Book Image

Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design

By : JOAO ANTONIO C DOS SANTOS
Book Image

Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design

By: JOAO ANTONIO C DOS SANTOS

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 12. Meshes and Surfaces

In Chapter 4, Creating Solids and Surfaces from 2D, we introduced how to create surfaces by applying EXTRUDE and other commands to linear objects. This chapter is about all types of surfaces and meshes.

The topics covered in this chapter are:

  • Identifying types of surfaces and their applications

  • How to create and edit procedural surfaces

  • How to create and edit NURBS surfaces

  • How to create and edit meshes

  • How to create meshes based on 3D faces

  • Analyzing surfaces curvature

Surfaces and meshes are 3D objects with zero thickness. Most of the time, when modeling in 3D, we apply solids, which give us much better precision; since Version 2010, surfaces and meshes are also available, and can be used for complex and conceptual models. These objects are divided into the following categories:

  • Procedural surfaces: These are surfaces created from linear objects, such as EXTRUDE, REVOLVE, or SWEEP, as we have seen in Chapter 4, Creating Solids and Surfaces from 2D. These surfaces...