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

Measuring points, distances, and angles


Measuring and obtaining point coordinates is a constant part of our 3D work. The commands present here can be found on the Inquiry toolbar, and on the menu bar by going to Tools | Inquiry. Both 3D Basics and 3D Modeling workspaces don't have these commands, unlike the Drafting & Annotation workspace.

Obtaining point coordinates

One of the most important things in AutoCAD is to know precise point coordinates. For that, we apply the next command.

The ID command

The ID command allows us to obtain the X, Y, and Z coordinates of points related to the current User Coordinate System (UCS). This command can be used transparently, that is, in the middle of another command, if we prefix it with a ' (single quotation) mark. The command only prompts for a point:

Command: ID
Specify point: Point

The command writes the X, Y, and Z coordinates, related to the current UCS, on the command line:

X = 28.9427     Y = 15.0000     Z = 10.0000

Note

If we want to get the coordinates...