Thursday

Editing 3D Models using Grips

Hi everyone

As you may all know, AutoCAD 2007 arrived with many new features. Although there are many new features with every newer version, the ones of 2007 are revolutionary. Autodesk must have felt inferior in the are so they have developed the 2D-3D modelling capabilities. On the first screen in AutoCAD 2007, we see the “3D modeling” workspace, and that should give us a hint of what lies ahead. If you wish, you can switch to the classic AutoCAD workspace from the drop-down menu on the upper left corner. (Fig.1)

Fig.1 The new AutoCAD 2007 workspace.

The new dashboard AutoCAD has advertised with “creativity” as a key word has made accesing 3D modeling tools child’s play. (Fig.2)

Fig.2 The new dashboard.

Without wasting more time, let’s quickly draw a box. Ensure your box is in the right place by pressing SHIFT, seeing that it locks the Z coordinates. Starting from a given base point, you will observe that the process is just like as in 3D Studio Max.

Fig.3 Press SHIFT to lock the Z-coordinate to 0.

Fig.4 See how easy drawing a box has become.

Now press CTRL and hover your mouse around the faces of the box. You will see that each face is highlighted as you come over it. (Fig.5 and Fig.6)

Fig5 The faces are highlighted as you come over them.

Fig.6 The same is true of edges, they are also highlighted.

Now select an edge and see how easily you can edit your box.

Fig.7 Stretch an edge easily…

Fig.8 Stretch a solid or a face…

Now you can have some practice. I drew a cylinder in one corner of the box and using the “subtract” command I got the mdel in Fig. 9. Using the edges, I adjusted the radius and height of the cylinder.

Fig.9 Playing with the height of the cylinder.

Fig.10 Now stretching the front face of the box.