AutoCAD For Dummies, 19th Edition

Chapter 23

It’s Showtime!

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating 2D working drawings from 3D models

Visualizing 3D models

Lighting your models

Applying materials

Assigning a background

Applying render presets to 3D models

The word design has the same Latin origin as designate: “to point out to or to show to others.” If you have an idea and produce it yourself, you aren’t a designer — you’re an artist or a craftsman (nothing wrong with that!). You don’t become a designer until you tell other people about your idea so that they can do all the dirty, heavy work of producing it.

Two-dimensional orthographic drawings date to Roman times, but only in the past few years have I seen a significant change in how things are designed — and how designers communicate their visions to others. No, I don’t mean 2D CAD on a computer, because that’s simply a more efficient way of producing Roman-era drawings. The ...