Working with blocks in 3D - AutoCAD Tutorial

- Next, we'll add blocks to our windows to add detail to our model. Now, I've already created a block to use with our project, so let's open it up. Go up to the top toolbar and choose Open, and this Window Detail file is located in the Chapter 2 Exercise Files. Choose Open. Now, when you're working in 3D, it's really important to set up your blocks correctly so they import the way that you intend, and you can do this a lot of different ways, but this is the way that I've done it for this model. So, in our house model the world coordinate system is oriented so that the plan is on the X-Y plane. So I've oriented my window details vertically, and if you also want to note the location of the origin, I'll sort of orbit here. You can see that that origin is on the midpoint to the back of this molding, and so that way I can snap it into the midpoint of my window opening very easily. And one last thing that I want to show you is the Properties panel here, that there are no layers besides zero. So these objects are drawn on the layer zero, so when I import them into my model, and I put them on a layer, they're going to inherit the properties of that layer. All right, let's close up this Window Detail block. Click No, I don't want to save my changes. I talked about how my block was set up so that my UCS was in the world coordinate system orientation, which is the X and Y oriented on the ground plane, and it is, so this is gonna work correctly for my block. So the first time I go ahead and insert my block, I want to be on the Insert tab on the ribbon, and I'll choose Insert, More Options, Browse, and I'll choose WindowDetail in Chapter 2 of the Exercise Files. I'll click Open. The important part is that I want to be able to specify the insertion point on screen. And then I'll choose OK. And zoom in here in my model, and click into the midpoint in the front of the window, and it pops perfectly into place. Now because I've already used the block once, it's going to be more easily accessible the second time. I'll scroll down. Here it is. I'll repeat that twice. Now, my UCS was set up properly to insert these windows on this front face, but what happens when we turn 90 degrees. You can see that if I insert here, I've got a problem. I can fix this a few different ways. One of them is to insert it incorrectly, and then I'm gonna use a grip modifier and rotate it into place. That's one option. The other option is that I can rotate my UCS so that the block will insert properly. I'll type UCS, Enter, Z, enter, because I know I want to rotate around the Z axis, and, in this case, I'm gonna choose -90 degrees, and if I insert my block again, snapped to that midpoint, it orients correctly. Now, let's return the UCS to the world coordinate system. UCS, Enter, W, Enter. Another option I have after the block has already been inserted in the drawing, is to use the Insert command without the window prompt. So if I type a dash in front of the Insert command, I'm gonna be prompted through these steps on the command line instead. So it's prompting me and asking me the block name. WindowDetail is correct so I'll hit Return. I'll specify the insertion point. It wants to know a scale factor. By default it's one. I'll hit Return to accept that value. Again, Return. And then I have a rotation option, and so I can rotate it to my wall however that wall is oriented, and I'll click to accept. Now, using whatever method you'd like, go ahead and add a window detail block into every window opening. When you've finished, you can move on to the next step.