Before starting

• You must have added the Map Sheets plugin to your gvSIG installation. See instructions here.
• Download and unzip this sample shapefile (it's a simple shapefile of Japan in EPSG:4326)
• Make sure that you do not have a folder called <user_home>/mapsheets (or at least it is empty)

Steps

• Step 1. Create a view and change it's SRS to EPSG:4326 and its background color to some light color (light blue for example). Add the shapefile of Japan you have downloaded.
• Expected result 1. The view must look like this:

• Step 2. With the selection tool, select the biggest island of Japan, then go to the menu 'View > Map Sheets > Create grid' and choose the options in the dialog like this and click 'OK':

• Expected result 2. A new layer called 'Grid-1' must be added which consists of semi-transparent rectangles and looks like this:

• Step 3. Choose the selection tool and unselect the big island. Select the grid layer by clicking on it and go to the 'View > Map Sheets > Adjust sheets...' menu option. Use the mouse and keyboard options to edit the grid (select, move and remove several sheets at the same time, add new ones, undo option, use the SHIFT key to rotate some sheets, etc) until you have a small number of sheets.
• Expected result 3. The rectangles must have become reddish and now have their names on them:

• Step 4. Add a raster layer that covers Japan (for example: ARCIMS layer from http://www.geographynetwork.com, service ESRI_Landuse, all layers). Move the layer to the bottom of the TOC. Then go to the raster options of that layer and change it's level of contrast and transparency. Then change the symbology of the shapefile so that it has no fill color, and for the border line symbology, choose the options 'Kilometers' and 'In the World' and set 10 as the value (this means that the line will have a width of 10 Km in the real world).
• Expected result 4. The resulting view must look like this:

• Step 5. Unselect the visibility chechbox of the raster layer in the TOC to make it non-visible. Select the grid by clicking on it and choose the option 'View > Map Sheets > Configure layout...'. Set the dialog options like this and click 'OK':

• Expected result 5. A new layout will automatically be created, centered on the first sheet. Add a North symbol and remember to associated it to the main view before adding it:

• Step 6. Keep the focus on the new layout window and choose the option 'Map > Map Sheets > Print map sheets...'. In the new dialog you can click on the sheet names to make them active in the layout.

• Expected result 6. The view frame and the active fields must be updated as you click on the sheet names. Check that the orientation of the North symbol changes as you browse different sheets.
• Step 7. Set the dialog options as seen in the previous screenshot and click on 'Print as PDF'.
• Expected result 7. You will see a progress dialog and finally a message saying where the PDF files are stored in your PC:

Go to that folder and check that all the PDF files have been created. Print one of them, for example mapsheet_F_1.pdf:

Check the following: (a) The width of the red line on the paper is about 8 mm because 10 Km = 10,000,000 mm and 10,000,000 / 1,200,000 = 8.33. (b) The white parts of the raster layer must appear as light orange because the raster layer is semi-transparent and the view background was orange.

• Step 8. Save the project. Start a new project. Open the project you saved (this is to make sure that the project file is read again). In the project manager, choose the last document type called "Map (Map Sheets)" and double click on the available item to open it.
• Expected result 8. The layout will show with grey frames. Go to the menu option 'Map > Map Sheets > Associate...' and associate the existing grid to it. You are now in the same situation of step 6: