Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
CONVERTING MESHES TO SOLIDS
I mentioned earlier that you can convert a mesh to a solid. In doing so, you can take advantage of
the many solid-editing tools available in AutoCAD. The Boolean tools can be especially useful in
editing meshes that have been turned into solids.
The conversion process is fairly simple using the tools in the right-click shortcut menu when you
pick a mesh or type
CONVTOSOLID
↵ and then select the mesh or meshes you want to convert.
Press ↵ to complete the process. T The Conver t To Surface tool (
CONVTOSURFACE
↵) works in much
the same way, but it creates a surface object instead of a solid.
Understanding 3D Surfaces
So far in this topic, you've worked with 3D solids and meshes. A third type of 3D object, called a
surface
, completes AutoCAD's set of 3D modeling tools to make AutoCAD for Mac a complete 3D
modeling application in its own right.
When you click the Tool Sets button on the Tool Sets palette and choose Modeling, you'll see
the tools you'll need to work with surface modeling. You can also see more of them via Draw
3D Modeling
Surfaces and Modify
Surface Editing on the menu bar.
You can see quite a few tools that we haven't covered so far. These surface creation tools work
in the same way the mesh tools work. In fact, they are the essentially the same tools. They just
use a different command option to create a surface instead of a solid. The big difference is that
to create a solid, you need to start with a closed polyline. With the surface version of the Loft,
Sweep, Extrude, and Revolve tools, you can start with an open spline, polyline, or other object.
And even if you do use a closed object, such as a circle or closed polyline, you will still get a 3D
surface instead of a solid (see Figure 23.32).
FIGURE 23.32
A circle extruded
using the solid
Extrude and the
surface Extrude
3D solid
3D surface
Two additional surface creation tools are the Surface Network and Planar Surface tools.
Here's a brief description of each:
