Drawing Cylinders in AutoCAD 2008
Cylinders are one of AutoCAD's primitive solids. Using these primitives (the others are Box, Sphere, Cone, Wedge and Torus), you can build up an object. By using AutoCAD's Boolean operators on the solids, you can manipulate them to create the shape you desire. When you create a final object, you can then view it from any angle. You can add materials to it so you can create, export and print photo-realistic images.
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Instructions
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Open AutoCAD with a blank drawing. Change the workspace to 3D Modeling. This will open a new Dashboard configuration containing the tools you need for 3D work.
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Click on the Cylinder icon. The prompt will ask for a location for the center of the cylinder's base. Click anywhere in the drawing.
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Specify a radius for the base. Either stretch out the base or enter a specific size. The prompt next asks for a height, so type in the height you need your cylinder to be.
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Change the view so that you can see the cylinder's height. By default you are in Top view, so it looks as if you have drawn a circle. From the View menu, choose 3D Views and then pick an Isometric view.
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Type hide, and the Cylinder's appearance will change. You can see that it is in fact a solid object. Try some other views so you can see your cylinder from all angles.
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Tips & Warnings
Your cylinder may not look much like a cylinder when you first view it. This is because the number of lines is initially limited to save system resources. To change this, type Isolines - Enter. Change the value from 4 to 16. This will make the model look more realistic.
When drawing in 3D, you still create objects on the XY plane. As you use the various views, the UCS (User Coordinate System) will change alignment. If you do not make sure it is the correct orientation for what you want to draw, you will get unexpected results.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages, Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images
