smadaf
2008-03-23, 05:06 AM
Hello, All.
I have a mix of vague and specific questions about using AutoCAD 2008, to which I'd like specific answers. It seems that the way for me to present my questions is one that may strike some as long-winded; but I'll be grateful to anyone who reads this post and responds helpfully. [I've now edited this post to make it somewhat shorter, in the hope of a reply from some kind soul who reads it and wants to advise me.]
For most of my life, I drafted only on paper. More recently, I made scale plans and elevations in Adobe Photoshop.
Only last year did I make any real and successful effort to get into the amazing world of CAD, with AutoCAD 2008.
My problem is that, despite many hours' reading, in the Help files and in various websites' tutorials, about how to do specific things in AutoCAD, I lack any certainty about the basic approach to take. The best example of this problem is my present project.
It began before I had AutoCAD, when I sketched my idea for a house on paper. The next step was to draw a plan in Photoshop; the scale was that a 4×4 square of pixels represented one square inch.
Once I had AutoCAD, I began reproducing the plan with the line command, which was the only command I used. An 8-foot-long wall 5 inches thick, for example, was represented by two parallel lines 8 feet long and 5 inches apart, joined to each other at each end by a 5-inch line. I did this for the whole house, which had about eight rooms; these lines simply represented the bounds, thicknesses, and placements of the interior and exterior walls.
Then, I wanted to expand this two-dimensional depiction to include the third dimension.
When I extruded all these lines straight up 8 feet, it wasn't what I wanted.
One problem resulted in my discovering that drawing, say, a 10-foot line by overlapping two 6-foot lines, and then extruding that line into an infinitely thin three-dimensional object, would result in that object's seeming to be divided into three portions, the middle section being the 2-foot overlap of the two 6-foot portions.
The other problem was that there were empty spaces between the extrusions of the lines that represented the different sides of a single wall. The aforementioned 8-foot-long, 5-inch-thick wall, for example, was now a hollow box 8 feet long, 5 inches wide, and, say, 8 feet tall.
Well, when I decided to return to the project, I failed to figure out any way of 'unextruding' these upright planes back into simple lines on a two-dimensional surface.
So I scrapped the whole thing and began again. First, I drew the same lines, marking out the walls' placement and thickness on a theoretical floor. Then, I joined all the lines into a single unit. Finally, those lines acted simply as my guide for the placement of rectilinear solids, which I placed on the theoretical floor, rising 8 feet from it.
As I accumulated groups of such solids, I joined them together into one single, complex shape, now seemingly not separable back into its original component solids.
Then, it was time to cut windows into these walls. And the trouble began again. I found no way of cutting holes through various portions of this single solid.
So I used the slice command to cut away portions of the solid, which portions I then replaced with various separate solids that surrounded the empty space occupied by the window.
Even with that technique, there were yet two more problems.
One was that the slice tool could not be made to slice through only a portion of a solid object, but had to slice through the entire thing. Imagine, for example, that you have joined four solids at right angles to represent the four walls of an empty room, and that you now want to make a slice in one of these walls as a step towards making a window: you end up being required to slice not only through the wall that you want to cut, but also through the opposite wall.
The other problem was that, in certain spots, even when I had tried dozens of times, the slice command refused to cut the object into two separate pieces.
And that's where I've been stuck for these several weeks of discouraged inaction.
What I would like to read from you is (1) your solutions to these various problems (I imagine that AutoCAD isn't truly as frustrating as it has been for me, and that I'm simply not taking advantage of some features that would make this task easier), or (2) at least your suggestions for the basic approach that I should take.
What do I mean by "basic approach"? Let's take something simple: say, a wall with a doorway in it. My preferred way of working would be to start with a rectilinear solid representing the wall; next, I would cut a hole in it, for the doorway; after that, I might then add various solids, or cut pieces away from existing solids, to create, say, the details of the door frame's molding. But is that a viable approach in AutoCAD? With AutoCAD's way of working, will it actually be easier to start with the specifics, such as the details of the molding, and work outwards, saving the construction of the surrounding wall for last?
In my head are a great many details of this house, including specific measurements for moldings, windows, doors, stairways, thresholds, porches, floors, railings walls, cabinets, &c.
So far, it has been my nature to join each new solid to the others so that they now are one. But does this mean (as it seems to mean) that I'll then have more difficulty 'carving' details into one part of that solid than I would have had if I had left that portion separate from the larger solid?
What's the best approach to building a detailed house in AutoCAD? Is it suicidal to put up all the basic walls first and only secondly bring in the details? Is it wiser to work from small to large, rather than the other way around?
In using AutoCAD to present this house idea visually to others, I'd prefer to be able to have my first utterance be "Here's the basic layout, showing how all the rooms fit together and the general shape of the exterior", rather than "Well, I've built all the details of the transom light over one door ... and you won't get to see the general layout of the whole house until ages from now."
I'll stop now and check periodically for replies. Thanks again for anyone's enlightenment.
Smadaf
1833–2356 CDT with breaks
Sat 22 Mar 2008 ©
I have a mix of vague and specific questions about using AutoCAD 2008, to which I'd like specific answers. It seems that the way for me to present my questions is one that may strike some as long-winded; but I'll be grateful to anyone who reads this post and responds helpfully. [I've now edited this post to make it somewhat shorter, in the hope of a reply from some kind soul who reads it and wants to advise me.]
For most of my life, I drafted only on paper. More recently, I made scale plans and elevations in Adobe Photoshop.
Only last year did I make any real and successful effort to get into the amazing world of CAD, with AutoCAD 2008.
My problem is that, despite many hours' reading, in the Help files and in various websites' tutorials, about how to do specific things in AutoCAD, I lack any certainty about the basic approach to take. The best example of this problem is my present project.
It began before I had AutoCAD, when I sketched my idea for a house on paper. The next step was to draw a plan in Photoshop; the scale was that a 4×4 square of pixels represented one square inch.
Once I had AutoCAD, I began reproducing the plan with the line command, which was the only command I used. An 8-foot-long wall 5 inches thick, for example, was represented by two parallel lines 8 feet long and 5 inches apart, joined to each other at each end by a 5-inch line. I did this for the whole house, which had about eight rooms; these lines simply represented the bounds, thicknesses, and placements of the interior and exterior walls.
Then, I wanted to expand this two-dimensional depiction to include the third dimension.
When I extruded all these lines straight up 8 feet, it wasn't what I wanted.
One problem resulted in my discovering that drawing, say, a 10-foot line by overlapping two 6-foot lines, and then extruding that line into an infinitely thin three-dimensional object, would result in that object's seeming to be divided into three portions, the middle section being the 2-foot overlap of the two 6-foot portions.
The other problem was that there were empty spaces between the extrusions of the lines that represented the different sides of a single wall. The aforementioned 8-foot-long, 5-inch-thick wall, for example, was now a hollow box 8 feet long, 5 inches wide, and, say, 8 feet tall.
Well, when I decided to return to the project, I failed to figure out any way of 'unextruding' these upright planes back into simple lines on a two-dimensional surface.
So I scrapped the whole thing and began again. First, I drew the same lines, marking out the walls' placement and thickness on a theoretical floor. Then, I joined all the lines into a single unit. Finally, those lines acted simply as my guide for the placement of rectilinear solids, which I placed on the theoretical floor, rising 8 feet from it.
As I accumulated groups of such solids, I joined them together into one single, complex shape, now seemingly not separable back into its original component solids.
Then, it was time to cut windows into these walls. And the trouble began again. I found no way of cutting holes through various portions of this single solid.
So I used the slice command to cut away portions of the solid, which portions I then replaced with various separate solids that surrounded the empty space occupied by the window.
Even with that technique, there were yet two more problems.
One was that the slice tool could not be made to slice through only a portion of a solid object, but had to slice through the entire thing. Imagine, for example, that you have joined four solids at right angles to represent the four walls of an empty room, and that you now want to make a slice in one of these walls as a step towards making a window: you end up being required to slice not only through the wall that you want to cut, but also through the opposite wall.
The other problem was that, in certain spots, even when I had tried dozens of times, the slice command refused to cut the object into two separate pieces.
And that's where I've been stuck for these several weeks of discouraged inaction.
What I would like to read from you is (1) your solutions to these various problems (I imagine that AutoCAD isn't truly as frustrating as it has been for me, and that I'm simply not taking advantage of some features that would make this task easier), or (2) at least your suggestions for the basic approach that I should take.
What do I mean by "basic approach"? Let's take something simple: say, a wall with a doorway in it. My preferred way of working would be to start with a rectilinear solid representing the wall; next, I would cut a hole in it, for the doorway; after that, I might then add various solids, or cut pieces away from existing solids, to create, say, the details of the door frame's molding. But is that a viable approach in AutoCAD? With AutoCAD's way of working, will it actually be easier to start with the specifics, such as the details of the molding, and work outwards, saving the construction of the surrounding wall for last?
In my head are a great many details of this house, including specific measurements for moldings, windows, doors, stairways, thresholds, porches, floors, railings walls, cabinets, &c.
So far, it has been my nature to join each new solid to the others so that they now are one. But does this mean (as it seems to mean) that I'll then have more difficulty 'carving' details into one part of that solid than I would have had if I had left that portion separate from the larger solid?
What's the best approach to building a detailed house in AutoCAD? Is it suicidal to put up all the basic walls first and only secondly bring in the details? Is it wiser to work from small to large, rather than the other way around?
In using AutoCAD to present this house idea visually to others, I'd prefer to be able to have my first utterance be "Here's the basic layout, showing how all the rooms fit together and the general shape of the exterior", rather than "Well, I've built all the details of the transom light over one door ... and you won't get to see the general layout of the whole house until ages from now."
I'll stop now and check periodically for replies. Thanks again for anyone's enlightenment.
Smadaf
1833–2356 CDT with breaks
Sat 22 Mar 2008 ©