I have a project that I want to luanch, but where to begin?

[aries]

I have a car part I would like rendered, where do I start? Any suggestions?

[David Bethel]

Is it modeled already? -David

[Spacepig]

If you already have the 3d model created you first need to assign mapping to the item. This lets autocad know how to basically wrap the texture map around the object (options are planar - good for flattish items; cylindrical - good for tyres , springs, shocks; sphere - good for maybe rear view mirrors possibly and finally solid - good for cubic type surfaces)

After you've assigned the mapping (command line "setuv") you need to choose your material (command line "rmat") and assign it to the material.

Rather than going into depth here, why don't you have a look on the cadtutor.net main page and have a read about lighting and mapping - here's a link for you

http://www.cadtutor.net/acad/acad2ki/bitmat/bitmat.html

AutoCAD is rather limited in it's rendering in it's basic form - if you have AutoCAD release post 2004 you will have VIZ render packaged along with it, and it's abilities are far greater than vanilla AutoCAD.

And last but not least, don't forget - you can be the greatest drafter in the world, but when you venture into the world of rendering you're going into a completely different domain - people do rendering for a living just on it's own.

All the best

Spacepig