Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3-D
Boolean Commands that allow you to add, subtract or intersect solid objects in
operations AutoCAD.
Complex
surface
Elevation
Extrude
Face
Facet
A three or four sided polygon that represents a piece (or section) of a 3D surface.
Hidden line A way of hiding lines that would not be visible if you were viewing the
removal actual object you have drawn in AutoCAD. (Command: HIDE)
Isometric A simple way of achieving a '3-D' appearance using 2-D drawing
Drawing methods.
Plan View
Also known as the top view, a plan view looks directly down the WCS Zaxis to the X-Y axis.
Primitive
Region
have created.
Shading
Solid
Model
Surface
Model
Thickness
UCS
View
Viewport
A window into your drawing showing a particular view. You can have
several viewports on your screen. Different from the viewports used in
plotting.
Wireframe
Model
Z-Axis
You can see that it is a very simple drawing. This basic isometric drawing of the object gives a very good idea of what it looks like. If
this is all that is needed then isometric works well. Unfortunately, as soon as you change anything, like the block's height, you'll need
to redraw all four views.
AutoCAD has a command called ISOPLANE which allows you to easily draw at a 30 degree angle as needed for an isometric
drawing. You can switch between the three 'isoplanes' (top, right, left) by using this command or by pressing the F5 key.
Press OK and you'll see that the grid is set up for isometric drawing for the left isoplane in 1/2" increments. Your crosshairs are now
angled to show you which isoplane you are currently on and the Grid is laid out differently from what you may be used to..
Begin by drawing the left side of the box (shown at the top of the lesson) using the line command. Ignore the hole at this point. You
will want to use the Direct Distance Entry System for this exercise and make sure that you have Ortho (F8) and Osnaps (F3) turned
on.
Switch to your right isoplane (F5) and draw the right side.
Switch to your top isoplane (F5) and draw the top view.
Create the angle lines to add the angled surface.
Switch back to the left isoplane and start the ELLIPSE command. At the command prompt, press I for isocircle. This will allow you
to create an ellipse at the correct angle based on the radius of the circle in the orthographic drawing. Use the Osnap to pick the
correct center point.
Save your drawing in your CAD folder.
To dimension an isometric drawing, you have to do a few things first. Create a text style called Left, and give it a 30 o obliquing angle,
then create another called right with a -30o obliquing angle. Then create a new dimension style that has the text aligned with the
dimension line. After you have placed a dimension, use the DIMEDIT command to change the obliquing angle of the dimension + or
- 30 degrees. You may also need to use the properties to change the text in the dimension to left or right depending upon the
orientation of the dimension.
Keep in mind that this is still only 2D. Remember that in some instances, it may be quicker and easier to use this method rather than
the more complex 3-D methods you'll be learning in the following lessons.
from the plan (top) view, this is what you see to figure out where is positive X and positive Y.
If you were to look at the same picture, but at a slight angle, you would see the third axis. This new axis is called the Z-axis. Imagine
that the positive Z-axis is coming towards you out of the monitor.
The Z-axis has always been there, lurking in the background, waiting for you.
When you entered points previously, you would enter them in the format: X,Y. By doing this, you let AutoCAD know that in these
cases, Z was equal to zero. Entering 4,3 would be the same as entering 4,3,0. Now if you drew a line from the origin (0,0,0)
to a point at 4,3,2, you would get a line that goes 4 inches to the right, 3 inches up and 2 inches towards you. The properties of this
line would be this:
Notice that the line is actually 5.3852" long. If you were to look at it from the plan view, it would look exactly like a line drawn
from0,0 to 4,3 Draw a line from 0,0 to 4,3 and then compare the properties.
The diagrams below, show this line from 4 different views to illustrate how things can look different in 3D. Look at each one carefully,
and see if it makes sense to you.
What the above images show you is that you will have to get used to looking at a 3D world on a 2D monitor. In each image, the black
line looks flat, but you have to use your reference points to determine where it truly is. If you don't understand this perfectly right now,
don't worry. It's just an exercise to expose you to 3D viewing. As the lessons progress, you will get much more familiar to this.
Why is this important to look at before entering the world of 3-D? If you were to only look at a 3-D model from the plan (top) view,
you would not be able to see any difference between the two lines. (Draw them and see for yourself) On a 3-D model, you can easily
have many points over top of each other. This would be very difficult to work with. You may think you're snapping to a particular
endpoint, but the reality of it could be very different (think of how the top of the wall looks the same as the bottom of the wall if you're
looking straight down it). Fortunately, AutoCAD provides different viewing options for 3-D drafting. This will be discussed in a later
lesson, but for now, if you want to see your 2 lines in a view similar the Z-Axis image above, go to your menu called View > 3D Views
> SW Isometric. You'll see the lines that look identical in the top view, look very different when viewed from an angle.
3D Rotation
Now for the confusing part. You already know how to rotate 2D objects, but you also have to know how AutoCAD measures angles of
rotation in 3-D. There is a somewhat simple rule for this called "The Right Hand Rule". To figure out which is the positive rotation
angle, imagine that you are wrapping your right hand around the axis with your thumb pointing towards the positive end. The direction
that your fingers are wrapped is the positive direction. This applies to all three axes.