any good 3D tutorials?

I've been through a few, free ones on youtube (Brooke Godfrey is the one I like, clear and concise)

But most of them just focus on offset/sweep/revo etc etc and it's mainly on building a house, nothing but rectangular shapes.

I want a 3D tutorial that teaches me how to model a plane, or a car, something more complex, something with curves, sculpting, all that good stuff.

I found one for Autocad 3D that teaches you how to model an aeroplane from scratch, but it's in German...

anyone?

You'll find it hard to come by AutoCAD tutorials for those types of items since those types of objects are generally produced in more intuitive CAD applications. AutoCAD has only recently added surface and sculpting tools and although doable, I think that most people are still more comfortable with other types of CAD applications than AutoCAD for free-form sculpting type of 3D models.

I'm sure they exist but probably few and far between.

Here's an option for you that is bound to raise the ire of some. Turn off the YouTube videos, stop reading the online tutorials and start doing it on your own. Start small using objects you can hold in your hand and actually turn over and even measure. As you get comfortable with the commands and being able to orient your UCS you'll get better. When you get stuck on something come here and ask.

If you really want other tutorials look at the ones created for AutoCAD 2007 by J.D. Mather who is a forum member. You can find a link below. And I can recommend a pretty good book if you are so inclined. It is called "AutoCAD 2007 3D Modeling - A Visual Approach" as written by Alan J. Kalameja and published by Thomson - Delmar Learning. It even comes with a CD of drawings keyed to the inidividual chapters.

http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/CAD238/AutoCAD_2007_Tutorials.htm

Caveat: If you are not the least familiar with the basic 3D commands for creating as well as editing solids, surfaces, etc. then you should make it a point to go through Kristen S. Kirkland's online PDF entitled "AutoCAD 2013 - 3D Tutorials." Find it here...

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/48-568/PDFs/3D_AutoCAD.pdf

While almost anything can be modeled using plain AutoCAD if your interests lie with such things as airplanes or boats take notice of the fact that there are programs specifically designed to create such models that would make your life much easier. For example SURFACES is an aircraft design program while NEWAVESYS is a boat design program that really shines when it comes to designing hulls.

I am actually more into commercial kitchen equipment. I'm already doing drafting for 2D layouts and I'm thinking of going a step further by giving clients a 3D perspective.

It would certainly make my job harder seeing as my clients can never make up their minds on where to put stuff, but I'm moving on from this job and I need something more than "2D drafting" on my resume.

I have been fooling around with 3D after watching youtube videos and some free tutorials over the net, I managed to do these.

As you can see it is very basic and it took me a long time to do. I'm hoping to be able to model faster with nicer looking equipment, hence the need to learn about sculpting and rendering.

You are modeling commercial kitchen equipment but you are looking for tutorials about modeling airplanes and curved shapes. I've been out of the restaurant business for a while but I don't recall a lot of kitchen equipment having complex curved shapes with the exception maybe of a large mixer. Curved shapes may also be found on stock pots, kettles, blenders, slicers and grinders. Will you be modelling any of these?

As per your image above it looks mostly like you are dealing with rectangular shapes for work tables, refrigerators, steam tables, ovens, broilers, fryers, grills, freezers, stoves, sinks and shelving.

And before you can render you first not only have to model the piece of equipment but you also have to learn how to apply materials, how to map materials, what bump maps are, and how to place lights. I'd like to know what the benefit of modelling a plane in 3D will do for your commercial kitchen modelling skills?

Are you working with solids or surfaces?

What pieces of equipment or parts of equipment did you find the most difficult to do?

What objects do you need some help modelling?

Will your equipment be highly detailed or just detailed enough to be able to recognizable?

Are you going to model specific lines of equipment like Vulcan, Garland or Baker's Pride?

Have you visited any of the manufacturers' websites like Vulcan? If you had you may find that they have CAD libraries where 2D and in some cases 3D drawing files for use in both AutoCAD and Revit are available to download for free. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to? Check this out....

Start with this link to see what is available. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

http://www.vulcanequipment.com/Vulcan/

I'm moving on from this company, so I figure it won't hurt learning something to help me get started elsewhere.

I had a software from Spain i think, called MasterChef or something similar, they have CADs for hundreds of kitchen equipment but I'm not very sure if it's legal to use outside of MasterChef. We didn't purchase the software in the end so..

I just have difficulty in doing anything that's not a circular or squarish. Today I took a blender and tried to model it, copy it's container shape, the dents and grooves etc, gave me a real headache. That helps explain my ability I suppose.

Look up Brooke Godfrey on youtube. She has several videos on 3d commands such as surface and etc.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bagodfrey/videos

She is using r2013 though.

Your story keeps changing. So you don't want to model commercial kitchen equipment but since that is all you're exposed to that is what you have elected to do. Does that about sum it up?

Non circular and non squarish objects give you problems. OK. Let me ask you this, where are you moving on to or hasn't that been decided yet? What would you like to do? Game development? Architecture? Furniture design? Sporting equipment design (bicycles, surfboards, skateboards, lacrosse sticks, hockey equipment)? Sneaker design?

What techniques are you using right now to create your 3D models? What commands do you find yourself using the most? What commands have you ignored because you don't know how to use them?

I am actually more into commercial kitchen equipment. I'm already doing drafting for 2D layouts and I'm thinking of going a step further by giving clients a 3D perspective.

 

It would certainly make my job harder seeing as my clients can never make up their minds on where to put stuff, but I'm moving on from this job and I need something more than "2D drafting" on my resume.

 

I have been fooling around with 3D after watching youtube videos and some free tutorials over the net, I managed to do these.

 

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As you can see it is very basic and it took me a long time to do. I'm hoping to be able to model faster with nicer looking equipment, hence the need to learn about sculpting and rendering.

you're doing good dude. There's no substitute for experience......you will learn to use the appropriate tool for each operation by doing it the long way at first. Just keep drawing and browsing the forums & you will learn. YT for specific problems or learning a new tool.

basic isn't always bad - i do pretty basic stuff most of the time to show installers what to do and to give a general view. Too compliacted/intricate is often un-necessary, makes for bigger file sizes and slows your computer down. i just need to bang out a drawing and get the next one started.