Hello there, and welcome to this video! Let's see how to work with 3D
Surfaces and how to create customized 3D solids and surfaces with the
Mesh tools inside Autodesk AutoCAD 2018!
Please leave us suggestions inside the video description to improve our
future video guides for this software!
We are going to see the 3D Surfaces first. Skip to the second part of
this video to learn more about Mesh objects.
In the previous videos of this guide we have seen how to work with 2D
objects with no volume. These can be dropped inside a 3D environment as
well, but these show several limitations. For example, 2D objects do
not have any 3D rendering, as you can see by choosing a 3D view. You can
fill by using the Hatch command, but this works only on enclosed and
coplanar areas parallel to the ground plane of the gizmo system.
Additionally, some 3D tools may not work well on 2D objects, such as the
Slice tool. For these reasons, it is better to work with 3D Surfaces, if
you want to realize objects with no volume inside a 3D project.
All the tools to create and edit 3D Surfaces are inside the Surfaces
section under the 3D Tools tab. If you don't find this tab, you can open
it by right-clicking on a blank space, and going to 3D Tools inside Show
Tabs.
There are two main kinds of 3D Surfaces: the planar ones, that lay on a
single plane, and the unplane surfaces that lay on several different/p>
planes, such as a surface box, or on infinite planes, such as a spherical
surface. Let's start with the planar surfaces.
To drop planar surfaces with any shape, you have to use the Planar
Surface tool. If you fix two points on your workspace, you will create
a simple rectangular surface as you do with a Rectangle tool.
If you want to create a planar surface with a customized shape, just
apply the Planar Tool on an enclosed 2D path selected. This also works
on shapes that are not parallel to the ground plane of the gizmo system.
Once the Planar Surface is created within a 2D path, this will get
associated to its boundaries, which means that, if its boundaries are
edited, the Planar Surface follows.
After creating the Planar Surface, remember to group it and its
boundaries by selecting both, right-clicking and going to Group twice. In
this way you will edit both the surface and its boundaries when using
any 3D tool.
Whereas, if you want the Surface to be completely independent from its
boundaries, just select it and move it outside its boundaries by using
its own gizmo. Consider that you are not able to edit the basic shape
of independent Surfaces. In case you want to recover its boundaries,
use the Explode tool twice on the Surface, and then apply the Planar
Surface tool to get the Surface again.
When using the Planar Surface tool, the surface created spreads over
everything until it meets its selected boundaries. To regulate the
Surface extension, you may need to use the Trim and Untrim tools inside
the Surfaces section.
The Trim tool is used to cut parts of the Surface that meets other
boundaries. When you enable the tool, select the surface to trim, apply
with the Enter key, and then select all the boundaries to consider.
Apply again, and click on all the parts of the surface to be cut. Use
the Enter key to finish with the tool.
Use the Untrim tool to extend the surface over one of its edges, until
it meets other boundaries. You can also use the Extend tool to extend the
Surface over one or more of its boundaries as much as you like.
Now, let's see how to build non-planar surfaces.
To drop a very simple non-planar surface you can use the 3D Polyline tool
to create closed paths, each laying on a single different plane, and
then creating surfaces by using the Planar Surface tool. But, to create
more complex non-planar surfaces, you have to use other tools inside the
Surfaces section. Let's check them!
The Fillet tool is used to join two non-coplanar surfaces by applying
a third surface with a constant radius. You can fix its value by typing
inside the Command Line, or by using the blue arrow you see. Use the
Enter key to finish with the tool.
The Patch tool is used to cover holes on your surface. Select the
boundaries that delimit the hole, apply with the Enter key, and check
the preview. Use the blue triangle to fine the surface created, and
choose Bulge magnitude to regulate the surface extension. Use the Enter
key to apply.
The Blend tool is used to join two surfaces by extending them from the
selected boundaries. Select the edges of the first surface, apply with
the Enter key, and then select the edges of the second surface. At this
point, a new surface is created, and can be regulated by using the blue
arrows and regulating the Bulge magnitude value. Finish with the Enter
key.
In case you use tools that create new surfaces, remember to group all
the surfaces to manage all of them in the same way.
Use the Offset tool to create a second surface with a constant distance
(or offset) from the original surface. Select the interested surfaces,
apply with the Enter key, and then check the small arrows, that indicate
where the new surface will be placed. Use Flip direction to change the
direction of these arrows, or choose Both sides to place the surface on
both sides. Then, type the offset value, and use the Enter key to drop
the surface. In case you want to place the surface internally, make sure
not to type a too high offset value.
You can also extract surfaces from 3D objects. For example, if you use
the Explode tool on Spheres and Tori, you will directly obtain a surface
with such shape and no volume. If you have Boxes and Pyramids, you may
need to use the Explode tool once to extract the Regions, and once more
to extract the single sides and vertices. Then, create the surfaces with
the Planar Surface Tool, and group all of them together.
Other tools inside the Surfaces section are used to extract 3D objects
from surfaces.
The Thicken tool creates 3D objects by adding extrusion to the selected
surface. Select the surface, apply with the Enter key, and then regulate
the extrusion depth.
The Sculpt tool is used to extract a 3D object from an enclosed volume
delimited by several surfaces. Select all the surfaces by using the
Window or the Crossing Lasso, and use the Enter key.
Now, let's see how to make advanced 3D design by using the Mesh objects.
Mesh objects are special 3D objects whose shape is defined by several
sub-objects called polygons, each composed by faces, edges and vertices.
So that, by editing each of these polygons, you can create your own
complex shape as you like.
You can draw regular Mesh objects by going to Modeling under the 3D Tools
tab. These regular shapes are the starting point of your modeling.
Click on the Mesh to select it entirely. But, if you click on it while
holding CTRL down, you are able to select the single polygon faces, sides
and vertices. Once the sub-objects are selected, you can edit them by
using the tools inside the Modify section, or the basic gizmo systems.
In case you select faces, you can also use the Edit Face section on top
for additional tools.
In case you select the whole Mesh, you can apply some important modeling
tools under the 3D Tools tab, such as Smooth and Convert Mesh.
Smooth is used to regulate the smoothness level of the selected Mesh,
which goes from None to higher levels. The higher is the level, the
higher is the number of polygons composing the Mesh, allowing more
complex and smoother shapes on it. A regular Mesh object always starts
from a smoothness level of None.
If you select a Mesh, and go to Smooth More, its smoothness level will be
increased by one level; if you use Smooth Less, it will be decreased by
one. If you also want to extract the Mesh polygons, click on Refine Mesh.
Consider that the Mesh object will restart from a smoothness level of
None once it is refined.
Once the Mesh design is ready, you have to convert it to a 3D solid or a
3D surface, in order to use the 3D editing tools.
Select the whole Mesh, and go to Convert to Solid or Convert to Surface.
The way the Mesh is converted depends on the options next to these tools.
Choose Smooth to transform the Mesh into a smoother solid or surface.
Choose Faceted to save the Mesh shape, including harsh vertices and sides.
You can also extract Mesh objects from 3D solids. Just select it, and
go to Convert to Mesh on top. The Mesh will get a smoothness level
of 1 by default, so use Smooth Less to recover the original solid shape.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out the full video guide for
AutoCAD 2018 to learn more!