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Drawing a U-Bolt in isometric Drawing?


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You might want to consider abandoning your old way of doing things and explore the world of 3D. Draw the objects once and display them in any combination of views you require be it top, front, side, section, isometric or other. You are unnecessarily confining yourself. Come over to the light.....explore and embrace 3D.

 

One other thing to keep in mind...once you have your 3D model you can extract any necessary 2D views from it using a variety of different methods. I think there are five different ways to do just that incorporated within newer releases of AutoCAD. They include:

 

Flatshot

 

SolProf

 

SolDraw/SolView

 

SectionPlane

 

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You might want to consider abandoning your old way of doing things and explore the world of 3D. Draw the objects once and display them in any combination of views you require be it top, front, side, section, isometric or other. You are unnecessarily confining yourself. Come over to the light.....explore and embrace 3D.

 

One other thing to keep in mind...once you have your 3D model you can extract any necessary 2D views from it using a variety of different methods. I think there are five different ways to do just that incorporated within newer releases of AutoCAD. They include:

 

Flatshot

 

SolProf

 

SolDraw/SolView

 

SectionPlane

 

View Base

 

Thanks for all the help/advice. Part of the reason I've continued to do everything in 2D has been time constraints. I have dabbled with 3D in the past, but I've had much more practice, and schooling doing things in 2D. I have more free time at work lately, and am going to try to get more accustomed to doing 3D stuff. I've been successful in figuring out how to create individual parts in 3D, but then I get overwhelmed trying to draw a tank battery (oil and gas leases) in 3D.

I've got the helical threads thing down for the most part, but I might need to just stick with using the revolve command and manually draw the "threads", because the all-thread stud I drew in the drawing attached is 2 objects, a cylinder and the threads can be moved separately, and I get an error trying to use Union to combine them.

3D Test.pdf

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For something like U-bolts and other parts websites like McMaster-Carr and Reid Supply will have 3D models and 2D drawings.

 

Hey thanks! That's very handy. I really want to learn to draw everything I can, but things like that will definitely help out if I'm in a pinch and have no time. I wish I could find someone that sold fiberglass fittings/pipe, and the various valves that had cad drawing downloads.

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All I can add is that to become good at 3D you have to practice. Keep in mind too that not every drawing you do will require the same level of detail as evidenced by my U-bolt that did not make use of helical threads. Just because we're using CAD instead of pencil and paper doesn't mean we have to get bogged down with minutiae.

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I know ReMark, it's not the level of detail that really stumps me, it's just figuring out how to line things up. I used to do everything via command line, using exact coordinates to make sure things lined up right until I learned about osnaps, and relative coordinates, which greatly sped things up. With the 3D stuff the osnaps seem to hinder me some, I'm sure partly because of lack of experience. The only reason I really did the helical threads was 1: It looks cool 8) 2: Learning (relearning) another way of doing things in autocad, and 3: It seemed faster/easier than figuring out how best to draw the triangles when doing the revolve method when drawing "1/2" the bolt to revolve it.

 

Really I guess I should add 4: That I do tend to over complicate things, and get a little OCD about wanting things to be "perfect"

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The method I demonstrated drawing a closed (half-width) profile of the threads required drawing 2/3rds of a triangle then doing an array. Hooked it all together using a single vertical line and two short horizontal lines then it was all over but the crying. Simple, quick and effective. I'm sure you could do the same. Were you so "OCD" on the drafting board as well? If so how did that go over with your boss? Did projects suffer (financially speaking) because of it?

 

Re: lining things up. OSnaps still work in a 3D environment as far as I know unless AutoCAD changed something overnight. Being able to manipulate your viewing environment helps too. Are you aware you can have multiple viewports in model space that display different views of the object(s) you are working on?

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Yeah I know about the different views, But my current monitor makes that difficult to see. I know Osnaps work in 3d, My problem in the past (from what I can remember) with osnaps was snapping to things on the other side of an object. Rather than the face I'm trying to snap to.

 

As far as the drafting board... I never had that experience. I wear a lot of hats where I work, I'm the "IT guy", I've been stuck with advertising and marketing lately for Oil and Gas Trade shows, and my boss is one of those guys that thinks "Hey you know computers.... CAD is computer stuff.... figure out how to do this." I learned most of what I know following tutorials online, and learned more of the "under the hood" stuff when I took the class to get my certification. As with most things I get tasked with, I have to figure all this stuff out as I go. Sometimes it's easy to find help online, but sometimes I'm not even sure what I need to ask to solve my problem. That being said... projects never suffer from my OCD"ness", that's why most of my drawings (of tank batteries) are usually simple line drawings, using symbols for valves and such. But my boss has expressed interest in me doing more detailed drawings. I don't really have a problem doing elevation view and plan view drawings, but after seeing a few drawings in isometric view, he's wanting some of that from me as well. I usually don't have problems drawing the various stands etc... that we design. The only thing that really stumped me on this one was the u-joint. And my coming here for advice was for future drawings. The customer got the original drawing I attached in my 1st post, along with and explanation that that was the only was I could think to draw it on such short notice.

 

As you can see from my last attachment "3D Test.pdf" above, I know how to do some 3D stuff. If you look at it there's a fiberglass tank flange I drew, mainly just to refresh my memory on that stuff. I think I need to start making a library of 3D blocks, and start messing with scaling and all that, and then take another stab at doing tank batteries in 3D rather than trying to figure out all the angles in 2D isometric. If this stuff where my primary job, I'm sure I'd be a lot further along now. I think it's about time to hit the boss up for a larger monitor. I used to have two separate ones, but lost one to our paint shop for their paint color matching computer.

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Good job ReMark, that's exactly how i would have explained it, sweep , revolve and union. I only attached the dwg of the U-bolts for an example as i didn't have any spare time.

I think the OP is having a hard time with the snaps as he's not used to the UCS system, I'm sure there is a tutorial for him on this site :)

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I just noticed that your profile mention 3ds Max, about which I know nothing.

In modelspace in Autocad, if you are having difficulty snapping to vertices, or

elements which are behind the object in a given perspective, change your

Visual Style to 2D Wireframe, and choose an isometric perspective, once you do that you shouldn't have any problem. :beer:

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I just noticed that your profile mention 3ds Max, about which I know nothing.

In modelspace in Autocad, if you are having difficulty snapping to vertices, or

elements which are behind the object in a given perspective, change your

Visual Style to 2D Wireframe, and choose an isometric perspective, once you do that you shouldn't have any problem. :beer:

 

Thanks Dadgad, I don't know why I have 3ds max in there, I only downloaded a trial of that to help a friend learn how to do something on it. I figured out how to draw a fiberglass tank flange in it, and then apply a realistic fiberglass texture to it. Since then I haven't touched it.

 

I know about using the wireframe to make it a little easier, but I also remember on some things that made it almost more confusing because I get confused when there are too many lines criss crossing everywhere. I'm sure I just need more experience practicing with it. As I stated before, I think I need to start making up my fittings, valves, pipe etc... in the various sizes (mostly 2" through 12") and then take a stab at doing the 3D drawings again.

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If you prefer to work in either the realistic or conceptual visual style look into the CULLINGOBJ system variable.

 

If you prefer to work in a visual style other than 2Dwireframe or 3Dwireframe look at the 3DSELECTIONMODE system variable.

If you prefer to work in a 2Dwireframe visual style freeze the layers that are not in use to cut down on your screen clutter and make sure you are zoomed in closer too. Your picks should become easier.

Edited by ReMark
correction re: 3DSELECTIONMODE
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Thanks ReMark, I'll check out the cullinobj command. I looked into the 3DSELECTIONMODE and it said it has no effect on 2D or 3D wireframe? I didn't think about using/freezing multiple layers. The last time I tried doing a lot of 3D stuff I didn't know about that feature, and since most of what I draw is rather simple, I usually just draw everything on one layer and only create a non plotting layer to get rid of viewport border. So I don't even think about them that much. There's a few things I haven't much utilized that I need to refresh myself on.

 

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice here.

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The creation and management of layers is, in my opinion, the foundation of a well conceived CAD drawing.

 

Re: 3DSELECTIONMODE. Yes, you are correct. Thanks for pointing that out; I've corrected my mistake.

Edited by ReMark
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Yeah, we did a lot of that when I took the class working on complex building/floor layouts. I just haven't had much of a need for it, and am always in a hurry to get something completed. But, looks like it's time to dig back in and refamiliarize myself with it.

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and you start thinking about extracting 2D views from your 3D models.

 

Could you clarify that last part? How does layers help with extracting the 2D view?

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Oh ok, I wasn't aware of how that works. I hadn't read about that, I thought you meant for plotting or exporting to pdf. So, extracting creates a duplicate 2D drawing of the 3D model? I'll look into that more once I get to that point. right now I'm just creating a bunch of fittings in various sizes to plug into future drawings.

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