Orientation of holes on a PCD in Isometric

You can control the orientation of holes on a PCD while working in Isometric, but it's an intricate and tedious piece of projection.

Here is an easier way.

I hope this helps someone.

Why are we still drawing 2D isometrics? Draw in 3D and extract the required 2D view(s).

I take your point, but isometric is still an excellent introduction to projection.

Yes it is but isometric views can be extracted from 3D models.

True again.

I guess I am just a classicist.

Just because the technology can do something for us is no reason to accept that largesse blindly. I firmly believe that if you know how the machine works, if you know what it is doing, you'll be a more effective driver of the machine.

That's just me

....except that it isn't right, (approximation) and falls down in a hurry with complexity.

We simplified a lot of things using drawing board techniques because we had to.

3D is the single source of truth.

If I wanted to be a classicist I'd abandon CAD altogether, dig out my old manual drafting tools and a piece of vellum. When did you say you needed that drawing? Surely we did not come all this way (computers and CAD software) to wax nostalgic over ancient techniques have we? Use the tools of the 21st century to their best advantage.

....except that it isn't right, (approximation) and falls down in a hurry with complexity.

 

We simplified a lot of things using drawing board techniques because we had to.

3D is the single source of truth.

completely agree. i've given up questioning why ppl are still doing 2D where i work...."yeah, but i don't need it in 3D" they say

"i'm just doing a plan and elevation"

*closes eyes, mental facepalm, turns and walks away*

You can control the orientation of holes on a PCD while working in Isometric, but it's an intricate and tedious piece of projection.

 

Here is an easier way.

 

I hope this helps someone.

That is a lot of work and is not accurate. As I said in another post, draw it once correctly and make a block of the centerlines and use that from now on. Or simply use the isoviews lisp routine I also gave a link to.

Why seek advice if you're not going to follow it Vagulus? rkent has a point.

That is a lot of work and is not accurate. As I said in another post, draw it once correctly and make a block of the centerlines and use that from now on. Or simply use the isoviews lisp routine I also gave a link to.

Gently, folks, please!

I seem to have taken a good solid thwack at a hornets nest here. Not my intention, I assure you.

I am pretty new to CAD and trying to come to grips with it. I seek advice (and am grateful for it) as I try to find my way. Please be a little more patient and a lot more specific. Consider these points:

1. Bolt hole orientation on a flange is important because the manufacturing convention is that there should be two top holes, the common axis of which is horizontal. That is to say that having one hole on the top at the centreline is not acceptable. This simple convention is international and means that spoolwork made in Glasgow can readily be installed in Sydney.

2. If my technique of orientation is inaccurate, I'd like someone to take the trouble to show me the accurate one. I'd like to know how to "draw it once correctly". Please forgive me that I don't.

3. I don't know what is meant by "make a block of the centrelines and use that".

4. LISP is a conundrum surrounded by a mystery wrapped up in an enigma (or however Churchill's comment goes).

5. Moving into 3D is the next great adventure, but at this stage I am sad to say that none of the material I have seen does any more than draw pretty representations of an artefact. At the risk of some very upset hornets I must say that I have not yet seen 3D examples which would serve as manufacturing drawings - in the drafting office or in the field. I would greatly appreciate some URLs as they would give me a much clearer idea of where I am going.

Finally, I only posted my solution to the problem in the vain hope that it might save some other poor learner some pain in the learning process, I hope my temerity doesn't offend.

1. Manufacturing convention is to make 3D parts.

2. Learn 3D (I recommend a modern program like Autodesk Inventor, but if all you have is AutoCAD - then learn that). Students can get modern Autodesk software for free at http://www.autodesk.com/edcommunity

3. Forget that suggestion

4. Forget that suggestion (for now)

5. 3D is the single source of truth - learn 3D (which requires understanding 2D) and then use the 3D to derive the 2D drawings (viewbase command in AutoCAD).

Are you ready to start learning?

Am I ready to start learning?

Learning is what this whole exercise is about! Many hours each day for weeks now as I try to master 2D drafting in AutoCAD! Of course I am ready to learn!

I take heart from your comment that learning 3D "... requires understanding 2D..." because that should mean that I have not wasted my time thus far.

Thanks for the links to the Autodesk Community and to your tutorials, and your obvious preference for Autodesk Inventor interests me. I went to the Community and to the download page for Autodesk Inventor Professional. There, I spotted a link enticingly named "View designs created with this software". I went there and got 404d, so I am no wiser as to what Inventor is or to what it can do.

I have one drawing exercise I want to complete, then I will be looking at your tutorials.

JD is, as have been all of the other respondents in this thread, spot on. Inventor is at the top of the Autodesk 3D food chain. Should you want to experience software generated 3D views from Autocad, in a matter of a few minutes, just so you get a taste, you could open the 3D modeling toolbar or panel, and create a Solid Primitive in modelspace, then start the Viewbase command from paperspace, no viewport required. You will be amazed. Inventor does it even better.

AutCAD2014... actual speed

...I have one drawing exercise I want to complete.....

Can you attach that exercise here (my tutorials are not intended for beginners).

Re: Lisp.

For a brief introduction to lisp visit forum member Lee Mac's website found at...http://lee-mac.com/index.html

While you are there take a look at the list of programs Lee has generously provided for free to the CAD community. Read the descriptions and get a feel for the power of lisp and the ability it has to take a series of tasks and combine them into a powerful command.

... There, I spotted a link enticingly named "View designs created with this software". I went there and got 404d, so I am no wiser as to what Inventor is or to what it can do.

Forget that link for now - that is student work by students with no more experience (in CAD) than you. I doubt there are any 2d drawings - they don't know how to do engineering drawings - only pretty pictures.

AutCAD2014... actual speed

 

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thank you Nestly....that has taught me a much quicker way than i have been using

something i thought to be an inconvenience with press/pull seems to actually be quite useful!

I agree with all the recommendations to use 3D if you can. It is the best way of deriving Isometric, or any of the other projections for that matter.

If 3d and/or lisp were not an option – using AutoCAD LT, for instance – Maxelkat demos a good method in this thread:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?35359-Isometric-drawing-made-easy!!

The method can be pre-set, but allow for modification that will automatically update an Iso layout. See the image and file below.

IsoViaBlock.dwg