Expert: Bill DeShawn - 2/5/2010

Question
I have been trying to create 2D orthographic views from a 3D assembly view using the solprof, solview and soldraw commands (in AutoCAD 2005). I am able to do this but the problem i have is not being able to hide or remove the facets and hidden lines. I have tried freezing and thawing specific layers and have tried to turn off other layers but neither makes any sort of difference, all views i have created remain identical to before the layers were frozen/thawed/hidden etc. Please help as both myself and my lecturer are having trouble dealing with this.

Answer
I can do this in AutoCAD 2006:
Change Shademode to hidden (this ends up not making a difference.)
Change your orbit to the the isometric view you want.
Copy your model to a place in the editor your comfortable with.  
Run the UCS command (not the UCS manager).  Use the undocumented "V" option for the current view.
Run the Express Tool "Flatten" on the new model.  Hidden lines and facets will reappear.  But now they are flat and can be trimmed and erased.  Trim everything you possible can before you start erasing.  Be sure to save your UCSs by naming them so can easily go back to the same ones you were before.  

In AutoCAD 2010 There is a command called "FLATSHOT" that converts 3D objects to 2D objects.  Very cool.

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Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bedeshawn