hi! welcome to this video! let's see how to apply 3d filling and how to render professionally with autocad 2015! please leave comments if you find mistakes. if you want some help for just some points of this video, check the smart index in video description.
using autocad for 3d printing, we already saw the hatch command. this fills any 2d objects drawn, but doesn't work on any 3d solid. in 3d visualization, there are two levels of filling. one is the world of the wireframe, where solids are represented with their main skeleton. the other one
is the realistic view, and that's how you will see solids when rendered. as long as you work with wireframe views, it can be useful to color these lines to distinguish objects better. you can color lines by going to properties in the home section. to color the skeleton of 3d solids, you must go to 3d tools, solid editing and then to color edges. then just select each edge that must be colored. when you press enter, you can choose the color. you can choose in the default list, or look for a personalized color. let's color the faces of the 3d solids. turn to realistic view and go to solid
editing and then to color faces. select the faces interested, and add a color. if you want to add different colors to each face, you must repeat the action for each of them. this works also on curved solids. the sphere will be colored in full, since it has just one face. if you want to add a more realistic pattern, you must use the materials. these are inside a section called visualize, that is hidden by default. open it right-clicking on a vacant space on top and going to show tabs. on top of materials, you can open the materials browser. in this window you can search all patterns that autocad offers you, from grass, stone to liquid.
before using them, you must add them inside your project. if you hover a material, you notice two buttons. use the first one to add the material to your project. all materials added are all listed above. you can double-click on one to open the materials editor on it, that lets you check such material and edit it in full. check it in different samples, using the small black arrow in the bottom right corner. when you are done, just close the editor: all your settings will be saved. all materials added are recognized through a customized name, that can be
renamed if you right-click. you can delete materials in this way, too. once the materials are added inside your project, you can import them. if you want to cover a solid with a material in full, simply select it and click once on the material interested in the list above, in the material browser. if you just want to fill a face, select it while holding ctrl down, and click once on a material. this works also on all kinds of surfaces as well. the material may not be rendered fine. that's why it's better that you download and install the medium images library. let's see how to render your project. all that you need is inside visualize section.
maintain the realistic view, which is the closest one to the final render. to render it, you just have to click on the tea button on the centre. if a dialog box will ask you to download and install the medium images library, go ahead. this improves a lot the materials rendering. in this new window, the final render is shown up. this renders what was shown in your workspace at the moment you started the render. right below the screen the total progress, below the different renderings made, from the latest on top to the oldest one. each of these are temporary saved, so that, if you double-click on them, you can check them back. the one shown in the screen is the one with the left watch
icon in blue. on the right instead, all the render specifications followed. it is very important to choose the correct render quality. the more it is, the best but slower the render is performed. you can set quality through the first bar on top, next to the render button. click on render below if you want to set options and the final resolution. of course you can make this render more realistic, adding light sources, shadow or the sky horizon. by default nothing is added, and the render that comes up is the easiest one possible. let's start with the lightness. you can click on sun status to check how your
project looks like with a natural sunlight. you may need to click more than once to activate it the first time. click once more to disable it. this works fine if you add some shadow too. more on the left, click on no shadows. you can enable ground shadow to add just the shadow created by the sun, and not the ones created by secondary light sources. of course you can choose the sun properties. just click on sun & location. the position of the sun is calculated depending on which hour and date you choose. these do change depending on the location as well, try it if you are interested.
besides the sun, you can add secondary light sources through create light in the extreme left. you may have to set full shadows in this case. there are different kinds of sources. point is a light that is concentrated in one point. just place it by clicking on your workspace, and then press enter. you can use the system to move it in the right place. since it is concentrated in a single point, you can't scale or change its direction, but you can change its intensity clicking on lights, below create light button. another important source is the spotlight, inside spot in the list. just place it, define its direction and then press enter. this is a light that, like a torch, does
have a direction. you can use the system to move it, but you can also change its light using the blue triangles. always use lights section to edit its intensity. this kind of light has a target, indicated by a blue square on the centre of the virtual circles. wherever you move, the spotlight will always be directed towards the target. just drag it to change direction. if you need to snap to objects, just press f4 key to enable or disable snappings. you have other sources available: check them if you are interested! let's now add horizon and sky. to add them, you must be in perspective mode. you can apply it by going to the hidden button in the bottom right corner
of the view cube. the horizon will be right added, and you can add sky clicking on sky off. mind that the horizon is fixed and does not rotate if you rotate the carthesian system. any grass, land or street must be added totally on your own instead.
when you are fine, go and render again! if you want to save your render, just right-click on the one interested and go to save... you will save it as a simple image file. thanks for watching! don't forget to check our full guide for autocad 2015!
