11/30/2005-5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Room:S. Hemispheres (Salon 4) [Lab] (Dolphin) Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort Orlando, Florida Get the Max out of Your Autodesk Architectural Desktop Drawings in Autodesk VIZ H. Martin Lier - Ferris State University and Michael Zeeveld (Assistant); Steven Schain (Assistant) DV35-1L Create amazing renderings of your Autodesk Architectural Desktop drawings in Autodesk VIZ. This hands-on lab and lecture will teach you the basics of AutoCAD, ADT, and VIZ. We will create a basic building in AutoCAD. We'll then bring the drawing into ADT to finish creating walls, doors, windows, etc. Once our building is completed, we will bring it into VIZ and apply materials, lighting, and cameras to render it. This step-by-step process will show you how quickly you can go from 2D to 3D to a completed rendering. If time permits, we will also create a fly-through. About the Speaker: Marty has over 10 years of teaching experience in CAD, animation, Internet, computer networks, and engineering. He earned his Masters degree in Education at Ferris State University and obtained his Bachelors degree from Calvin College. Marty developed and teaches the Digital Animation and Game Design program for Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also teaches for Grand Rapids Community College. He is a Certified Autodesk Instructor. Prior to teaching, he was the director of engineering and sales for a local engineering firm. Marty specializes in CAD, 3D animation, design, and computers. He is also a web designer and webmaster for several Michigan companies. He has owned and operated his own company for over 10 years doing engineering design and research, Internet and network development, and web design. mlier@plpw.com
The process of creating realistic renderings & animations all starts with a basic 2D sketch or concept. This is true for both Architectural & Mechanical Designs. I have done amazing renderings based off napkin sketches & detailed AutoCAD drawings. For my lecture I will be walking you through the steps to create a simple yet detailed office building. Architectural illustration & animations is a growing and exciting market. It combines the engineering skills of a CAD person & an artist. Typical renderings range in price between $1500.00-$5000.00 while animations go from $2500.00-$50,000.00 Much of the work comes in the form of sketches and AutoCAD drawings both 2D drawings and 3D models that can be passed to AutoCAD ADT and then to Viz for final touches. Builders & Architects are seeing great sales potential in being able to show their final product before they build it. The problem: This is an example of what I typically receive from a builder. It usually comes to me after the builder realizes that he can not sell this $375,000.00 condo to potential customers with only basic 2D CAD drawings. The builder wants his customers to prepay prior to building, yet his customers say build it and we might buy one. 2
The Solution: The answer is to take the builders 2D drawings and bring them directly into ADT and begin modeling the condo. Once finished in ADT I take the model to Viz to place materials, lights, cameras, etc. (Sorry the B&W print out doesn t do justice hopefully this will be in color on your conference CD) (Rendering) (Actual Photo after built) 3
(Rendering) (Actual Photo after built) 4
Step 1: Creating our project 1. Let s make sure AutoCAD is up and running. We are going to spend a few minutes making sure you have a good handle on the user interface. There are 7 main areas in AutoCAD that I want to be sure you are familiar with. (Lets quickly review them and answer any questions you may have with them) Title Area Menu Area Toolbars Drawing Area Layout Tabs Command Panel Status Bar 5
2. We will begin by setting up our drawing properly. Go to the format pull down and select units. Set your units to Architectural and leave the precision at it s default setting. Next re-visit the format pull down and go to drawing limits. We will leave our lower left corner at 0,0 and change the upper right corner to 200,150. Immediately do a zoom all to be sure the limits are shown on your screen. Be sure to remember we are working in Arch Units so you will have to put in the foot symbol when we begin drawing our building. Also create a layer called walls prior to beginning your drawing for your walls coming in the next step. 6
3. We will now go draw our building based off the drawing seen below. You may consider using offsets, direct distance entry, fillets, break, and plines. *****All doors are 3 wide & all walls are 6 wide. 7
4. Now with the 2D drawing basically done we will bring it into ADT. Please save your drawing as my office at a good location (desktop will do). One of the great features of ADT is that if you buy ADT you get a copy of AutoCAD as well. You may be saying why even use AutoCAD if you have ADT well there are good reasons to utilize both. Most individuals find AutoCAD easier to use and the learning curve is less. If you purchase ADT and want to use AutoCAD instead just type MENU at the command prompt. This will bring you to the Select Customization File..just click on acad.cui. That s all you have to do to be able to utilize AutoCAD. (Remember to go back here later to get ADT going again by clicking on adt.cui 4. Now let s fire up Autodesk ADT and check out the interface. 8
The interface is pretty much the same. Please be sure to find the key 7 areas we discussed while reviewing AutoCAD s interface. (Title area, Menus, Toolbars, Drawing Area, Command Panel, Layout Tabs, and Status Bar). What makes it different is what s under the hood. ADT has offers a library of intelligent objects that you can scroll through and select. The thousands of pre-created object styles, annotations, furniture and schedules. One thing you will notice is that ADT maintains relationships and design changes through out your entire model. I believe that your productivity will amaze you. 5. The most important tool we will use to help us design our building is your Tool Palettes. Explore the different tabs and their content. Then right click on the words Tool Palettes and check out the other palettes available to us. We will only be working with the Design Palette today. 9
6. Open the drawing you previously saved in AutoCAD now in ADT. Notice things transfer in cleaningly. Be sure to view the extents of your geometry. 7. Begin by going to the walls tab and selecting the last wall type which has both brick & gypsum. Do your outside walls then just select a none brick type wall for the insides. (Be sure to run your walls right over your door openings.) 10
8. Your building should look similar to the example below. Next place your doors in properly and randomly place in windows. 11
9. Next we need to place our roof on. Just go to your Tool Palette and click on Design then roof. Switch to a top view and click on the corners of your building. Then adjust your roof by using properties. Click and drag the grips to fit your building. Check out your layers. ADT is creating and placing your objects in proper layers for you. 12
10. Your roof is completed and your building is really taking shape. Go to your Design Center and select several 3D objects to click and drag/drop into your drawing. We will be using Idrop technology. You may have to go to DC Online and search the web for 3D objects. It is easier to work with this type of 3D object in ADT rather than Viz. Search for things like 3D furniture, cars, people, plants, etc. Design Center DC Online 13
11. Save your drawing as myoffice3d.dwg in a good spot. We will now bring our drawing into 3dsViz. There are 5 main ways to bring your drawing into Viz. 1. Export from AutoCAD by layer to 3ds format 2. Export from AutoCAD by color to 3ds format 3. Export from AutoCAD by object to 3ds format 4. Export from AutoCAD as dxf format 5. Import into Viz directly as a dwg format. Each format has advantages and disadvantages. Using the layer method creates single objects of each layer. Using the color method creates single objects of similar colors. Using the by objects method create individual objects of everything. We do not have to use the dxf format unless we are going to something other than Viz. The last method importing your dwg file directly into Viz gives you various choices and selections. I would recommend you experiment with each method depending on your final expectations. 12. Viz s Interface Title Area Menus Command Panel Toolbars Viewport Drawing Area Animation Area View Area 14
13. We will now import your AutoCAD drawing. Go to file then import and you will be given many options depending on your needs. We will accept the default settings. 15
14. Make your top view current and drop in a box which is found in your command panel in the create tab under standard primitives. Change the color if necessary. We now need to select a background environment for our rendering. Go to Rendering then Environment so you can find the image for your background. They are located C:\Program Files\Autodesk VIZ 2006\maps\Backgrounds or you can select a background from the Internet as well. Click the none button to select a file then select bitmap then follow the path listed above. Then to see your image go to views viewport background and select use environment then click on display background. 16
15. You now should see your environment in model. We now need to add materials. The easiest way to do this is to type m or click on the materials button. 17
Once you have the material editor open click on get material then click on the brick material. 18
Then click and drag your material on to your outside walls. Do the same for your roof, inside walls, etc. 16. At this point if time permits we will add lights & cameras to our scene. This will be discussed in detail. Notes: 19