Search

This chapter introduces legacy surfaces, such as planar surface, region, rulesurf, tabsurf, revsurf, edgesurf, 3Dface, and 3Dmesh. It continues on to more recently introduced tools, such as smooth mesh primitives, mesh smoothing, face move and rotate, collapse face or edge, convert solid to surface, and section planes.

This chapter continues where the previous one left off and introduces more advanced 3D design tools (polysolid, helix, 3D path array, and working with faces and edges).

This chapter focuses on basic printing and output. The discussion includes printers, plotters, paper sizes, areas to plot, pen settings, orientation, and offset. The Plot dialog box and the Page Setup Manager are both introduced and discussed.

Publisher Summary Advanced solid modeling tools make up curved design. While these tools are not necessarily more difficult to master, they do open up a new range of modeling possibilities, including some rather complex 3D designs. This chapter introduces revolve, shell, taper, loft, path extrusion, and sweep. Revolve easily creates complex revolved shapes based on the concept of solid or surface of revolution, and this command has no other equivalent in AutoCAD. Shell is one of several AutoCAD 3D commands “borrowed” from engineering solid modeling software due to their usefulness. The command creates a “shell” of a predetermined thickness out of a solid object. Loft is a recent addition to the AutoCAD toolbox, added along with many other 3D enhancements in AutoCAD 2007. Path extrusion and sweep, which follow next, are commands with a similar mission but different approaches. Path extrusion is the older command and still quite useful in certain situations, while the newer sweep just expands and simplifies the same idea.

Publisher Summary This chapter explains how AutoCAD interacts with other software users are likely to use in the course of design work. AutoCAD and the designers who use it usually do not work in a “software vacuum.” They typically interact with not only AutoCAD, but a number of other applications, some of them generic and used by many other professions, others unique to their own field. Insertion of Word into AutoCAD is required when users want to bring in extensive typed construction notes onto one of the pages of the AutoCAD layout. For this, users need to drag to highlight the text in Word first and right-click to copy to the clipboard. Insertion of AutoCAD into Word is required when users are preparing a report and would like to include some of the graphics spread out among the text to enhance clarity or support documentation. Once inserted, some cropping is necessary to get rid of excess white space. Screen shots or screen captures refer to capturing a snapshot of everything on a computer screen as seen by the users, and sent to memory, to be inserted somewhere.

This chapter describes the concept of Paper Space. Covered are the primary reasons for using Paper Space, how to get in and out of paper space and how to set up title blocks (layouts), viewports and their properties, viewport scale assignments, controlling what is visible in viewports, setting up text and dim styles in viewports, and the annotative concept.

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces the concept of advanced output, which includes the concept of the ctb pen settings file. Most designs are rather complex when everything has been added to the drawing. Lines cross other lines and text is everywhere. The eye needs to be able to quickly and easily focus on what is essential, for example, the outlines of the walls of a floor plan or the outline of the mechanical part among the many other elements in the design. The thing users need to determine before anything gets touched in AutoCAD is what colors will be used to represent the most important geometry. The ctb file is the file that needs to be modified to set the pen settings. It is where users assign pen thickness to a color and where they spend their time for the remainder of the chapter. When users select all the colors and turn them to black, they could leave a few out. These colors would then have been plotted in color.

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces the concept of layers in AutoCAD, explaining how to use them, create and delete them, as well as how to assign layer colors. Layers is a concept that allows users to group drawn geometry in distinct and separate categories according to similar features or a common theme. This allows them to exercise control over their drawing by, among other things, applying properties to the layers, such as assigning colors and line-types. The Layers Properties Manager is AutoCAD's Layers dialog box, where everything important related to layers happens. The current layer is the active layer on which users can draw at any given moment. They are always on some layer even if they are not immediately sure which one exactly. So, logically, if they are about to draw a wall, they should be on the A-Walls layer and so on. To assign colors, users need to highlight layer A-Walls in the Layers dialog box by clicking once. Now, users need to follow the blue ribbon across until they see a box with the word white next to it.

This chapter introduces advanced Dview options, working with cameras, Walk and Fly navigation, path animation, and action recording.

This chapter elaborates further on the UCS tool first seen in Chapter 21 . Advanced UCS techniques are discussed as well as other advanced view tools such as Vports. Text and Dimensioning in 3D is also touched upon. This chapter features and advanced modeling project of a racing car suspension.

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces boundary hatch in AutoCAD, discussing hatch fundamentals, how to adjust scale and orientation, work with hatch patterns, and pick patterns. This is simply a tool for creating patterns and adding fills to users' design. They serve an important function of indicating types of materials, ground and floor coverings, and cross sections. It is easier for a beginner to visualize hatch concepts via this method. It was also the only way to access hatch up until AutoCAD 2011, good to know if they are using an older version of AutoCAD. With AutoCAD, creating these patterns is easy, as they are all pre-drawn and saved in a library that is called up anytime you use the command. Often a designer can purchase or download additional patterns, if the basic ones are inadequate. There are two ways to indicate where to put the pattern, either by directly picking the object that will contain the pattern or by picking a point inside that object. Which method to use is easy to determine.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an understanding of the basic primitive shapes and ways to apply them in design work as necessary. Primitives are ready-to-go shapes built into AutoCAD. The available primitives are box, wedge, cone, sphere, cylinder, torus, and pyramid. There are four ways to access these tools: typing in the desired primitive and pressing Enter; cascading menus under Draw→Modeling; using the Modeling toolbar; and using the Ribbon; Solid tab. It is best to have the Conceptual Visual Style shading turned on, as the shapes become clearer, as well as staying in the 3D SW Isometric View, to get the full effect. Furthermore, this chapter discusses the use of primitives in real-life applications.