Add Isolines for Easy Surface Creation and Editing in AutoCAD8 Jun, 2014
Drawing on surfaces can be tricky, especially if the surface is curved. Extracting isolines from the surface makes it easier to accomplish this goal, and in this video tip from Cadalyst and Lynn Allen, you’ll see how to do just that.
Hello there, this is Lynn Allen. Welcome to another AutoCAD tip courtesy of Cadalyst magazine. Thank you so much for joining me.
So the last tip that I shared with you had to do with 3D, and this tip also is going to have to do with 3D — specifically, working with surfaces and drawing on surfaces. Which can be tricky, especially if the surface is curved, like we have here on the screen.
All right. How am I going to do it? I’m going to make sure that I’m on the Surface tab of the ribbon, the 3D modeling workspace, all right, and you will see that there is a tool called Extract Isolines.
Now, if you look at the Command line, you will see it executes a command called SurfExtractCurve — which I will never remember, I just remember using the tool on the ribbon. But it’s up to you, if you want to type that big command out, right?
Super easy. First thing I need to do is select the surface, you could also do this on a solid or a face, and you will see it immediately starts to draw these isolines. I can do them on the curved side, I can change the direction.
It’s very easy to work with, and the part I probably like the most is the fact that you can draw a spline — I could even draw the spline around the edge. Check this out. I can just easily create my spline; it’s very friendly, I can close it up so that I have a spline that actually goes around the corner.
Now, all of these isolines are objects which you can select and work with; you can use them to draw other objects. But it’s a very cool command that makes your life with surfaces just a little bit easier. So don’t forget to try that: the Extract Isoline tool. It has some name that’s really long, I can never remember.
Give it a try and you’ll be right at home in 3D in no time inside of AutoCAD. Thank you so much for joining me.
Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen guides you through a different AutoCAD feature in every edition of her popular "Circles and Lines" tutorial series. For even more AutoCAD how-to, check out Lynn's quick tips in the Cadalyst Video Gallery. Subscribe to Cadalyst's free Tips & Tools Weekly e-newsletter and we'll notify you every time a new video tip is published. All exclusively from Cadalyst!