3D In AutoCAD

I am a long time user of autocad, I've been using it since about '89.
I am very proficient in it - and can draw aboslutely any
object/scene/etc in Isometric - but I have never done any 3D in
autocad (I have used major 3D apps - softimage, alias etc..) but I
dont even have any first clue about doing 3D in ACAD...

Anyone have any suggestions on best resources that would help someone
who is proficient with its 2d aspects get up to speed on 3d in
autocad?

Thanks

 

HiHo;
In Seattle mcneel.com has a great one day class on 3d.
The ucs and viewpoint are important to 3d drawing.

 

I wrote up a quick get started for one of our guys recently. It's a bit
under a meg Word file. I could send it along if you'd like.

 

I'd love a copy of it if you don't mind sending it my way.

Thanks,

Michael (LS)

nekkidnorman_@_yahoo.com (remove both of the "_" to email me)

 

HiHo;
Here is a good 3d site.
http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?categoryid=9&subcategoryid=91

 

Do you think I could get a copy of that to?

Email is just as posted


Thanks!

 

There's a whole bunch of tutorials on beginning 3D here:
http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/tutorials/3d.htm
http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/tutorials/solids.htm

Hope that helps!

Roopinder Tara
Editor
TenLinks.com - CAD, CAM and CAE directories

 

I've worked exclusively in AutoCAD doing 3D for many years. However,
in retrospect, the decision to use AutoCAD for this was in error.
AutoCAD has numerous difficulties and even outright errors when
working in 3D.

For example; snaps that fail or worse...go to non-existing points in
space. Hides that don't hide lines that it should. Also, be aware that
most of AutoCAD's 3d entities don't import into Autodesk's Inventor
(or even other 3d parametric packages). Only the ACIS solids will
(hopefully) translate.

I suspect that AutoCAD's 3d capabilities are not getting much
attention anymore. After years of touting its 3D abilities, Autodesk
now only touts its 2d abilities. I am guessing that these efforts are
now focused on the inventor package.

You can get more 3D abilities from a $500 ($100?) 3rd party program
than from AutoCAD. Since you are starting from scratch on 3D, it might
be wiser to invest that learning into a new program entirely.

Joe Dunfee

 

I agree AutoCAD is pretty bad at 3d, but it does have the advantage
of being very accurate compared to something like 3-d Studio ( Also an
Autodesk product).

I do a lot of drawing in a bunch of different packages, Its very hard
to change once you have made the commiment to learn a product simply
because of the time it takes to fully understand most packages. I
have not used the inventer or the Revit products and would be
interested in their capabilities. I assume they would be better at 3-d
drawing but fall down when it comes to rendereing.

 

But 3D studio has never been marketed for use as a CAD program.

Revit it good for architectural work, the whole approach to it is very
different to AutoCAD. Its built in rendering can produce very good results -
Not as much flexibility as the render in 3DS, but way better than AutoCAD's
built in renderer.
If you want more powerful modelling capabilities, but with an interface that
is fairly similar to that of AutoCAD, then Rhino is by far the best option
IMHO. It can export to a wide range of formats, & has a renderer available
that is capable of doing everything that most people would require.
Although the inteface appears quite similar to AutoCAD's the range & power
of the modelling tools is way ahead of any other CAD software in that price
bracket.

Matthew

 

After using AutoCAD for many years (I first used R10, ahh, remember
when acad fit on 3 floppy disks, and the install program was XCOPY)
The play I work decided to go parametric. At first the asumption was
to use Mechanical desktop but because atodesk is now run by idiots
they decided to nix it for invetor, oh and did they tell you that
inventor dosent support autolisp so all you code is junk?. So I
decided if I have to relearn my interface for 3D to evaluate other
apps, after some research I seteld on Inventor/ProE/Solidworks. I the
end the feature/price value was one by solidworks and I dot regret it
at all. I was up to speed in only a month and with the office pkg it
has photorealist rendering and animations. While on paper inventor
isnt to bad the code is immature and just seemed clunky compared to
Solidworks (not to mention being pissed off that autodest left out
autolisp support in inventor). Pro E just has a super shitty interface
that I would not want to dink with and evrything else has no customer
base so data xfers become a problem. If you contact a solidworks
reseller thay have a free traning disk you can get to test it out,
even if you dont run it it still gives you a good taste of MCAD.