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

Zooming, panning, and orbiting


To correctly understand a 3D model, we need to view it from different angles, view it closer, from the inside, and so on. When creating or selecting objects, setting a correct and unambiguous view is fundamental. We are not scaling or rotating the model, just viewing it from a different perspective.

Zooming and panning

Zooming and panning are fundamental tools in AutoCAD and in 3D modeling. Nowadays, we all use a wheel mouse or other advanced input devices with scroll functionality. With a wheel mouse we can:

  • Zoom in / zoom out: By rotating the wheel forward we zoom in and objects get closer; by rotating the wheel backward we zoom out and we see more of our scene.

  • Zoom extents: By double-clicking on the wheel quickly, we see the drawing extents, that is, all the areas occupied by objects in the model get extented (including those areas that are visible when layers are turned off). This is quite useful in 3D and large models. Often, after orbiting, objects may...