Hello people, welcome to this video! Let's see together how to create 3D
surfaces and customized 3D objects with AutoCAD 2016!
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If you want to design 2D objects in a 3D environment you don't have to use
the 2D tools in the Home section, but you have to use the 3D surfaces.
In fact, some 3D editing Tools, like the Slice command, do not work on 2D
objects made, but do work on 3D surfaces instead.
You can draw 3D surfaces in the 3D Tools panel, through the Surfaces
section.
The Planar surfaces are the simplest ones. You can create planar
rectangular surfaces enabling the Planar Surface tool and clicking and dragging on your workspace. 3D Surfaces are represented as checked objects
in Wireframe views.
If you want a planar surface with a different shape, simply define its
contours first by drawing a closed path with a polyline. Then select it,
and click on the Planar button. The planar surface created takes the same
shape of the polyline selected.
Such surface created is also associated to its polyline contour. This means
that, if you edit the polyline, also the surface follows. But, if you move
the surface out from its contours, it becomes independent from them.
The 3D tools in Solid Editing do work on the surface itself, but not on its
contours. For this reason, it is better to group the surface and its
boundaries together, in order to use the 3D tools with less troubles.
Simply select the surface and its contour, right-click and go to Group.
If you want to know more about the Groups inside AutoCAD 2016, check out
the related video in this guide.
In case you have the 3D surface, but not its contours anymore, you can
easily reopen them. Enable the Explode command and apply it on the surface
twice, obtaining just its boundaries. If you do need the surface as well,
apply the Planar tool on it.
When you apply the Planar tool on a closed path, the surface created will
cover everything inside such path, overcoming boundaries that can be met.
In case you want to remove parts of the surface made, use the Trim tool in
the Surface section. Select the surface, press Enter key, and select the
contours that meet the surface. Press Enter again, and select what to
remove. Use Enter key to finish with the tool. If you want to remove
surfaces from the main one, make sure it is grouped with its contour, or
the tool won't work properly.
Let's see the other tools inside the Surface section.
The Offset command creates a copy of the selected surfaces keeping a
constant distance from them. Enable the tool, select all the surfaces to
offset, press Enter key, and lots of arrows will appear. These do represent
where the copy does spread. Type the distance to keep, and then use Enter
to apply the tool. Using your Down Arrow key, you can choose Flip direction
to copy on the other way, or Both sides to copy on both directions.
In case you are making internal offsets from a curved surface, make sure to
set a distance that is not too high for the radius of the curve, or the
offset won't work.
The Extend tool is used to extend a surface along one of its sides without
changing its shape. Just select one or more consecutive sides, apply with
Enter, and then drag to define how much you need to extend.
You can also create 3D objects starting from a 3D surface. To extrude a
single surface, you can use Presspull, as with 2D bases. But if you have a
complex system, with more surfaces, you can use Thicken. Select all the
surfaces and then define the extrude height.
In case you have a group of surfaces that create a closed volume inside,
you can extract from them a 3D solid using Sculpt and selecting all these
surfaces. You have two main kinds of surfaces: the planar ones and the
non-planar ones, that do not lay on a single plane.
Creating non-planar surfaces is not easy. You can create them manually, or
use the Mesh objects, that we will see later in this video.
You can use 3D Polylines to create non-planar surfaces without curves.
Create a 3D Polyline and use the Explode command to obtain its single
independent sides. Then use Planar to create each surface selecting closed
paths from the independent sides.
If you need to create surfaces with curves, you can use the Fillet command
in Surface section. This tool joins two surfaces on different planes with a
curve. Simply select the surfaces, and use the blue arrow to adjust the
radius of the curve. Use Enter to finish the editing. The curved surface is
an object on its own, whose radius can be modified through its blue arrow.
The Patch command creates a surface that covers a hole on the selected
surface. Just select the boundaries of the hole to cover and press Enter.
You can fine the surface clicking on the blue arrow.
The Blend command is used to join two sides of 3D surfaces that do not lay
on the same plane. You can join closed sides like circles or single sides
like segments or arcs. Select the first side, use Enter key, and then
select the second side. You can personalize the way to join the sides
clicking on the blue arrow. Use Enter to apply the blend. Also in this case
a new surface is created: use the Group command if you need to keep
everything together in one piece.
Another way to create surfaces is to start from 3D objects. For example, if
you draw a sphere, this will be a filled sphere, with a surface and a
volume inside. But if you use the Explode command on it, you will obtain
just its surface from it.
If you draw and explode a Box, you will obtain its faces as regions, not
surfaces. In this case, explode also all the regions to obtain their single
contours, and then use Planar to create surfaces from all of them. Then
simply use the Group tool if you need to join them together.
Mesh Objects are also very important. These are used to draw and create
completely personalized 3D Objects. You can draw regular Mesh objects
clicking on Modeling in the 3D Tools panel.
Differently from 3D Objects, that are all in one piece, the Mesh objects
are always made by subcomponents. If you use the Explode command on Mesh
objects, you can see them composed by lots of 3D faces.
If you click on the Mesh, you select it entirely. If you hold CTRL down and
click, you can select each Mesh face, side or vertex. In this way, a Gizmo
system appears, and you can use it to move faces, vertices or edges,
personalizing the Mesh as you like. You can also drag from the red point,
without following any axis.
You can also select more components to move them altogether.
When you select a side or a face, you have additional tools appearing on
top, for example, you can use Split Face to split a Mesh face in two, to
personalize it better.
If you select the whole Mesh, Smooth and Convert Mesh appear above. Smooth
More is used to get rid of the harsh edges of the Mesh, in order to make it
smoother. There are four different levels of smoothness, that you can
obtain clicking on Smooth More more than once. Click on Smooth Less to
decrease the smoothness level instead.
If you want to be even more precise, you can Refine the Mesh. This is used
to extract from the smoothed Mesh all its plain faces one by one. The
higher is the smoothness level, the more faces you will obtain. Mind that,
once a Mesh is refined, you can't smooth it less again anymore.
However, the 3D tools seen do not work on Mesh Objects. These must be
converted into 3D solids or surfaces first. Use Convert to Solid to
transform the Mesh into a filled 3D solid, or Convert to Surface to render
just the external surface.
More on the right, you can adjust the smoothness level to give to
the 3D solid or surface that must be rendered.
You can also transform a 3D solid into a Mesh, using Convert to Mesh on
top. The object will be smoother, just use Smooth Less above to reopen all
its harsh edges.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out our guide to learn more for
AutoCAD 2016!