From the course: AutoCAD: 3D Architectural Modeling

Bring the project data together - AutoCAD Tutorial

From the course: AutoCAD: 3D Architectural Modeling

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Bring the project data together

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- [Instructor] As is typical in most architectural projects, you'll have a number of drawings spread across multiple files. Here, we have the floor one file, the second floor, the tower plan, which includes the roof plan for most of the project. We have a number of elevations and sections. In order to build a 3D model out of all of this 2D information, it's helpful to bring all of these drawings into a single drawing file and that will form the basis of our modeling effort. So let's go to floor one and let's say we're going to assume that this will become the basis of our 3D project. So what I need to do is bring in all of the other drawings into this one. We can do that by using the insert command, and it's located here on the block panel, on the home tab. So I'll click insert block and you'll see a listing of all the different blocks that are defined in this particular drawing. You want to access blocks that are outside of this drawing, so we need to go to more options and that opens the dialogue box version of this command, which is the historically older interface for inserting blocks. And then you can access the browse button and this allows you to access blocks that are outside this file. So we'll go ahead and insert the second floor drawing in here. We'll say open. And I want to make sure that I can specify a point for that, so I'll leave this checked and I'll leave everything else unchecked and I'll say okay. And then I'll place this down at some arbitrary point adjacent. Now, I'd like to move this, so I'll use the move tool, and move this object, enter, from this corner point and you need to have object snap on, which is down here. So I have on a number of running object snap modes, as you can see here. And then I can grab this from the corner point over here and place that down on the corresponding corner point on the first floor. This is a good chance to take a look at the drawings and see if there are any coordination problems. Everything seems to line up. We have different conditions here on the second floor as compared to the first floor in terms of the walls down here. But everything is lining up. Now I'm going to move the second floor down some arbitrary distance. Now, it's helpful if you use an even number. So I'm going to turn on ortho so I can move it straight down and I want to leave some space here, so that I can elevations next to the first floor. So I'll move this down, let's say, 300 feet. I'll type 300 feet enter, to move that down a set distance. And then, later, when we're modeling, we can model things there on top of the second floor and we can just move them up 300 feet and they'll be on top of the first floor. So this is a good technique to displace something a set distance that you can remember. Now let's bring in the tower plan. I'll insert, go to more options, browse, tower plan. I'll bring that in over here. And then, again, I'll move this object from this end point over here and place that down on the corresponding endpoint right there in the corner. Again, everything does line up, so I'm going to move this over. Let's say I'll slide it over to the right maybe 200 feet. I don't really need to leave space in between these plans, just as long as there's an even increment to displace it. Okay, now I'm going to insert again, but this time I'll just type I enter. That takes me directly to this dialogue box. I'll click browse. Bring in the sections. And I'll place those down right about here. And then, again, I enter. Browse and bring in the elevations. Okay. And I'll place those down right over here. So now we have all of that 2D information in a single file. And I'd like to save this with a different name, so I'll go up to the application menu, say save as drawing. And I'll call it 3DModel01.

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