LESSON 3-1

INTRODUCTION TO 3-D

LESSON 3-2

ISOMETRIC DRAWING

LESSON 3-3

WORKING IN 3 DIMENSIONS

LESSON 3-4

VIEWING 3-D OBJECTS

LESSON 3-5

BASIC WIRE FRAME MODELS

LESSON 3-6

LINE THICKNESS

LESSON 3-7

REGIONS AND 3-D SURFACES

LESSON 3-7a

MORE ABOUT EXTRUDING & LOFTING

LESSON 3-8

REVOLVED OBJECTS

LESSON 3-9

ADDING MATERIALS

LESSON 3-10

PRIMITIVE SOLIDS

LESSON 3-11

BOOLEAN OPERATIONS

LESSON 3-12

THE USER CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM (UCS)

LESSON 3-13

MAPPING MATERIALS

LESSON 3-14

CREATING NEW MATERIALS

LESSON 3-15

EXTRA PROJECTS AND BONUS TUTORIAL

LESSON 3-16

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER - MODEL A BUILDING

LESSON 3-17

INTRODUCTION TO RENDERING AND LIGHTING

Notes about these lessons:

Most regular text is in burgundy on these pages. Anything you see on AutoCAD's command line is in blue Courier font. Important terms are usually highlighted in red and will also have hyper links attached. Whenever you see a icon, click on it for more information.

Topics covered in this Lesson:

Projects | BPoly Command

There is only one way to get better at AutoCAD and that is to practice. In 3D, you not only need to know the commands, but also how best to use them. As you start drawing in 3D, you may start looking at everyday objects and think about how they would be drawn. Look at the sample drawing page and think about how they were done - using only the commands shown in this level.

EXTRA PROJECT - A

If you have finished the previous exercises and would like more practice, try this:

Sketch out a simple coffee table on paper. Add the basic dimensions. Draw this in AutoCAD using any 3-D method. Once you've done this, draw another lamp and place it on the table. Use rotate3d if you need to turn it right-side up. Find a good view to display what you have drawn. Add materials.

EXTRA PROJECT - B

Take your file from Lesson 3-7 that gave you a solid model and use the fillet and chamfer commands to add some smoother corners to your chair.

EXTRA PROJECT - C

Draw the object that you draw in the isometric lesson in 3-D using extruded regions. You will have to first create the outline, then the circle. Turn both objects into regions. Subtract the circle from the outline to have one remaining region. Extrude this to get your solid object.

TUTORIAL - CREATING A 3D OBJECT FROM A 2D PROFILE

For this tutorial, you should be familiar with these commands: region, extrude, union, subtract.

This tutorial shows you a method for quickly turning 2D shapes into 3D objects. One of biggest problems with 2D objects is that they are not always drawn properly. This is something that should have been addressed when it was first drawn, but here is a way of working around it.

First lets start with a basic shape. This is the profile for a gasket. It is drawn in 2D with lines, arc and circles.

If it was well drawn, meaning no overlapping lines, gaps, etc. Here is how you do it. Start the REGION command. Draw a crossing window around the whole area and press enter. Once you have your regions created, you can extrude them. Start the EXTRUDE command and select all objects. Press enter and enter your extrusion height and taper angle. When these are extruded, begin your SUBTRACT command and first select the larger object first (to be subtracted from), press enter then select all the other objects and press enter. When you change to your SW Isometric view, type in HIDE (enter) and you should see the object as shown below.

Remember that you can always work in your SW Isometric view to see the progress of your 3D work.

There is one problem when using the REGION command. If have two lines that are overlapping, AutoCAD can not make a region out of the objects. You could search until find the offending line, but there is an easier way. Here's this approach:

Instead of using the region command, use the BPOLY command. This command works similar to the HATCH command in that it finds the boundaries for you. Start the command and you will see this dialog box come up:

Accept the defaults and press on the Pick Points< button. In your drawing screen, pick an internal point as if you were hatching it and then press enter.

Now start your EXTRUDE command and select the last (L) object created and extrude it. Now begin the SUBTRACT command and select the outside object, (press enter) then use a crossing box to select everything else and press enter. Use the HIDE command to ensure that everything is as it should be.