[0:00]Welcome to Source CAD. In this three-part video series, I will introduce you to the 3D tools of AutoCAD right from scratch. This tutorial series is for beginners who are completely new to AutoCAD 3D and have basic knowledge of AutoCAD 2D tools. In this part one of three part series, we will discuss the following topics. So we'll start with user interface and then we'll talk about navigation tools. Later, we'll also discuss about solid primitives which are 3D solid models that can be created without using any 2D sketch. Then we'll talk about simple 3D modeling tools like extrude, press pull, revolve, sweep, and finally, loft. So without any delay, let's get started with AutoCAD 3D user interface.
[0:57]When you launch AutoCAD for the very first time, this is the screen that you will usually see. Now, we do have a start tab here, which is the tab that's going to list all the drawings that you've previously opened. Also, some other options here. But I'm going to start with a blank drawing right here. Now, let's explore the user interface before we discuss the basic tools. The very first thing that you need to do here is switch to 3D modeling environment. Right now, we are in the 2D drafting workspace, which will let you make drawings for 2D, and all the 2D tools are readily available here. So, I'll go to this gear icon right here on the status bar, select, and I'll select 3D modeling. Now, we are in the 3D modeling workspace, and as you can see, the tools on this ribbon area are now 3D tools. So, this entire area is called ribbon area, and it is divided in a very logical way. So we have Home tab which contains all the frequently used 3D tools as well as some 2D tools. We have solid tab with frequently used solid modeling tools, we have surface tab with surfacing tools, mesh, mesh related tools, visualize. Well, it contains tools related to 3D rendering and environment setting, and then we have the usual parametric insert and all the other tabs. Now, I'll go to Home tab, and Home tab is where you'll find all the most frequently used tools from all of these other tabs. For example, we have the solid tab, the solid tools, we also have the mesh tab, we have solid editing tools, and we don't have any surface tool here because we can use it in a different way. Now, here we have the drawing area. This is where the magic happens and everything you make in AutoCAD will show up right about here. Also, we have on the top right corner this view cube. Now, this view cube is very essential for making 3D drawings, and you need it for 3D drawing views. Now, if you don't see this view cube, simply go to this minus icon here on the top left, and select view cube. This should be checked. Also, we have a navigation bar. So, make sure this is checked and actually this thing is navigation bar. So, make sure it is checked and the navigation bar will show up. Alternatively, you can go to view tab and activate view cube and navigation bar from here. We also have this UCS icon, which happens to be this one. It will show you X, Y, and Z axis. Currently we are in the 2D plane so only we have X and Y. Z will show up in a moment when we explore the 3D environment. Now, let's go to this material sample drawing. And all these drawings can be downloaded from link in the description. So, whatever drawing I've used in this tutorial is available for download. Now, this material sample drawing contains this kind of wireframe, and actually we are in the 3D view, so X, Y, and Z axis is visible. Now, that's the usual case for 3D drawing, and now here you can see the view cube as well. It is showing you this 3D view. Now, with this view cube, we have this home icon. Just click on it and it will take you to this southwest isometric direction, which is in between south and west and tilted to an angle of 30 degrees. If you click on any hotspot on this view cube, for example, top, it will take you to top view. If you click here, it will take you to this view, and respectively, it will just move to whatever view you select. You can also shift the view by 90 degrees simply by clicking these arrows. It will just shift by 90 degrees, and you can rotate by 90 degrees in the current plane simply by selecting these arrows. To switch back to the default view, click on Home. Now, the visual style will control the way your drawing is displayed. Right now, we are looking at this drawing in 2D wireframe visual style, and the visual style option is on this view panel. That's right here. You can switch to different visual style like conceptual, it will show you your drawing in shaded view with the shadows. So you can see the direction of light as well as shadow. You can change it to hidden where hidden lines are not visible, realistic view where the materials of this object are also visible. So, here as you can see materials are applied and it's clearly visible. We have simply the shaded view, the shaded with edges view, we have the shades of gray view, completely gray drawing with no material whatsoever. And then we have the sketchy view, and we have wireframe. Now, this wireframe is optimized for 3D. This 2D wireframe view is optimized for 2D, so this is the 3D wireframe view. And then finally X-ray view, which is kind of a translucent view where the materials are also visible, but you can also see through it. Now, navigation tool is very important in 3D, and to navigate in 3D, you just need to use a three-button mouse. Now, if you have a three-button mouse, simply press and hold your middle mouse wheel, and this will let you pan your drawing like this. Also, if you press Shift key and then press your middle mouse wheel, this will let you orbit your drawing. Now, this is like floating your drawing in the 3D environment. So, wherever you move your mouse, your drawing will float like this, and you can see the view cube as well. It is just floating along with the drawing. Now, you can also change this to an orbit called free orbit. Now, to orbit your drawing freely in 3D space, press and hold Control as well as Shift key. So press both of these keys and now press your middle mouse wheel, and now what we have here is free orbit. So, there is a difference between the usual orbit and free orbit. In this case, you can just orbit your drawing completely without any limitation, but in the usual orbit tool, it will stop at some point. For example, if I orbit it, it will just stop right about here, and now it won't orbit anymore, but with free orbit, well, you can orbit it even further. So, that's the difference between free orbit and orbit.
[7:07]Now, the same set of tools are also available here on the navigation bar. So we have the orbit tool, select, and you can orbit your drawing. We have the free orbit right here, well you can freely orbit it, and of course, we have the pan tool. You can just pan your drawing like this. Then we have the command line and the status bar toggle, which are really important things. And you can just add any command using this command line, and status bar toggle is used for making drawings precisely, and it has all the tools related to making drawings precisely and other tools as well. Now, there are two kind of views in AutoCAD, a parallel and a perspective. Currently we are looking at this drawing in a parallel view. Let me show you what it is. So, I'll go to this parallel and perspective drawing for that. And this is the parallel view where all the lines are parallel, so you can see, well, these two lines are parallel, so are these. So, that's the usual view, but not the very realistic kind of view. If, however, you right-click on this view cube, and switch to perspective, it will show you this view. Now, here you can see that the face which is closer to you will appear larger, and the one which is further away from you will appear, well, smaller. And these two lines are no longer parallel, so it is kind of the realistic view which you'll usually see in the real world. That's the perspective view. Now, perspective view is often not the best for working in AutoCAD. So, when you are working with AutoCAD 3D, and if your drawing switches to this kind of perspective view, just switch it back to parallel by right-clicking on view cube and selecting parallel from this. Now, let's talk about the solid primitives. So, I'll go to this blank drawing. And now we'll start making 3D drawing. To make 3D drawing, we don't always need sketches, though, usually we start with 2D sketch and then we convert it into 3D, but using primitives, you can directly start with 3D. In the modeling panel, we have the primitive tools right here, and these are all called solid primitives. Now, before we begin making anything, you need to switch to 3D view, which you can do simply by clicking here on the home icon. Now, we are in X, Y, and Z view, which is the 3D view. Now, click on this box primitive, click anywhere, and that's the first point. Now you can see that we are making a rectangle. Click on the second point, that's the base, and then add a height. So, we have the very first cuboid. Now, this is the 2D wireframe visual style, so you can change it to anything. In this case, I'll select Shades of Gray. There we are. Now you can see this clearly. You can also select other primitives, like cylinder, where you can just start from a point, make the base, and then add a height. And you can keep on making other primitives like so. So you can just make the base. Now you can move it up or even down if you want.
[10:35]And rest are similar. You can also use proper distances if you don't want to use these random values. Let me show you how it works. So, I'll go to box, I'll click at a point, and now we want to specify a proper distance. For that, I'll type at 1, let's say 1.5, 3. Now, we are using one as length, which is along X-axis, 1.5 width, which is along Y-axis, and three is the distance along Z-axis. So, let's just press Enter and this is what we have. One along X, that's this, 1.5 along Y, that's this, and three along Z, that's the height. You can also use negative direction. For example, I'll go to cylinder, I'll click at a point, and now I'll add a distance of one unit for the base radius. Now, if you press simply +2 and press Enter, it will just make it up, but if you want to make it downwards, just type -2 or any value with a negative sign. So, -2 will make it downwards like this. In a similar way, we can make cone with proper distances, for example, one, and let's just make it 1.5. And then we have the sphere, which is just a spherical shape. So, I'll click at a point, and now I'll add a radius of two, and there we have it, we have the sphere. We have a pyramid shape. Now, for making pyramid, well, you just need to start with the base square. Now, in this case, the base is touching exactly at this vertex. Now, that's because of inscribed type of square that we have. Here, this square is made inside an imaginary circle where the circle is touching only the vertices. But if you want to change that to circumscribed, select circumscribed, and now it will touch the midpoint instead of the vertices. So, you can just select whatever the base circle you want. In this case, the base circle is this one, which is made inside this and AutoCAD will use this circle as a reference because it's prompting you to specify radius and not the side length. So, here, let's just change it back to inscribed, and now this will be the circle, and the radius is, let's say, two. There we are. Now, you can specify the height or depth if you want. Then we have the wedge shape. Now, wedge is, well, this. So, you just need to specify this, I mean, just a base rectangle, and then it will move up or down along Y axis. So, you just need to specify that height. And then finally we have the Torus shape, the donut kind of shape. Here, you just need to start with the base circle, which is the central circle, and then thickness of this torus. So, whatever thickness you specify, maybe 0.2, that will be the Torus thickness. And that's how you can create primitives. Now, as you can see, for making these primitives, you don't need a 2D sketch, but for all the other sketches that we will make next, we need 2D sketches. So, for that, I'll go to this simple 3D tools. Now, here I have already created some sketches. So now, let's explore the simple solid modeling tools. Now, these solid modeling tools are the building block of AutoCAD 3D, and using these tools, you can make any kind of drawing. Now, on the modeling panel, the very first tool that we have here is called extrude. Let's select this, and now using this tool, well, you can give height to any 2D shape. Let me just click on home. And now I'll zoom into this one, this drawing only, and if you notice this, you'll just find that this drawing is made with a circle, a rectangle, and a line. So, basically we just have two closed geometries, a rectangle and a circle. Now, you can click on any close geometry, press Enter, and then specify a height. For example, here, I'll just click and there is a height. You can also change the visual style to see this thing clearly like this. Let's repeat it again. So, I'll go to extrude, I'll select this, enter, and now I'll add a smaller height like this. So, we've got two of these solid geometries. Now, I'll press Control + Z to get back to the original shape, Home, zoom into this one. Now, I'll change the visual style to Shades of Gray. All right. Now, in this case, it is extruding it completely in a solid way, but you can change it. So, I'll go to extrude, I'll select the circle, and now I want it to extrude as a surface. We just want to extrude along the boundary, but not as a solid. For that, you can go to mode, and you can select surface mode. And now the extrusion will happen along the surface like this. Now, what we have here is a surface. You can do exactly the same using the surface tab. So, on the surface tab, we have the equivalent extrude tool. Here, you can just select extrude, and this will automatically extrude a surface even if your drawing is completely closed, like this. Now, let's press Control + Z a couple of times. I'll go to Home, extrude, and if you extrude a single line or any open geometry, it will by default extrude a surface. So, for closed geometry, it will extrude a solid, but for open one, it will automatically extrude a surface. Let's go to extrude again, and I'll go to mode, and I'll change it back to solid. All right. Now, let's select this circle and enter. All right, there we are. Now, in this case, I'm going to change the angle with which this thing is tapered. So, that's this option, taper angle. Now, as you can see, as I've changed the taper angle, it will start tapering, and you just need to specify an angle for tapering. So, I'm going to type 10, that's the taper angle, and there we are. Now it is tilted to an angle of 10 degrees, and you can specify a height again. So, you can just click or you can specify a height using the command line. So, maybe let's add a height of 10 unit, and there we are. Now, it is tilted to an angle of 10 degrees, that's the taper angle. You can also add a negative taper angle. For example, extrude, I'll select this, enter, and now I'll go to taper angle, and I'll type -10, enter. And now it will taper outside instead of tapering it inside. So, that's the extrude tool. Now, we also have a tool here called press pull. Now, press pull is similar, but in this case, you don't need a sketch. It will extrude only the regions, not the boundaries. So, for extrude, we selected the boundary, but for press pull, you can click inside the boundary. Now, as you can see, this boundaries is highlighted, so it will extrude only this boundary. Just click and there we are. You can select this boundary and extrude it separately, this boundary, and maybe extrude it like this. And that's called press pull. Now, with press pull, you can also select multiple boundaries. For example, I'll select press pull, I'll select this boundary, and then I want to select this region as well. So, I'll go to multiple, and I'll select this region. Now, we have two regions selected, and you can even select more if you want, but maybe let's just select this one too. All right, we've got these three. Press Enter, and now we have extruded these three regions. So, there we have it, three simple press pulls. Now, if you want to subtract any solid geometry, then you can use press pull for that as well. So, I'll go to this circle, and now I'll make a circle right on top of this. Now, by default, it will let me make that, but if for whatever reason, this kind of plane is not highlighting whenever you are selecting any geometry, then that's because of an option from status bar. So, in this case, I'm very easily able to make this circle right on top of this, but if it's not working in your case, just go to customization and select dynamic UCS. This should be checked. When it is checked, AutoCAD will show this kind of access system with a lightning icon. Just make sure it is checked here as well. So, it should be active, and when active, it will turn blue like this. Now, you will be able to make your drawing on any surface. So, here also, you just make it, and you can even make it on this surface. So, you just need to highlight the surface and you can make it. If this is not active, you won't be able to make it on any surface, it will only make it on X and Y, and that's all because of the user coordinate system that works in AutoCAD. We'll talk about that in the upcoming videos. So, we have all of these circles. Now, let's go to press pull. I'll select the circle, and now if I move it down, it will create a hole. If I move it up, it's going to extrude it. So, maybe let's just click down. And now we have this hole. Select here, move it, and now it extruded this. So, based on the direction where you are just moving it, it will either cut or add geometry. That's the press pull.
[22:04]Now, let's move to the next tool, which is revolve. So right underneath this, we have revolve tool here. Select revolve, and here we have a completely closed geometry. Now, as you can see, this is made with one single unit. So if you have geometry, which is made with several separate segments, make sure it is closed and joined into one unit. Now, I'll select this and enter. All right. Now we just need to specify an axis.
[22:39]So, I'll select this red line. So, first point, second point, and we have this. So, this is how it's going to revolve. It will just revolve it right around that axis. And if you press enter now, the resulting shape will look like this. That's revolve.
[23:00]Now, I'll press Control + Z a couple of times to get back to this, and I'll revolve it once again. So, I'll go to revolve, select this, enter. Now, I'll select this green line as the axis, and the shape which we are going to get now will be different. So, it is just going to pull it up like this and revolve around green line, and this is what we are going to get. Now, there is a gap here, and that's because of this green line or red line selection. But if I press Control + Z, and if I just select this line directly on the geometry, then there won't be a gap. So, I'll go to revolve again, select the drawing, and I can select this axis or this, whichever you want. Maybe I'll select this one here, and now it will revolve like this without any gap. Now, it is revolving to an angle of 360, which is just closing this completely, but if you want to gap, you can add an angle like 270. Enter, and now it will fill only three quarters. And here you can see what's going on. So, this was the shape, and it just revolved this shape about this line and kind of like this, and the revolve angle is 270 degrees. So, three quarters are filled. That's the revolve tool.
[24:45]Now, let's talk about the sweep tool.
[24:50]Now, for the sweep tool, I'm just going to delete both of these geometries so that we have a clean drawing.
[25:01]And the sweep tool is right here. So, with sweep, you can sweep one geometry on another. We need one closed and one open geometry for sweep to work. So, here we have it, we have open geometry, which is a spline, and also a polyline with these fillets, and then we have two closed geometry, a Pentagon and a circle. I'll select the circle, enter, now select this spline, and here we are. It will sweep it like this, right along this path. It's as easy as that. Let's press Control + Z a couple of times, and let's sweep it again. So, sweep, I'll select the circle, enter. Now, here we have an option called scale. Let's change the scale. And I'll add a scale of two, enter. Now, if I click close to this endpoint, the sweep will happen like this. It will start sweeping with the original circle from here as I click close to this endpoint, and by the time it reaches the second endpoint, the circle size will be twice as big. Because of the scale of two. So, that's the non-uniform sweep. Let's press Control + Z again, and let's sweep it along this path. And to do that, once again, I'll press Control + Z so that we are back to this, I'll go to sweep, and I'll select the circle, enter. Now, here we have an option called twist. Select it and add a twist angle. Now, this can be any angle, and it can be even more than 360 degrees. So, let me just type 720 for now, enter, and I'll add this path. And this will happen. So, this will start twisting it along this path. So, it is sweeping it, but it is also revolving this polygon right along this path. And by the time it reaches this end point, it would have revolved to a complete angle of 720 degrees. So, that's the twist value.
[27:34]Now, finally, let's talk about the loft tool. So, I'll go to loft, and the loft tool is the most unique kind of tool. In this case, we need shapes like this. So, here 2D shapes are made on three different but parallel planes. Now, you don't need to make it on parallel planes, but I've made it just for simplicity. You just need to ensure that they are not on same plane like this. Now, I'll go to this drop-down and I'll select loft. Now, we need to select the geometries. So, first geometry, second one, and third, and that's the loft. Press Enter twice, and this is what we have. Now, this may not look very clear, so I'll change the visual style. So, I'll go to this one and change it to Shades of Gray, and I'll repeat it again. So, loft, first, second, third, and now you can see the difference. So, that's how you're going to get the shape. It will combine all the 2D geometries to make it. Press Enter once, and now we have some options here. So, using these options, you can further modify this shape. Now, if I press Enter, you'll get this shape as the final one. But if you click this arrow, you can now select options like normal to all sections, and now we have this loft, which is normal to every single sections. Here, it is perpendicular to this profile, and here also it's perpendicular. If you change it to normal to start section, this is perpendicular right here, but not here or here. Here, it's just falling the profile. Normal to end section will make it perpendicular right here, but not here or here. Then we have normal to start and end sections. So, start and end are perpendicular, but not here. And then finally we have a draft angle. Now, using this draft angle, you can make very different kind of shapes. So, once selected, click on these grips. These grips will highlight when you select draft angle. Just click, and now we have two handles. We have one handle, which is the influence handle, and second one is angle. So, you can click on this handle to increase the influence amount of this curve. So, here it's just increasing or decreasing it, so I'll just increase the influence only up to this point, and now I'm going to change the angle like so. So, here, you can just move it up, down, just like this to change the angle. Maybe I'll just move it like this. Now, I'll select this, and here also, I'll just change the sphere of influence, and maybe I'll just make it like this. All right. And then I'll change the angle. So, I'll just move it out, just like this. So, with that, we've got this kind of weird shape. So, we have just three sections, and using this, we have made this kind of shape. Now, once you're satisfied with the way this drawing looks, simply press Enter, and here is the final shape.
[31:34]That's loft. Of course, if you want to make it hollow, we have a tool for that as well, which will explore in a moment. So, I'll press Control + Z a couple of times to get back to this, and finally, let me show you one more option related to loft.
[31:54]Whenever you are using loft, make sure that you are selecting your sketches in a proper order. For example, if I select this circle, then this circle, and then this polygon, the shape will be different. So, it will just follow your selection. If I press Enter twice, I'm going to get this shape. So, depending on the lofting order, the shape will differ. And that's the loft tool.
[32:59]So that was part one. In the next part, we will discuss the advanced 3D modeling tools. So, I'll see you in the next part.
