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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
AutoCAD is a computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. AutoCAD supports both 2D and 3D formats. AutoCAD is used in a range of industries and is utilized by architects, project managers, and engineers, among others."Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design" will take you beyond the 2D frontier and help you create accurate 3D models that simulate reality. This book is crammed full of creative and practical tutorials which will help you master the third dimension. From exercises on coordinate systems to creating solids and surfaces from 2D, you will wonder how you ever designed without this resource by your side."Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design" is full of hands-on studies and projects that will help develop your 3D skills. Starting from the assumption of only a very basic knowledge of AutoCAD, this book will help you master 3D visualization and coordinate systems, create 3D models from 2D drawings, and from basic shapes, measure volumes, and other information, obtain 2D construction drawings from 3D models as well as how to apply lights and materials to get photorealistic images.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
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First published: April 2013
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Cover Image by João Santos (<[email protected]>)
Credits
Author
João Santos
Reviewers
Décio Ferreira
Filipe Vila Francisco
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About the Author
João Santos is the manager and main instructor at QualiCAD (www.qualicad.com), one of the most important Portuguese ATCs (Authorized Training Centers), based in Lisbon. With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he has been teaching AutoCAD for more than 25 years now and is an ATC coordinator for almost 20 years. He is an AutoCAD 2013 and 3ds Max 2013 Certified Professional User and Instructor. He is also the Portuguese instructor in these technologies with more students. He is the author and co-author of more than 40 AutoCAD and 3ds Max books, all written in Portuguese.
First I would like to thank my family for all the support and guidance. Not less important are all my students, friends, readers, and colleagues for continuous questions, feedback, suggestions, and basically, shaping my career. Special thanks to friends and experts Décio Ferreira and Pedro Aroso for development ideas and 3D models. And I would also like to express my gratitude to the entire team at Packt Publishing for this opportunity and collaboration.
About the Reviewers
Décio Ferreira is an architect, actually working on PFarquitectos, and began working with Autodesk software early. He started his career as an architect using AutoCAD ® R12 and in 2000 began working with three-dimensional tools, such as ADT 2.0 and 3.0 3DS Viz. He adopted Autodesk ® Revit ® Architecture as his main working tool quite early. He is a Certified Instructor (41,920 Approved Instructor) by ATC and ACC, EdiCad Computação Gráfica e Imagem Lda, Portugal. Also, he is part of the technical team CPCis (VAR) as Post Sales Engineer. He is a certified professional in Revit Architecture 2011, 2012, and 2013 and AutoCAD 2011, 2012, and 2013, and has several hours of experience in training, consulting, and implementation of Revit technologies in several Portuguese offices. He is also the moderator of the forum Revitpt (http://www.revitpt.com/) and Revit developer blog in Portugal (http://revit-pt.blogspot.pt/).
Filipe Vila Francisco is a Senior CAD Designer and Certified Instructor. He has been working with AutoCAD since Version 12 and has over 15 years of using Autodesk software.
He is also an expert in AutoCAD and an AutoCAD Certified Associate and Professional since 2008. He is the author of the blog, CAD4MAC and has several blogs about AutoCAD and AutoCAD VBA.
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Preface
Autodesk AutoCAD is, by far, the most used CAD software all around the world. In 2D it includes a large number of commands and functions, which makes it virtually unbeatable for many years. With continuous hardware development, together with new software capabilities, 3D became a viable and accessible technology to all. It is much better to simulate the real world with 3D models than to apply 2D drawings.
3D modeling has countless advantages: real-world simulation, greater accuracy, cheaper models, easy creation of related 2D drawings, calculation of volume and other properties, detection of interferences, model transfer to 3D printers or CAM/CNC devices, realistic visualization with light and materials application, sun studies, material selection, and easier comparison between solutions.
With Version 2007, AutoCAD became a reliable software for 3D modeling in all technical areas, such as architecture, engineering, construction, roads, urban studies, landscaping, and scenarios. Rendering and realistic results were quite improved in Version 2011, with the introduction of Autodesk Materials and the inclusion of more than 700 excellent-looking and ready-to-apply materials, as demonstrated on the cover of this book.
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 3D Drafting and Design allows you to break the 2D frontier and create accurate 3D models that simulate reality. With the addition of lights and materials, simulation is taken to the level of photorealism. Including several explained exercises, this book is an easy learning tool and also a reference manual for daily consultation.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to 3D Design, includes an introduction to 3D and the importance of the third coordinate. Also included are AutoCAD environment control, general object properties, auxiliary tools, 2D commands application, 3D linear commands, and good practices when modeling in 3D.
Chapter 2, Visualizing 3D Models, walks us through a fundamental aspect in 3D, which is visualization. This chapter includes not only zooming, panning, and orbiting, but also returning to specific visualizations, seeing the model as wireframe, shaded, or other visual styles, walking inside the model and dividing the drawing area into viewports.
Chapter 3, Coordinate Systems, includes the creation of other working planes called coordinate systems, imperative for correct 3D modeling.
Chapter 4, Creating Solids and Surfaces from 2D, walks us through the commands that allow for the creation of solids or surfaces from linear or planar objects.
Chapter 5, 3D Primitives and Conversions, includes the remaining commands to create 3D solids and 3D surfaces without previous objects and conversion commands.
Chapter 6, Editing in 3D, acquaints us with the editing commands specific for 3D operations that can be applied to any object.
Chapter 7, Editing Solids and Surfaces, presents all the main commands for combining solids and editing solids and surfaces. Among other useful commands, we can unite, subtract, intersect, and cut 3D objects, as well as apply fillets and chamfers to the object's edges.
Chapter 8, Inquiring the 3D Model, explains how to measure distances and volumes and obtain point coordinates. In 3D it is also important to detect interferences and obtain geometric properties of solids.
Chapter 9, Documenting a 3D Mode, provides guidelines for creating construction or fabrication drawings after frequently creating 3D models. In this chapter we present how to define a layout and then the most important commands and procedures to obtain automatic 2D drawings from 3D models.
Chapter 10, Rendering and Illumination, discusses that after creating a 3D model, it is time to present it as a virtual prototype or how it will look when built or fabricated. In this chapter we present the rendering process and all related commands, as well as simulating natural and artificial lighting.
Chapter 11, Materials and Effects, completes the render subject with materials and effects. As important as lighting a 3D scene, this chapter walks us through the application of realistic materials that resemble materials of the real world. AutoCAD also allows specifying scene backgrounds and applying fog effect.
Chapter 12, Meshes and Surfaces, is about all types of surfaces and meshes, including procedural surfaces, NURBS surfaces, meshes and polyface meshes.
Appendix, Final Considerations, includes creating simple animations representing walkthroughs or see-around, import and export file formats, advices for exporting from AutoCAD to 3ds Max and Revit, and development clues for 3D modelers.
What you need for this book
To correctly follow this book and realize all exercises, we need to have AutoCAD software, preferably the last version (2013 or later). Most of the book is also useful for other AutoCAD users since Version 2007; further improvements are specified along the book. Readers must also download exercise files from the book's webpage.
Who this book is for
This book is intended for everyone who wants to create accurate 3D models in AutoCAD, such as architects, engineers, or design professionals and students. Only some basic understanding of 2D AutoCAD is needed.
Conventions
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Code words in text are shown as follows: "We may add this list to the Quick Access Toolbar by applying the CUI command or by right-clicking above the command icon we want to add."
A block of code is set as follows:
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "To change it, we only have to click on the OSNAP button or press F3".
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Chapter 1. Introduction to 3D Design
Welcome to the fantastic world of 3D! AutoCAD is an excellent software for creating 2D projects in all technical areas, but instead of 2D representation, isn't it much better if we could create accurate 3D models, view them from all perspectives (even from inside), and get 2D drawings easily? With AutoCAD we can!
The topics covered in this chapter are as follows:
The Z coordinate
3D is all about the third Z coordinate. In 2D, we only care for the X and Y axes, but never used the Z axis. And most of the time, we don't even use coordinates, just the top-twenty AutoCAD commands, the Ortho tool, and so on. But in 3D, the correct use of coordinates can substantially accelerate our work. We will first briefly cover how to introduce points by coordinates and how to extrapolate to the third dimension.
Absolute coordinates
The location of all entities in AutoCAD is related to a coordinate system. Any coordinate system is characterized by an origin and positive directions for the X and Y axes. The Z axis is obtained directly from the X and Y axes by the right-hand rule: if we rotate the right hand from the X axis to the Y axis, the thumb indicates the positive Z direction.
Picture that when prompting for a point; besides specifying it in the drawing area with a pointing device such as a mouse, we can enter coordinates using the keyboard.
The format for the absolute Cartesian coordinates related to the origin is defined by the values of the three orthogonal coordinates, namely, X, Y, and Z, separated by commas:
X coordinate, Y coordinate, Z coordinate
The Z coordinate can be omitted.
For instance, if we define a point with the absolute coordinates 30, 20, and 10, this means 30 absolute is in the X direction, 20 is in the Y direction, and 10 is in the Z direction.
Relative coordinates
Frequently, we want to specify a point in the coordinates, but one that is related to the previous point. The format for the relative Cartesian coordinates is defined by the symbol AT (@), followed by increment values in the three directions, separated by commas:
@X increment, Y increment, Z increment
Of course, one or more increments can be 0. The Z increment can be omitted.
For instance, if we define a point with relative coordinates, @0,20,10, this means in relation to the previous point, 0 is in X, 20 is in Y, and 10 is in Z directions.
Point filters
When we want to specify a point but decompose it step-by-step, that is, separate its coordinates based on different locations, we may use filters. When prompting for a point, we access filters by digitizing the X, Y, or Z axes for individual coordinates, or XY, YZ, or ZX for pairs of coordinates. Another way is from the osnap menu, CTRL + mouse right-click, and then Point Filters. AutoCAD requests for the remaining coordinates until the completion of point definition.
Imagine that we want to specify a point, for instance, the center of a circle, where its X coordinate is given by the midpoint of an edge, its y coordinate is the midpoint of another edge, and finally its Z coordinate is any point on a top face. Assuming that Midpoint osnap is predefined, the dialog should be:
Workspaces
AutoCAD comes with several workspaces. It's up to each of us to choose a workspace based on a classic environment or the ribbon. To change workspaces, we can pick the workspace switching button on the status bar:
There are other processes for acceding this command such as the workspaces list on the Quick Access Toolbar (title bar), the Workspaces toolbar, or by digitizing WSCURRENT, but the access shown is consistent among all versions and always available.
Classic environment
The classic environment is based on the toolbars and the menu bar and doesn't use the ribbon. AutoCAD comes with AutoCAD Classic workspace, but it's very simple to adapt and view the suitable toolbars for 3D.
The advantages of using this environment are speed and consistency. To show another toolbar, we right-click over any toolbar and choose it. Typically, we want to have the following toolbars visible besides Standard and Layers: Layers II, Modeling, Solid Editing, and Render:
Ribbon environment
Since the 2009 version, AutoCAD also allows for a ribbon-based environment. Normally, this environment uses neither toolbars nor the menu bar. AutoCAD comes with two ribbon workspaces, namely, 3D Basics and 3D Modeling; the first being less useful than the second.
The advantages are that we have consistency with other software, commands are divided into panels and tabs, the ribbon can be collapsed to a single line, and it includes some commands not available on the toolbars. The disadvantage is that as it's a dynamic environment, we frequently have to activate other panels to access commands and some important commands and functions are not always visible:
Note
When modeling in 3D, the layers list visibility is almost mandatory. We may add this list to the Quick Access Toolbar by applying the CUI command or by right-clicking above the command icon we want to add. Another way is to pull the Layers panel to the drawing area, thus making it permanently visible.
Layers, transparency, and other properties
When we are modeling in AutoCAD, the ability to control object properties is essential. After some hours spent on a new 3D model, we can have hundreds of objects that overlap and obscure the model's visibility. Here are the most important properties.
Layers
If a correct layers application is fundamental in 2D, in 3D it assumes extreme importance. Each type of 3D object should be in a proper layer, thus allowing us to control its properties:
Last but not least, the best and the easiest process to assign rendering materials to objects is by layer, so another good point is to apply a correct and detailed layer scheme.
Transparency
Transparency, as a property for layers or for objects, has been available since Version 2011. Besides its utility for layers, it can also be applied directly to objects. For instance, we may have a layer called 3D-SLAB and just want to see through the upper slab. We can change the objects' transparency with PROPERTIES (Ctrl + 1).
To see transparencies in the drawing area, the TPY button (on the status bar) must be on.
Visibility
Another recent improvement in AutoCAD is the ability to hide or to isolate objects without changing layer properties.
We select the objects to hide or to isolate (all objects not selected are hidden) and right-click on them. On the cursor menu, we choose Isolate and then:
There is a small lamp icon on the status bar, the second icon from the right. If the lamp is red, it means that there are hidden objects; if it is yellow, all objects are visible:
Shown on the following image is the application of transparency and hide objects to the left wall and the upper slab:
Application of 2D commands
Can those everyday commands be used in 3D? Of course they can! We have already seen the LINE command, layers, and other properties. Let's see some particularities and 3D applications and learn that a whole bunch of known commands can also be applied.
Drawing commands
Basically, all drawing commands can be used in 3D, provided that we have the correct working plane, LINE being the exception.
The LINE command can have its endpoints anywhere, so it's a real 3D command. But circles, arcs, and polylines (including polygons and rectangles) are drawn on the working plane (called active coordinate system) or a plane parallel to the working plane.
Editing commands
Here is the list of the most important editing commands that work the same way in 2D or 3D: ERASE, MOVE, COPY, SCALE, JOIN, EXPLODE, and BREAK.
Some commands work only on the objects plane, not necessary the active working plane. Examples are FILLET, CHAMFER, and OFFSET.
There are also some that work only in relation to the active working plane such as MIRROR, ARRAYCLASSIC (ARRAY before version 2012), and ROTATE.
Next are editing commands that have special 3D features:
Other entities and commands
No one can use AutoCAD without inquiring for information from time-to-time. The DIST command allows you to obtain the 3D distance, and also increments in X, Y, and Z directions, between two points. Another important command is ID (or from the Tools menu bar, Inquiry | ID Point), for inquiring about the absolute coordinates of points.
Blocks work exactly the same way in 2D or 3D. When inserting a block with non-uniform scale, we can specify a different scale for the Z direction.
Regions are 2D opaque closed objects that are frequently used in 3D. Besides 3D, they can be very useful for extracting areas, inertia moments, and other geometric properties.
To create regions, we must have their contours already drawn. Contours can be lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, elliptical arcs, and splines. In 2D, regions are created with two commands:
Exercise 1.2
We are going to create some 2D objects and from them, some regions.
Linear 3D entities
We can apply thickness to most linear 2D entities and also create linear 3D entities like 3D polylines and splines.
Thickness
Almost all linear entities that we know from 2D have a property called Thickness, whose value represents a height along the Z axis (a better word actually should be height). This is the only 3D feature available in AutoCAD LT and can be applied to text (if made with a text style that uses an SHX font), but beyond that is quite limited.
The best way to change the value of thickness is with the PROPERTIES command, Ctrl + 1. A line is still a line or a text still text, but with a proper visualization, these entities can transmit a 3D feeling:
3D polylines
Polylines created with the PLINE command are 2D, not allowing for vertices with different Z coordinates. These polylines are designed by lightweight polylines. But what if a single object is needed to be composed by segments whose endpoints have different Z coordinates?
The answer is to create 3D polylines. Three processes are available:
Note
Starting with version 2012, the best way to apply the JOIN command is to select all the line segments at the first command prompt, without specifying a source object. Depending on the type of selected objects and their positions, the most suitable object is automatically created.
And in what situations may we have utility for 3D polylines?
3D polylines are particularly useful to measure objects that develop in different directions, such as piping or wiring, and to define paths for other 3D objects such as piping. The creation of 3D solids and surfaces from linear objects is the subject of Chapter 4, Creating Solids and Surfaces from 2D.
Splines and helixes
Splines are smooth linear objects, normally without corners that pass through or near specified points. Spline is short for Nonuniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS). Splines are described by a set of parametric mathematical equations, but have no fear, for AutoCAD will internally deal with this, we will not have to!
Splines are used whenever we need smooth curves and are also the foundation for NURBS surfaces, the most used surfaces in the automotive or aeronautic projects.
To create a spline we apply the (guess?) SPLINE command (alias SPL). By default, the command only prompts for the location of fit points, and the spline passes through the specified points. An Enter finishes the spline and the Close option creates a closed spline.
We can control splines by two sets of vertices:
When selected, the small blue triangle allows switching between Fit points and Control vertices. To edit a spline is very simple: we select it, without command, and work with grips. We can either click a grip and move it, or we can place the cursor over a grip and on the grip menu choose to move the vertex, add one, or remove that vertex. This last process is known as multifunctional grip.
Note
Since AutoCAD 2012, the JOIN command is also a great tool for the creation of complex splines. We may have a contiguous and non-planar sequence of lines, arcs, elliptical arcs, splines that the result is a single spline.
With the HELIX command we can create 2D or 3D helixes or spirals. By default, the command prompts for the center point of the base, base radius, top radius, and height. As options, we have the position of the axis endpoint, the number of turns, the height of one complete turn, and the twist (if the helix is drawn in the clockwise or the counterclockwise direction). To edit a helix object, we can use grips or the PROPERTIES command.
If we explode a helix object, the result is a spline. The BLEND command, new in Version 2012, creates a special spline that connects two open linear objects. The command only prompts for the selection of the first curve and the selection of the second curve. Selections must be near the endpoints to connect. The Continuity option allows for the choice of the applied type of continuity: Tangent with a tangency continuity (known as G1 continuity), or Smooth with a curvature continuity (known as G2).
How to create great 3D models
There are several possibilities for starting a 3D project. We may:
For any of these possibilities, the keyword is planning.
First, we have to carefully plan the work. Instead of immediately starting to model, it's better and less time-consuming to decide a draft sequence of tasks.
Some important questions at this phase:
