- Introduction
- Using Isometric Snap
- Switching Isometric Planes
- Using COPY and Other Edit Commands
- Drawing Isometric Circles with ELLIPSE
- Drawing Text Aligned with Isometric Planes
- Drawing Ellipses in Orthographic Views
- Saving and Restoring Displays with VIEW
- Chapter Summary
- Chapter Test Questions
- Chapter Drawing Projects
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using Isometric Snap
To begin drawing isometrically, you need to switch to the isometric snap style. You will find the grid and crosshairs behaving in ways that might seem odd at first, but you will quickly get used to them.
✓ Begin a new drawing using decimal units and 18 × 12 limits. Use the 1B template if you have it.
✓ Check to see that the Grid Mode and Snap Mode tools are on.
✓ Pick the ISODRAFT tool from the status bar, as shown in Figure 11-1.
Figure 11-1 ISODRAFT tool
At this point, your grid and crosshairs are reoriented, resembling Figure 11-2. This is the 2D model space grid in isometric mode. Gridlines are drawn at 30°, 90°, and 150° angles from the horizontal, depending on which isoplane is being represented. The crosshairs are initially turned to define the left isometric plane and gridlines are drawn to represent the left isoplane, with lines at 90° and 150°. The three isoplanes are discussed in the “Switching Isometric Planes” section.
isoplane: One of three planes used for isometric drawing. In AutoCAD these planes are called left, right, and top.
Figure 11-2 Isometric grid, left isoplane
✓ To get a feeling for how this snap style works, enter the LINE command and draw some boxes, as shown in Figure 11-3.
Figure 11-3 Isometric boxes
Make sure that Ortho is off and Snap is on, or you will be unable to draw the lines shown.
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