516 Part V: On a 3D Spree

that can take your computer 3D model and produce a real-world object. They were originally developed with mechanical designs in mind, but architectural designers are also using them to print scale models of their buildings. More recently, the scale factor for printing buildings has become 1:1. That’s right: Full-scale concrete houses are being 3D printed straight from the computer model! At the end of the day, however, the real world still needs (or at least wants) 2D drawings.

Going the other way, or at least going even farther in the 2D world, relatively low-cost computers and powerful software make it possible for designers to produce photo-realistic images of their 3D models. Clients and customers can see the product before it’s real.

We start this chapter by showing you how to generate 2D drawings from 3D models, and then go on to discussing rendering.

Get the 2D Out of Here!

Would you believe that it took less than five minutes to produce Figure 23-1?

Figure 23-1: A drawing in less than five minutes!

Okay, we cheated a little bit. It took about an hour to produce the 3D model first, but the 2D views were produced almost instantly. The rest of the five minutes was spent adding the dimensions. The clock is running. . . .

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Chapter 23: On a Render Bender 517

1.Switch AutoCAD to the 3D Modeling workspace.

Select it from the drop-down list at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar in the upper-right corner of the screen.

2.Set up a 3D model.

Create a new model by using the techniques we discuss in Chapters 21 and 22, or open an existing file that contains a 3D model.

You can find the files we use in this sequence of steps at this book’s companion website. Go to www.dummies.com/go/autocad2013fd and download afd23.zip. The drawing named afd23a.dwg contains the model we use in the following steps.

3.Switch to paper space.

Click the Layout 1 tab near the lower left of the screen.

4.Delete the existing viewport by clicking the viewport object (the frame of the viewport) and then pressing Delete.

By default, new drawings created from a standard template file contain a single viewport. If you’re going to be creating new drawings like this quite a bit, we suggest that you set up a template file with the viewport already deleted. We cover templates in Chapter 4.

5.Start the VIEWBASE command.

Click the Base button from the Create View panel of the Layout tab of the Ribbon and then choose From Model Space from the drop-down list.

The VIEWBASE command creates several new layers. By default, they are the opposite of the screen color, black or white, but they always print black. You can change these layers to any color you want.

6.Position the base view.

AutoCAD automatically selects what it thinks is an appropriate scale, assuming that you’ll be placing the standard three orthographic views and one pictorial view. However, this can be changed. Select a suitable place in the lower-left quadrant of the layout sheet.

7.Define the base view.

The Drawing View Creation contextual tab appears on the Ribbon as shown in Figure 23-2, a drop-down list of view options appears at your cursor, and an option list appears in the command window.

Figure 23-2: The Drawing View Creation context tab of the Ribbon.

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518 Part V: On a 3D Spree

Using any one of the three selection methods — Ribbon, cursor, or command window — set up the base view as follows:

•Orientation: The view shows what appears to be the bottom view of the part because AutoCAD defines top, bottom, and so on relative to the world X, Y coordinates. Select Orientation and the Top to get the view you want.

•Hidden lines: The preview image in paper space always displays in shaded mode no matter what the visual style of the model shows in model space. You want Hidden Lines to be Visible and Hidden. The view won’t change yet, but don’t worry, it will.

•Scale: This has defaulted to 1:4, which is suitable for our purposes.

•Visibility, or Edge Visibility: This specifies how to display edges that are formed where tangent surfaces meet. Normal practice is often to not display them, but this can sometimes cause features to disappear or partially disappear. If you do change this setting, we recommend that you do so from the Edge Visibility button of the Appearance panel of the Ribbon because if you hover your cursor over this button and pause for a few seconds, it produces a much more extensive tooltip list that explains each option in more detail.

•Move: Specify a new location for the view before it is finally created. This isn’t such a big deal, though, because views can always be easily moved later.

Exit (or press Enter)

Any of these view specifications can be edited later on a view-by- view basis.

Hey, what happened? The command didn’t end!

8.Place the other drawing views.

When you finish placing and defining the base view, AutoCAD automatically shifts into running the VIEWPROJ command. All you need is three quick clicks to place the top, isometric, and right-side views, and then press Enter to have AutoCAD generate the views.

9.Edit the isometric view.

Isometric views don’t normally show hidden lines. Double-click anywhere within the isometric view to bring up the Drawing View Editor tab of the Ribbon, as shown in Figure 23-3.

Click Hidden Lines on the Appearance tab and then choose Shaded with Visible Lines from the drop-down list.

If a Ribbon button has a drop-down list, the Ribbon displays the last button that was used. There may be any one of four different buttons in this particular location.

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Chapter 23: On a Render Bender 519

Figure 23-3: The Drawing View Editor context tab of the Ribbon.

10.Stop the clock.

Not bad. Figure 23-4 shows three ortho views and a shaded isomeric view that were created in 37.6 seconds.

Figure 23-4: Average creation time was 9.4 seconds per view.

11.Add annotations.

Add dimensions and text notes in the paper space layout. Dimensions are associative to their matching geometry if you use object snaps to the geometry when you place them. We cover text in Chapter 13, dimensions in Chapter 14, and object snaps in Chapter 7. While you’re at it, perhaps use VIEWDETAIL to create a detail view at a different scale.

12.Go home, gloat, and come back in three days.

When you submit your drawing, shown in Figure 23-1, to your boss, she will be impressed that you managed to create such a complex drawing, including the shaded isometric view, in only three days.

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