Introduction to 3D Design - Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Practical 3D Drafting and Design - page 9

Layers, transparency, and other

properties

When we are modeling in AutoCAD, the ability to control object properties is essential.
After some hours spent on a new 3D model, we can have hundreds of objects that
overlap and obscure the model's visibility. Here are the most important properties.

Layers

If a correct layers application is fundamental in 2D, in 3D it assumes extreme import-
ance. Each type of 3D object should be in a proper layer, thus allowing us to control
its properties:

• Name : A good piece of advice is to not mix 2D with 3D objects in the same
layers. So, layers for 3D objects must be easily identified, for instance, by
adding a 3D prefix.
• Freeze/Thaw : In 3D, the density of screen information can be huge. So
freezing and unfreezing layers is a permanent process. It's better to freeze
the layers than to turn off because objects on frozen layers are not pro-
cessed (for instance, regenerating or counting for ZOOM Extents ), thus ac-
celerating the 3D process.
• Lock/Unlock : It's quite annoying to notice that at an advanced phase of
our project, our walls moved and caused several errors. If we need that
information visible, the best way to avoid these errors is to lock layers.
• Color : A good and logical color palette assigned to our layers can improve
our understanding while modeling.
• Transparency : If we want to see through walls or other objects at the cre-
ation process, we may give a value between 0 and 90 percent to the layers
transparency.

Last but not least, the best and the easiest process to assign rendering materials
to objects is by layer, so another good point is to apply a correct and detailed layer
scheme.