By now you should be very comfortable working your way around the X-Y coordinate system Looking from the plan (top) view, this is what you see to figure out where is positive X and positive Y.

If you were to look at the same picture, but at a slight angle, you would see the third axis. This new axis is called the Z-axis. Imagine that the positive Z-axis is coming towards you out of the monitor.

The Z-axis has always been there, but you couldn't see it because you were looking straight down at the end of it.

You also have to know how AutoCAD measures angles of rotation in 3D. There is a somewhat simple rule for this called "The Right Hand Rule". To figure out which is the positive rotation angle, imagine that you are wrapping your right hand around the axis with your thumb pointing towards the positive end. The direction that your fingers are wrapped is the positive direction. This applies to all three axes.

The next hurdle in working on 3D drawings is being able to view the drawing from different points of view.

The simpliest way to accomplish this is to use the View toolbar to select preset viewpoints.

Display the View toolbar by right-clicking on any AutoCAD toolbar button and placing a check mark next to the name View.

The View toolbar will look a bit different in each version of AutoCAD, but you should see the 10 buttons shown at the right.

1. Top View
2. Bottom View
3. Left View
4. Right View
5. Front View

6. Rear View
7. SW Isometric View
8. SE Isometric View
9. NW Isometric View
10. NE Isometric View

The figure at the right illustrates your view of the coordinate system from the Top (Plan) view. The Red line is the X axis, while the Blue line is the Y axis.

There is a Z axis, but it can't be seen from this viewpoint.



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Changing the viewpoint to the SW Isometric view suddenly makes the Z axis (Green line) visible.

Click Here To download the Axis drawing shown at the right.

I hope you've found this preliminary discussions of 3D helpful. The next 3D Tip Sheet will introduce drawing lines in 3D.