Book Image

Practical Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 and AutoCAD LT 2023 - Second Edition

By : Jaiprakash Pandey, Yasser Shoukry
Book Image

Practical Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 and AutoCAD LT 2023 - Second Edition

By: Jaiprakash Pandey, Yasser Shoukry

Overview of this book

AutoCAD is one of the most versatile software applications for architectural and engineering designs and the most popular computer-aided design (CAD) platform for 2D drafting and 3D modeling. This hands-on 2nd edition guide will take you through everything you need to know to make the most out of this powerful tool, from a simple tour of the user interface to using advanced tools. Starting with basic drawing shapes and functions, you'll get to grips with the fundamentals of CAD designs. You’ll then learn about effective drawing management using layers, dynamic blocks, and groups, and discover how to add annotations and plots like a professional. As you progress, the book will show you how to convert your 2D drawings into 3D models and shapes. You’ll also discover advanced features, such as isometric drawings, drawing utilities for managing and recovering complex files, quantity surveying, and multidisciplinary drawing files using xRefs. Finally, you’ll focus on rendering and visualizing your designs in AutoCAD. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed a solid understanding of CAD principles and be able to work with AutoCAD software confidently to build impressive 2D and 3D creations.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Introduction and 2D Drafting
6
Part 2: Customization, Collaboration, and Using Reusable Content
12
Part 3: 3D Modeling

Rendering scenes

After setting the lighting effects, assigning materials to different parts of the model, and setting the cameras, the final step is to produce a set of high-quality rendered images of your model that can be used for the presentation or as the output of your project. In this section, creating a render and all the related settings will be discussed in detail.

Setting the render quality

Before starting to render, the quality must be set. AutoCAD offers a spectrum of different render qualities, ranging from Low (draft) quality, which will just take minutes to complete (however, it will produce a poor-quality image), up to a quality called Overnight Quality, which will produce a very high-quality render but is very demanding, and it will take a long time to complete. By default, the Medium quality is selected, which is not very demanding on the hardware and will produce acceptable quality. Another factor that affects the render time is the graphics performance of...