“Must a kettle boil?” It sure seems like we’ve been watching this particular kettle for a while.

A very popular item from the Civil 3D wish list has finally arrived! Dual plan sheets and dual profile sheet generation. We have long been stuck with only being able to create plan/profile sheets, plan only sheets, or profile only sheets when we create View Frames. Autodesk took our request a step further and now AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 can create from a set of View Frames, multiple plan viewports on a single sheet, or multiple profile viewports on a single sheet.

What a difference an (S) makes!

In the Create View Frames image above, the Sheet Settings now indicate the ability to create multiple viewports of the same type on the same sheet. Plan(s) or Profile(s) in this example.

To take advantage of this new feature, a sheet template must have the Viewport Type predesignated as “Plan”, “Profile”, “Section”, or “Undefined” and the Viewport Order must be set, so each viewport displays in the desired order.

In the image below the selected viewport is 1st in order and is a “Plan” type. The bottom viewport (not selected) is set as 2nd in order and is also a “Plan” type.

Finally, a Dual Plan/Plan sheet layout!

If we Create Sheets for these plan/plan View Frames you will see the result. Six viewports on three layouts, all in the correct order. Dual plan/plan. (No need to cut/paste viewports to create dual plan sheets anymore!)

The kettle has boiled over!

For further info, check out the Autodesk Knowledge Network entry: About the Plan Production Tools.