How to Make a 3D Blue Print

Computer aided design applications can make 3-D images from blueprints.

Blueprints are the graphics that architects and draftsmen use to define a structure to be built. For example, the house or apartment you live in started as a blueprint. You can use free resources to simulate a 3-D image of a structure that a blueprint specifies. Other free resources have tools for making blueprints themselves appear 3-D. Making 3-D blueprints provides an introduction to creating floor plans for home additions or renovations. It is also a way of learning the artistic skill of creating the illusion of 3-D form on a 2-D surface.

Instructions

Use a Design Application

1. Open the home page of a free online design applet whose tools turn blueprints into 3-D images of the structure specified by the blueprints. Example applets include Homestyler, Floorplanner and Small Blue Printer.

2. Follow the applet's prompts until its drawing canvas and tool palette appear.

3. Drag icons for walls, fixtures or other components from the palette onto the drawing canvas. The palette is located to the right of the drawing canvas.

4. Press the 3-D button or tab to complete the 3-D image based on the blueprint. Homestyler and Floorplanner both have buttons labeled "3D" above the drawing canvas. Small Blue Printer's 3-D function is under the tab "Isometric."

5. Click the applet's "Print" button to print the 3-D image you made from the blueprint. Small Blue Printer's print function is under its "Print" tab. Homestyler's print function is under its "File" menu, and Floorplanner's print function is available through the printer icon to the right and above the drawing canvas.

Make an Image of a Blueprint Appearing to be 3-D

1. Load a blueprint image onto Windows Paint. You can find blueprints on sites like artist Thomas Suurland, The Blueprints or Williams College.

2. Press "Control-W" to bring up the skew and sizing dialog box. You will skew the image, which will make it look foreshortened. Foreshortening is an optical phenomenon that makes objects appear shorter when seen from indirect viewpoints. Foreshortening creates the illusion of three dimensions.

3. Type "30" for both the horizontal and vertical skew text boxes and press "OK" to perform the skew. This completes the foreshortening of the blueprint. You'll now add a shadow to intensify the 3-D effect.

4. Click the icon with the dotted line rectangle in the left toolbar to select the rectangular selection tool.

5. Drag a selection region around the skewed blueprint then press "Control-C" to copy the image to the clipboard.

6. Open a new instance of Paint, then press "Control-V" to paste the skewed image.

7. Click the squat "L"-shaped polygon tool, which is the second icon from the button in the right column of the left toolbar. Click the bottom-most rectangle icon in the left toolbar to indicate you want the polygon to be filled.

8. Click the black square in the color toolbar atop the canvas to indicate you want the shadow to be black.

9. Click three of the four points of the pasted blueprint duplicate, in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion. Double-click the fourth point to complete the shaded polygon, which represents the blueprint's shadow.

10. Press "Control-V" again to paste the original foreshortened blueprint atop its shadow, and complete the 3-D blue print.

References

• "Drafting for Industry," Walter Brown and Clois Kicklighter; 1995
• "Drawing: Structure and Vision"; Fritz Drury and Joanne Stryker; 2008

Resources

• David Doull: Small Blue Printer
• Autodesk: Homestyler
• Floorplanner: Floorplanner
• The Blueprints: The Blueprints
• Thomas Suurland: Assets (Blueprints)
• Williams College: Archived Blueprints