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

Editing solids and surfaces


Here are the commands to edit solids and surfaces, namely, changing parameters with the PROPERTIES and QUICKPROPERTIES palettes and the SOLIDEDIT command with several useful options.

Changing parameters

After a solid or surface creation, it's very easy to change its parameters with the PROPERTIES or QUICKPROPERTIES palettes.

The PROPERTIES command

The PROPERTIES command (alias Ctrl + 1), one of the most used in AutoCAD, is also excellent for modifying the parameters that define solids or surfaces. The command displays a floating palette that can be always visible and that displays the parameters and properties of the selected object.

Selecting a solid, there are three panels related to 3D, namely, 3D Visualization, Geometry, and Solid History. The first one includes the material and shadow display only important for renderings and the last one includes history parameters for composite objects. As in 2D, under Geometry, we can verify and modify all relevant parameters...