Extruding Blocks

Hi,
I use autocad to draw elevations and plans for architectural millwork and
custom cabinets. I work in 2D but have been thinking of using 3D so I can
show clients perspective veiws of the work. I frequently insert profiles of
the different mouldings that I use into the drawings as a block. I cannot
seem to be able to extrude these blocks along a path as I think I would need
to to show for instance crown moulding wrapping the top of a bookcase in 3D.
I have exploded the blocks but it only seems to work some of the time. Does
anyone have experience with this. In general how is autocad for 3D drawings
of cabinetry and such.
toma

 

The blocks for the moulding profiles were supplied by the millwork companies
as DXF files, how do I convert them to closed splines?

 

Type PE (Polyline Edit) on the command line and select one of the line
increments. You will see a group of options on the command line. Type J
and Enter. select the original line, and all the other lines you want to
join, and Enter. Then you should see a note on the second command line that
says how many lines were joined.

If one of the selections on the command line is Close, then type C and close
the polyline. If it says Open, then the polyline is already closed.

If you when you attempt this, not all the lines become joined, it is because
they are not connected at their end points. Zoom in very close, sometimes
extremely very close, and make sure they are touching. another way is to
use the Fillet command to fillet the corners and this will get them to be at
an identical point in space at their end points.

Once you get all the lines to be touching at their endpoints, do the PE
command again and see if that works this time.

Once you get the closed polyline you can extrude it along a path.

Jack Talsky

 

The bpoly is a good idea.

Jack

 

Another thing you might want to try is in the PEDIT command.

Type PEDIT, then hit M for multiple. Then choose all of your lines that you
want to convert into polylines and hit enter. Then choose J for Join. You
will now be asked for a fuzz distance. Type in a small number (like .0625
for Imperial - 1.5 for Metric) and most every line will be joined with a
very small difference.

 

in A2K pedit M is not an option. I think you are referring to the
expresstools pljoin command.

--


Jamie Duncan

Consulting - If you're not part of the solution, there's good money in
prolonging the problem.

 

>in A2K pedit M is not an option.<<

Seems to work on my machine at work, I'll have to check when I get in.