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Documenting 3D Models: Part 4

When we left off last time, we’d just finished creating three projected views from a base 2D view of 3D model space geometry.

So far, so good. But let’s take this to the next level, and modify some individual views.

When I select the isometric view, I get 2 grips and a contextual ribbon tab.

The two grips are pretty straightforward. The square one enables you to move the view, while the arrow grip enables you to change its scale.

Notice that the default scale is “From parent”, so if you change the scale of the main view, this one will change too. If I set this to a different scale, it will stay the same size even if the parent scale changes.

On the contextual tab, there’s a panel for creating new views—projected (which we’ve already covered), and section and details (which we’ll cover later). You can also manually update the view, if its source geometry is modified.

Edit View brings up yet another contextual tab.

Note that it looks a lot like the Drawing View Creation tab, with many of the same tools. The special icon above Hidden Lines indicates that the view style is controlled by the parent view.

I’ll change this isometric view to Visible Lines, 1/16” scale, and move it to be more in line with the other views:

One last note about grip-editing projected views before we wrap up for today.

By default, projected orthogonal views are constrained to align with their parent view. This makes sense, as this kind of alignment is generally good drafting practice.

But if for some reason you need to break the alignment (maybe your views won’t fit on the sheet without it), it’s easy.

Just press Shift after you’ve made the Move grip active to switch to free motion, and press it again to switch back to normal alignments.

This only applies to orthogonal views (top, bottom, left, right, etc.); since isometric views don’t have axes to align to, you can always move them freely.

See you next time!

Documenting 3D Models: Part 3

In Part 2, I showed you how to create a base 2D view of a 3D model. Now it’s time to add extra views.

After you press Enter to accept the placement of your base view, you’re immediately put into projected view mode. As you move your cursor around the drawing, you see previews of the different views that will be created if you click.

      

In the image below, I clicked 3 times to create left, top, and isometric views, then pressed Enter.

Notice that the preview was shaded, to help identify views, but the end result is the “hidden line” style as I had selected in the previous post.

Each view is a single object, as you can see when I hover over it:

Here, the “Type” is Projected, because this view was generated from another view. The view is aligned, meaning that if I want to move it, I can only move it along the imaginary vertical line that connects it to its parent view. The visual style and scale from this view are inherited from the base, so if I change the base (front) style or scale, this projected view would change also.

And if I wanted to change any of that? That’ll be our topic next time.

Documenting 3D Models: Part 2

In the first post in this series, I showed you the various places you can get 3D content from which to create 2D views in AutoCAD. Now it’s on to what happens after you’ve selected your content.

I mentioned the Drawing View Creation tab last time, in relation to using Model Space Selection to choose only part of your model space contents to document:

But once you’ve got that—whether it’s some of model space, all of model space, or Inventor content—it’s time to move to the rest of the tab.

In the Orientation panel, you can choose your initial view. AutoCAD uses Front by default, but you can choose any of the standard orthogonal or isometric views instead.

Appearance controls—what else?—how your base view will look. You have four choices when it comes to shading and hidden lines: Only visible lines, visible and hidden lines (shown as dashed), shaded with visible lines, and shaded with visible and hidden lines.

You can also choose an appropriate scale, and turn on interference and tangent edges if you need to see them.

Once you’ve set these, click in the drawing to place the base view. You instantly get a preview of the view, complete with contextual menu, and the Move and OK buttons (grayed out above) become active.

This gives you the option to make adjustments to your view before you click OK or eXit. (In this case, “OK” and “eXit” both finish your view placement—use Esc or Cancel to get out of the command completely.)

As soon as you finish placing your base view, you get to immediately create projected views from your base view…but that’ll be our next topic.

Documenting 3D Models: Part 1

This is the first post in a multi-part series on creating 2D views of 3D models in AutoCAD 2013.

As more and more people create complex 3D models in AutoCAD, more and more people wish creating real things from those models was as easy as snapping your fingers. We may be getting close with 3D printing, but in the meantime, most of us still have to create 2D drawings of those 3D models before the designs can be built or fabricated.

AutoCAD 2013 makes this process easier than ever with the new & improved tools on the new Layout tab.

(You can see, from the number of tools on this tab, why this will be a multi-part series.)

The first two panels, Layout and Layout Viewports, contain tools you’re already familiar with, for creating and modifying layouts, page setups, and layout viewports.

Let’s move on, then, to the third panel: Create View.

Today’s topic is where to get the 3D geometry that will be the source for your 2D views. In AutoCAD 2013, you have a choice: AutoCAD or Inventor.

If you choose “From Inventor”, your base view will be created from an Inventor assembly, part, or presentation. In this dialog, you have options for the Design View, Positional Representation, and Level of Detail, which you can set before you click Open.

Creating a base view from an Inventor file creates a link between the DWG and IAM/IPT/IPN files, rather than importing the model. This means that when changes are made to the source model, your base view will update.

You can also choose “From Model Space”, if your 3D model already exists in your AutoCAD file.

By default, AutoCAD grabs everything in model space to create the base view. If you’d rather be more particular, you can use the “Model Space Selection” feature on the Drawing View Creation contextual tab.

This temporarily pops you in to model space, where you can add and remove objects from your selection with the standard A and R shortcuts.

When you’re finished refining your selection, you can return to the layout.

The above is what happens if you choose "From Model Space" when you're already in a layout. If you start in model space, you're immediately taken to object selection mode. After you select your objects (or press Enter to use the whole drawing), you're asked to specify a layout on which to create the view. From there, all the steps are the same.

In the next post, we’ll cover the rest of the Drawing View Creation tab—stay tuned!

Updated Command Line for AutoCAD 2013

Have you ever counted how many ways there are to access commands in AutoCAD? I count seven: the ribbon, grips, right-click menus, the command line, tool palettes, menus, and toolbars. (Did I miss any?)

Of all those methods, the command line has been around the longest, so it’s probably the most deserving of an update.

This new & improved version now floats transparently in your drawing window, freeing up a few extra pixels of real estate.

But just because you only see one line now, that doesn’t mean that’s all you get. As soon as you start entering commands, a scrolling history appears above the command line. And this is where it really gets interesting. You won’t believe the number of new things there are to talk about just in this screenshot.

At the very left are the drag bar and the close button. Reposition the bar anywhere on your screen, or even dock it back at the bottom where it used to be.

Next up is the wrench icon for Settings, where you can control the AutoComplete display, the Lines of Prompt History (more on that in a second), the Transparency, or go to the Options dialog.

The next icon—the small square actually in the command prompt—brings up your most recent commands.

Let’s go back to the command-in-progress command line:

Notice that there’s now an icon and the command name itself displayed in the command line, to help you keep track of what you’re doing.

Also, the capital letters that indicate command options are now blue, and what’s more, they’re clickable, so you can activate them either by typing or with the mouse. (Does that count as an 8th way of accessing commands?)

Back to the prompt history. By default, you get 3 lines at a time, and they fade away after a few seconds of inactivity, helping to keep your screen clear. If you want to see more, you can press F2 or click the arrow at the far right of the command line. And if you want the full text window as in previous releases, that’s now Ctrl+F2.

I hope you enjoy this revamped command line—happy typing!

AutoCAD 2013 Facecast

Busy tomorrow? Join Heidi and Kate for a Facecast on some of our favorite new features in AutoCAD 2013.

RSVP here

The fun starts bright & early at 8:30 am Pacific – hope to see you there!

Seeking AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT users in the Boston area

If you're in the Boston area, you have the unique opportunity to test drive some in-progress AutoCAD functionality and give your feedback and suggestions. This event, to be held at the Autodesk offices in Waltham on May 11th, is focused on testing productivity improvements for users who work with AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT extensively and regularly (at least 20 hours per week).

Seats are limited. If you’re interested in joining us in the Boston area for this special event, please respond to this survey by Monday, April 23rd.

Where'd My Viewports Go?

If you’re working in a layout in AutoCAD 2013, and go looking on the View tab for Viewport tools, you might get a bit of a surprise.

The “Viewports” panel there is now called “Model Viewports”, and as you might guess from the title, is only for arranging views in modelspace. All its tools are greyed out in a layout.

Instead, hop on over to the new Layout tab.

There you’ll find the new home for rectangular, polygonal, and object-based viewports, as well as naming, clipping, and locking tools.

I’ll have much more on the rest of the contents of this tab in future posts, but if you were wondering what happened to your viewport tools, now you know!

Presspull: 3 Improvements

The Presspull command has been in AutoCAD for several years, providing a quick and easy way to create an extruded shape from a closed boundary.

In AutoCAD 2013, it’s received a makeover, adding 3 improvements that make it more functional than ever.

Select Multiple Boundaries

Last year we improved Presspull so that you could use it multiple times in a row, without having to start the command over again. This year, we added a Multiple option during selection, that appears after you select the first object or bounded area. Below are images of before, during, and after multiple selection.

Extrude Non-Planar Areas

Previously, Presspull only worked on flat, planar objects. Now, that limitation has been removed. The spline in the image below is definitely not two-dimensional.

Extrude or Offset Faces

When working with Presspull now, you can choose whether a face is extruded orthogonally, creating straight sides perpendicular to the face, or offset, continuing the slope of the existing sides.

In the image below, the two “legs” have vertical front faces and sloped top faces.

If I use Presspull normally on the left leg, it creates a rectangular box, with the end face the same size as the original.

But if I hold down Ctrl and left-click on the other leg, that face is offset instead, continuing the top slope and adjusting the size of the face accordingly.

Multiple object selection, non-planar extrusion, and offset faces—all yours now with Presspull and AutoCAD 2013.