in model space, here are the attributes I have created, everything works except the location.

Hi @garydlester,

Thanks for your question! I'd like to preface that I'm not a viewports expert, but  I believe you might be missing setting the attribute:

autocad_viewport_view_center_x, _y - the location of viewport center in model units

according to Dave's article on Working with AutoCAD Layouts. Hopefully something in the article or perhaps the workspace template in it may be helpful to solve this one!


Hi @garydlester,

Thanks for your question! I'd like to preface that I'm not a viewports expert, but  I believe you might be missing setting the attribute:

autocad_viewport_view_center_x, _y - the location of viewport center in model units

according to Dave's article on Working with AutoCAD Layouts. Hopefully something in the article or perhaps the workspace template in it may be helpful to solve this one!

I tried that attribute already but no effect, I will give it one more go just to be sure.


Hi @garydlester,

Thanks for your question! I'd like to preface that I'm not a viewports expert, but  I believe you might be missing setting the attribute:

autocad_viewport_view_center_x, _y - the location of viewport center in model units

according to Dave's article on Working with AutoCAD Layouts. Hopefully something in the article or perhaps the workspace template in it may be helpful to solve this one!

@jovitaatsafe So I changed the attributes back to autocad_vewport_view_center_x,y and no change in the behavior, I also changed the order of attributes in the attribute creator, no change. geodatabase_file2acad.fmwt


Hi @garydlester,

Thanks for your question! I'd like to preface that I'm not a viewports expert, but  I believe you might be missing setting the attribute:

autocad_viewport_view_center_x, _y - the location of viewport center in model units

according to Dave's article on Working with AutoCAD Layouts. Hopefully something in the article or perhaps the workspace template in it may be helpful to solve this one!

@daveatsafe I am  trying to point my viewport to a specific coordinate with autocad writer. Here are the attribute configuration I feel should work from doing the tutorials and reading the documentation on autocad writer but this is not working can you help point me to some information I can use to resolve this issue. Thank you0684Q00000ArMC6QAN.png


@garydlester​ @daveatsafe​  Did you find a resolution to this problem?


@garydlester​ @daveatsafe​  Did you find a resolution to this problem?

Yes I did do you have a viewport question?


Yes I did do you have a viewport question?

Yes, I need to reproject the model space of our campus parking map to the proper location. I have been able to do that, but there are approximately 120 layout viewports that also need to recognize the new location. Everything about the layouts would remain the same except the coordinates of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y. Is this something I should be able to do with FME? I've attached a test workspace. Thanks for any advice you can offer...


Hi @olpotosi,

It looks like you are just scaling the model space data. In that case, you can use an ExpressionEvaluator transformer to scale the values of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y in the layouts as well.


Hi @olpotosi,

It looks like you are just scaling the model space data. In that case, you can use an ExpressionEvaluator transformer to scale the values of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y in the layouts as well.

Hi @daveatsafe​ Is that the same as using the arithmetic editor in an attribute manager to set the value of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y? I have done that and see that the values change when the viewport is examined in the data inspector. However, the viewport center point values are not changed when looking at the result in AutoCad.


Hi @daveatsafe​ Is that the same as using the arithmetic editor in an attribute manager to set the value of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y? I have done that and see that the values change when the viewport is examined in the data inspector. However, the viewport center point values are not changed when looking at the result in AutoCad.

Hi @olpotosi​ ,

You are modifying an existing view, which may have more attributes on it controlling the viewport location than we need when creating one. Please use an Inspector transformer to examine the viewports in the Feature Information window of the Data Inspector. This will list all the attributes read from the original DWG. Any attribute pairs containing location info will also need to be scaled as well.


Hi @daveatsafe​ Is that the same as using the arithmetic editor in an attribute manager to set the value of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y? I have done that and see that the values change when the viewport is examined in the data inspector. However, the viewport center point values are not changed when looking at the result in AutoCad.

Ok @daveatsafe​  , I see several more attributes that contain the original location coordinates... autocad_viewport_resolved_target_x, autocad_viewport_resolved_target_y, autocad_extended_data_list{8}, and autocad_extended_data_list{9}...


@olpotosi​  they way I handle it is by setting the viewport scale if you are actually scaling geometry to fit in the viewport then I have no experience with that.


Hi @daveatsafe​ Is that the same as using the arithmetic editor in an attribute manager to set the value of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y? I have done that and see that the values change when the viewport is examined in the data inspector. However, the viewport center point values are not changed when looking at the result in AutoCad.

I ended up not reading the extended entity data so I avoided having to change those list attributes. I also needed to adjust the autocad_viewport_custom_scale by dividing it by the same scale factor I used for the coordinate adjustment. Seems to be working as advertised. Thanks for the assistance.


Hi @daveatsafe​ Is that the same as using the arithmetic editor in an attribute manager to set the value of autocad_viewport_view_center_x & autocad_viewport_view_center_y? I have done that and see that the values change when the viewport is examined in the data inspector. However, the viewport center point values are not changed when looking at the result in AutoCad.

Super, glad you got it to work.


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