Chapter 1 Introduction to Three-Dimensional Modeling
9
Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.
The
Visual Style Controls
fl yout, Figure 1-10C, allows you to quickly display the
drawing in one of 10 different visual styles. The default setting when you start a new
drawing with the
acad3D.dwt
template is Realistic. Use of visual styles is introduced in
this chapter and discussed completely in Chapter 16.
Isometric and Orthographic Viewpoint Presets
A 2D isometric drawing is based on angles of 120° between the three axes.
AutoCAD provides preset viewpoints that allow you to view a 3D object from one
of four isometric locations. See Figure 1-11. Each of these viewpoints produces an
isometric view of the object. In addition, AutoCAD has presets for the six standard
orthographic views of an object. The isometric and orthographic viewpoint presets are
based on the world coordinate system (WCS).
The four preset isometric views are southwest, southeast, northeast, and north-
west. The six orthographic presets are top, bottom, left, right, front, and back. To switch
your viewpoint to one of these presets, pick the view name in the
View Controls
fl yout
in the viewport controls, as previously discussed. Refer to Figure 1-10B. You can also
select one of the presets in the
View
panel in the
Home
tab of the ribbon. See Figure 1-12.
The presets are also available in the
Views
panel in the
Visualize
tab.
NOTE NOTE
You can also change the viewpoint to one of the orthographic or isometric presets by
using the
VIEW
command to access the
View Manager
dialog box.
Once you select a view, the viewpoint in the current viewport is automatically
changed to display an appropriate isometric or orthographic view. Since these presets
are based on the WCS, selecting a preset produces the same view of the object regard-
less of the current user coordinate system (UCS).
A view that looks straight down on the current drawing plane is called a plan
view. An important aspect of the orthographic presets is that selecting one not only
changes the viewpoint, but, by default, it also changes the UCS to be plan to the ortho-
graphic view. All new objects are created on that UCS instead of the WCS (or previous
UCS). Working with UCSs is explained in detail in Chapter 4. However, in order to
VIEW
Ribbon
Home
View
SW Isometric
SE Isometric
NE Isometric
NW Isometric
VIEW
Ribbon
Home
View
Top
Bottom
Left
Right
Front
Back
NW Isometric
SW Isometric
NE Isometric
SE Isometric
Figure 1-11.
There are four preset
isometric viewpoints
in AutoCAD. This
illustration shows
the direction from
which the cube will
be viewed for each
of the presets. The
grid represents the
XY plane of the
WCS.