Description:
Using AutoCAD 2000 for rendering 3-D images is a discipline unto itself, and thanks to books like AutoCAD 2000 3D F/X and Design, users can find insights into this aspect of the popular CAD application with a minimum of trial and error. AutoCAD is an enormous program, but because this book focuses on just one aspect of it, the author is able to explore 3-D rendering and explain it with depth and clarity. In three parts, the book covers learning to work with 3-D drawings, including coordinate systems and perspective views. Part II details the creation and editing of 3-D models, and explores the relationship between geometric modeling, surface modeling, and solid modeling. Part III is the section that everyone wants, for it discusses the rendering tools and how to render 3-D models from AutoCAD. Although this is the shortest section, it is impossible to optimize your understanding of it without mastering all the material that precedes it. The book explains setting up scenes, using bitmap 2-D textures mapped to your 3-D model, attaching materials by color or by object, and using the landscape tools. Like any mature program, AutoCAD 2000 is capable of some beautiful and accurate 3-D rendered images, as some of the color plates in the book clearly demonstrate. The accompanying CD-ROM contains all the original project drawings used throughout the book, as well as evaluation versions of JASC Paint Shop Pro and Mech-Q drafting utilities. This is a handy volume for intermediate and advanced users looking to improve the quality of their 3-D rendered images. --Mike Caputo
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