Viewports are windows into your project geometry that you can place on your sheets. Not to be confused with Views (or Vistas) which are a saved set of layers + a screenshot - viewports are only usable in the paper app and have specific settings and functions that are unique from Views.
Parts of a Viewport:
The viewport frame.
The model rendering in the viewport
The viewport title
The viewport scale bar
The viewport scale label (metric ratio)
Elevation markers
Double click inside a viewport to adjust the alignment of the model rendering in the frame.
Insert a viewport
The bottom bar of the Paper app has many insert tools. Click "View" to add a viewport.
Select the viewport type you'd like to add.
The viewport places on the center of the current sheet/canvas. Move ad adjust as needed after placement.
Adjusting Viewport Frames
Once a viewport is placed, you can make adjustments in a variety of ways.
Change the viewport contents
Adjust what is visible in the viewport by double clocking in the frame.
Click and drag: Pan
Right click and drag: Orbit
Scroll: zoom in and out
Adjust viewport placement
Click and drag the viewport to move it around on the sheet
Adjust viewport size
Click and drag a viewport edge to stretch in one direction
Click and drag a viewport corner to stretch in 2 directions
Viewport Types
Paper viewports support traditional architectural view types.
3D views
3D PerspectiveA perspective view uses one or more vanishing points, where parallel lines appear to converge in the distance, to create a realistic sense of depth and scale. |  |
AxonometricAn axonometric view shows a building in three dimensions using parallel lines that never converge, so there are no vanishing points at all. This keeps every part of the drawing at the same scale, making it useful for accurate measurements while still looking three-dimensional. |  |
Plan Views
A plan is a horizontal cutaway or top-down view of a building, sliced at a set height. |  |
Plan views are cut at Levels you set within your Paper settings. The default plan (Views -> Plan) is shown cut above the tallest building (project max height).
To place multiple plans or select the cut level, choose Views -> Plans...
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The results of selecting 3 levels and single sheet:
Elevation and Section Views
ElevationAn elevation is a straight-on, orthographic view of a building's exterior from one side. |  |
SectionA section is a vertical cutaway view sliced straight through a building (or, multiple buildings and the ground between them) to reveal how everything relates. |  |
To place an elevation. select Views -> then pick from the cardinal directions. The elevation shows the side of the building (or buildings) that is closest to the true direction (relative to true north, not project north/grid aligned north). To limit how deep a cardinal or section elevation sees into the model, set appearance ▾ → View depth (m).
To create an elevation with a custom alignment or a Section cut view, use the Section View tool to define the cut location and view box on the map canvas:
Select Views -> Section View
The polygon tool is activated in the map canvas
Draw the polygon.
The first edge should be where you want the view to cut.
The furthest edge parallel to the cut edge defines the view depth
Once defined, the viewbox becomes a selectable item in the Views list
Adjusting Viewport Frames
Once a viewport is placed, you can make adjustments in a variety of ways.
Change the viewport contents
Adjust what is visible in the viewport by double clocking in the frame.
Click and drag: Pan
Right click and drag: Orbit
Scroll: zoom in and out
Adjust viewport placement
Click and drag the viewport to move it around on the sheet
Adjust viewport size
Click and drag a viewport edge to stretch in one direction
Click and drag a viewport corner to stretch in 2 directions
Viewport Settings
When you select a viewport, a variety of settings and tools appear in the Paper top bar. Select multiple viewports at the same time to apply the changes in bulk.
Shading
Shading changes the rendering style of the selected viewport.
Select a shading mode
Hidden Line |  |
Flat |  |
Shaded |  |
Wireframe |  |
Cut Height
Input the height at which to cut the Plan.
Plan always cuts.
tick cut on an axonometric to clip it at the cut-height (m) field.
Scale
Select the scale for orthographic views.
Fitauto-frames the model - when a viewport size is adjusted, the entire view scales to fit.Or, pick a fixed scale from the list of metric and imperial scales. A fixed scale is preserved when the viewport size changes.
Levels
Levels are automatically set based on the tops of building geometries in your projects.
You can add additional levels as desired - type the custom level (in meters) in the custom level box, then click Add.
In elevations and Sections, levels are displayed as RL lines. Bu default, the view will show ground (0.00) and the max height of the buildings in the current view. Add more level RL lines by selecting the levels in the dropdown.
Layers
The Layer menu in Paper defines which drawing layers are shown in a viewport. Select or deselect layers as desired.
If your project has lots of layers, you can search by Layer name.
Freezing & updating viewports
A frozen view keeps its exact last render and ignores model updates — good for a finished view you want “frozen in time”. This also helps with model performance in large projects.
The live / ❄ frozen toggle on a tile.
When the viewport is frozen, Press ↻ to refresh it once to the current model.
Viewport Appearance
The appearance dropdown has tons of ways to fine-tune your viewports.
Some settings and styles are available only for certain viewport types.
Render quality
Controls the smoothness of lines and shadows.
Select a value from default to 4x.
Default | 4X |
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Whitecard
Change all surfaces of the geometry in the viewport to a single color, instead of the colors shown on the model geometry.
Tick whitecard to apply the style.
Select a color from the color picker to change to something other than pure white, if desired.
Default | Whitecard |
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Cut Color
For plans and section cuts, choose a color for the cut (poche) surface, or use the entity color.
Sun Settings
Adjust the sun settings for each viewport individually - separately from the project Solar settings.
Azimuth: angle
Altitude: height
Brightness: exposure
Ambient Brightness: for early morning or late evening shots, increase ambient brightness to avoid a "dark" image
Texture
Adjust the texture of the render.
View depth
View depth refers to how far back from the plane of cut objects are still shown, so elements like distant buildings, landscaping, or site context beyond the main facade can appear in the drawing. By default, everything is shown. Reduce the view depth by inputting a distance.
Lineweight
Adjust the lineweight in pixels.
Elevation/Section Markers and Cut Lines
Select whether to show annotations for section cuts on plans.
Transparency/opacity
Choose a transparent background, and set the overall opacity of the view.
Plan layers
Select whether to show all, svg only, or raster only elements in the viewport.
Level Size
Adjust the size of the RL level text.
Feature level overlay options
Turn on section levels to view level labels on every level in the feature.
Choose the label and style options.
Labels: show a label on every level
Dims: show a height dimension on every feature
Level word: change the label text
Number style: choose the level number style
Reverse: start numbering at the top
Start at: the number for the first level above ground
Dim size: pick a size for the dimensions
Dim color: pick a color for the height dimension
Level text size: pick a size for the text
title/scale-bar visibility
Select whether to show the title or scales.
Title - the top title
Name: The title text
Scale bar - the visual scale bar
Scale: the ratio scale label
Terrain styling
Choose outlines, weight, line color, and fill for terrain in section cuts.
Including the basemap
Before running: put the Giraffe map in 2D mode, and turn off the drawing layer (and any other layers you don't want captured) — visible layers bake into the map image.
With a plan tile selected, screenshots the Giraffe basemap at the plan’s extent and drops it georeferenced behind the plan so imagery lines up with linework. Switch the basemap to satellite/raster first.
↻ Refresh all
Re-capture every map background on the page after the model or basemap changes.