AutoCAD Tips to Work Smarter - September 2003
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Plotting Shaded & Rendered Models!
In previous versions of AutoCAD, if you wanted a plot of your shaded 3D model, you were just plain out of luck. You could redirect the output of the Render command to a file (bmp, pcx, tiff, tga, postscript)
and print the image using another application.
Now with AutoCAD 2004®, you can assign hide, shade and rendered properties to viewports, controlling the plotted appearance of your model. To set the Shade Plot property, switch to Paper Space and left-click on
a viewport. Right-click and select Shade Plot from the menu.
Select As Displayed to plot the viewport using the currently displayed shaded view. Select one of the other options to force the viewport to plotted using a specific shaded mode, regardless
of the current display.
Note: To plot a Rendered viewport, you must set the Shade Plot setting to Render.
Click on the figure below to see a larger picture of the drawing.
Click on the figure below to see a larger picture of the plotted drawing.
You'll notice that all the Render properties are apparent in the Drawing as Plotted image, including materials and shadows.
Another new setting regarding plotting 3D models involves the display of hidden edges. In the past, the Hide command simply hid obscured edges. Now you have the option of displaying
hidden edges using a linetype and/or color. This setting is located on the User Preferences tab of the Options command.
Click on the Hidden Line Settings button to assign a linetype and/or color to the hidden edges.
I hope you've enjoyed this AutoCAD 2004 tip and have learned something in the process.
Want to learn more?
CCAD's 3D Basic Workshop will teach you the fundamentals of wireframe, surface and solid modeling techniques and introduce you to the world of Rendering!