Course: Section:

Name: Date Performed:

Instructor: Date Submitted:

LABORATORY ACTIVITY NO.7

AUTOCAD 3D BASICS

1. Objective(s):

The activity aims to introduce the basics of 3D theory and operating in 3D space.

2. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):

The students shall be able to:

1. Understand basic 3D theory
2. Navigate in and out of 3D
3. Draw 3D object
4. Apply different techniques in drawing 3D objects
5.
3. Discussion:

3D is the ability to give depth to objects or to expand them into the “third dimension” from a flat
plane. This concept should be intuitively obvious, as we live in a 3D world. Everything has not just a
length and width but also a depth (height).
Concept 1: There exist in the Cartesian coordinate system a total of three axes, X, Y, and Z. these
axes intersect each other at the 0,0,0 point as seen in the left figure of 7.1 and by
definition can be positive or negative as represented by solid and dashed lines as seen in
the right figure of 7.1

Concept 2: A plane is defined as an intersection of two axes. Therefore, the X, Y, and Z, axes can
define three unique planes: the XY, YZ, and XZ planes

Concept 3: A total of six faces of an imaginary cube can then be formed using the three planes. This
can be easily seen if we move the planes out and connectFigure
them 7.1
edge to edge.
The X, Y, and Z axes
Y Y
(-X)
0,0,0 point (-Z)

Z X Z X
(-Y)
Figure 7.1 The X, Y, and Z axes

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AutoCAD simplifies your work in 3D by allowing you to switch to a 3D workspace. You will find the Ribbon
altered, in many of the needed 3D tools in one place. You have two choices, 3D Basics and 3D Modeling,
as seen in figure 7.2.

Figure 7.2 3D Basics and 3D Modeling Workspace

You see your AutoCAD screen change to 3D mode. It now has a full complement of 3D tools available
under multiple tabs while retaining some essential 2D tools. Using Tools Toolbars AutoCAD in
the cascading menus, bring up the toolbars seen in figure 7.3.

3D Navigation Toolbars

View Toolbars Visual Styles Toolbars

Figure 7.3 3D Modeling Essential toolbars

Figure 7.4 3D Modeling Workspace

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As shown in figure 7.4, your screen should look close like this. It is highly recommended that your
crosshairs are size 100 in 3D, as this helps a lot with visualizing what you are doing and where in 3D space
you are. You can change this by right-click in the drawing area, selects OPTIONS, then figure 7.5 appears.

At the 3D Modeling tab as

shown in figure 7.5, make
sure Show Z axis in
crosshairs option is
unchecked. The 3D
concepts are generally
much clearer when only two
axes are present in the
crosshairs.

Figure 7.5 Options Dialog Box in 3D Modeling Tab

Entering and Exiting 3D

Entering 3D is any of the isometric views, though we use the SW Isometric View most often. Exiting
3Disany of the flat views (front, back, left, right, etc), although we use the Top View most often. The
toolbars used are shown in figure 7.6.

Figure 7.6 Top and SW Isometric Views Toolbars

Top View (Exiting 3D) SW Isometric View (Entering 3D)

Press the SW Isometric View icon.

What did you notice? ____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Press the Top View icon.

What did you notice? ____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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Try using the Ribbon under the Home tab View as shown in figure 7.7.

Figure 7.7 3D Isometric View (Ribbon)

Try using the Cascading menu View 3D Views SW Isometric (or Top) as shown in figure 7.8.

Figure 7.8 3D Isometric View (Cascading Menus)

4. Resources:

Computer with installed AutoCAD software

5. Procedure and Output

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Projecting into 3D

Your input device which is the mouse, by nature it is a 2Ddevice. It works by going forward-back and left
but not straight up. This obviously a bit of a problem for projecting and drawing into the third dimension.
When you need to go into 3D, instead of raising your mouse into the air, you simply switch for the “flat”
plane you are on to a vertical plane. The effect is immediate; you can now draw “up” relative to you, the
observer. To go back to flat, you switch the planes right back. You already did this when learning isometric
drawing by pressing F5 and cycling through a total of planes; top, left, and right. This will be similar to 3D. It
is why isometric drawing was important to review in AutoCAD

How to rotate these planes?

1. Draw a rectangle that is 10” x 6” as shown in figure 7.9.

Figure 7.9 Rectangle in 3D

Rotating planes is equivalent to rotating the UCS icon. Below are the different ways to rotate UCS:

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Keyboard: Type in ucs and press Enter
Keyboard: Type in ucs and press Enter
Cascading menus: Tools New UCS X or Y or Z
`

Toolbar icon: UCS toolbar or or

Ribbon: View tab or or

Step 1a. If you typed in ucs and pressed Enter, then,

2. AutoCAD says: Specify origin of UCS or
[Face/Named/Object/Previous/View/World /X/Y/ZAxis]<World>:
Step 1b. If you used icons, cascading menus, or the ribbon, then the process of choosing an axis is
part of the command right away (as you picked either an X, Y, or Z), and you can skip Step
2.
Step 2. Pick the axis which you want to rotate: X, Y, or Z.
Step 3. After the X axis is selected,
3. AutoCAD says: Specify rotation angle about X axis <90>:
Step 4. You can just press enter, as 900 (the default) is exactly what we need.

4. Using standard drafting techniques, finish your rectangle to create a box as shown in figure
7.10

Figure 7.10 3D Box

5. To bring your UCS icon back to the previous familiar state, as originally see in figure 7.11, you can
any of the following:

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 Cascading menus: Tools New UCS World
`

Toolbar icon: UCS toolbar

Ribbon: View tab

Figure 11. 3D UCS icon reset to World View

3D Dynamic Views

In 3D, you need to constantly spin the object around to get a good look at it from all sides. Remember that,
even though we say that we are rotating the object, really we are not, but rather rotating our view of it.

1. To do it, use any of the following methods:

Keyboard: Type in orbit and press Enter
Cascading menus: View Orbit Free Orbit
`

Toolbar icon: 3D Navigation toolbar

Ribbon: View tab Navigate

2. As soon as you click the Orbit icon, a green circle appears

3. Do the orbit by clicking down, holding the left mouse button, and moving the mouse around.
4. When done, just press ESC, and the new view is permanent.
5. To restore the familiar SW view, just press the SW isometric icon.

Try continuous orbit.

What did you notice? ____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Is there any difference from the free orbit? ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Extrude

Extrusion is the method most often used to quickly and easily create solid objects and, as such, is perhaps
one of the most important commands in 3D. As shown in figure 12, is the modeling toolbar where extrude is
Extrude
located.

Figure 7.12 Modelling Toolbars

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 1. Draw a 10” x 6” rectangle. Use only the rectangle command, not individual line.
2. Start the extrude command via any of the preceding methods

Keyboard: Type in extrude and press Enter

Cascading menus: Draw Modeling Extrude
`

Toolbar icon: Modeling toolbar

Ribbon: Solid tab

o AutoCAD says: Current wire frame density: ISOLINES = 4Select objects

to extrude:

3. Pick the rectangle and press Enter.

o AutoCAD says: Specify height of extrusion or [Direction/Path/Taper
angle]:
4. You can actually now move your mouse up and down and create a thickness in real time but it is
more practical to type in a value, so go ahead and type in 4 for the thickness. The output should be
in figure 13.

Figure 7.13 Extruded box

This box is quite similar to the previous one you tried doing. However, there are some significant
differences, the extruded box is real solid model, not just collection of “wires” spliced together as you did in
the previous box.

Visual Styles: Hide and Shade

Visual Styles is an important set of tools that allows you to view your design in a variety of useful ways.

Hide
The hide command simply hides wireframe linework that you would not see with a solid object.

Temporary hide – viewing a stationary design. The hidden view reverts to wireframe if you try to
rotate it or regenerate it.
Permanent hide – the design can be rotated while staying fully hidden.

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 Keyboard: Type in hide and press Enter
Cascading menus: View Hide
`

Toolbar icon: Render toolbar or Visual Styles toolbar

Ribbon: View tab Visual Styles

Figure 7.14 Hidden box, (Hide)

What is the effect of typing in hide command or pressing hide toolbar?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 7.14 Hidden box, (3D Hidden Visual Style)

What is the effect of pressing the 3D Hidden Visual Style toolbar?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Shade

Keyboard: Type in shade and press Enter

Cascading menus: View Visual Styles Realistic
`

Toolbar icon: Visual Styles toolbar

Ribbon: View tab Visual Styles

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 Figure 7.15 Realistic shading box

Keyboard: None
Cascading menus: View Visual Styles Conceptual
`

Toolbar icon: Visual Styles toolbar

Ribbon: View tab Visual Styles

Figure 7.16 Conceptual shading box

Did you notice any difference? _________

If yes, what is it? _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

View Cube and Navigation Bar

View cube as shown in figure 7.17 is primarily useful in 3D navigation. It is

used to dynamically rotate to the graphically shown views, such as top, left,
or front. You can click on faces of the cube its edges or its corners or you
just manually rotate it. Additionally, you can press the N, S, E, and W
buttons.
Figure 7.17 View Cube in 3D

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Try to explore all the buttons in the navigation bar as shown in figure 7.18.

Describe how each button works?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Figure 7.18 Navigation Bar

Activity 1:

In 3D SW isometric Conceptual Visual Style (CVS), set your units to Architectural and draw a 10”x5”
rectangle. Extrude this to 8’. This is one of several ways to draw a wall. Zoom out to extents if necessary
and alter the color if you wish. (Difficulty level: Easy; Time to completion: <5 minutes)

Activity 2:

In 3D SW isometric Conceptual Visual Style (CVS), set your units to Architectural and draw a 4”x3” box.
Extrude this to 6”. Now rotate your UCS around the Y axis by 300 and around the X axis by 300 . Then,
draw the same rectangle with same extrusion. Change the color if you wish. (Difficulty level: Easy; Time to
completion: <5 minutes)

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Activity 3:

In 3D SW isometric Conceptual Visual Style (CVS), set your units to Architectural and draw a 5” circle,
extruding this to 25”. Now rotate your UCS around the Y axis by 90 0 and draw the same extrude shape.
Then, restore the UCS position, and rotate it around the Y axis by 90 0 . Then, draw the same shape again.
You should have the three cylinders shown in the left image. Move two of them to center with the third one
as shown in the right image. (Difficulty level: Easy; Time to completion: <5 minutes)

6. Conclusion:

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

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7. Assessment (Rubric for Laboratory Performance):
Intended
BEGINNER ACCEPTABLE PROFICIENT
Learning SCORE
1 2 3
Outcomes

Was not able to finish Was able to finish Was able to finish
Draw 3D objects drawing 3D objects; drawing 3D objects; drawing 3D objects
needs supervision with needs supervision with without supervision of
the faculty member the faculty member the faculty member

Apply different Fails to apply different Was able to apply

Has difficulty applying
techniques in techniques in drawing different techniques in
different techniques in
drawing 3D 3D objects that lead to drawing 3D objects
drawing 3D objects
objects erroneous 3D object without difficulty
Other comments/observation:
TOTAL SCORE

RATING = (total score) x 100%

2

Evaluated By: Date:

Faculty Member

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