Expert: Bob - 8/17/2007

Question
Hi Bob,

experience level:3rd yr undergrad
profession: mechanical engineering
purpose:mechanical design isometric drawing
AutoCAD release: 2007
Description:
My conflict is when I use offset on an isometric drawing the lines are offset to a 2D plane. How do I configure the dwg to identify that I want to offset a line of an isometric drawing? What is the best way you find to setup iso drawings?

Jim  

Answer
Hi, Jim --
Well, let me reach for this one, as I work with 3D objects, and only once in a while use an isometric. And please remember, I am an interior designer, not an engineer.
I would imagine that in mechanical engineering, you might be asked to do isos so you understand them, along the way to  a real life of creating the objects in 3D with Solidworks, Inventor, or AutoCAD, etc.  And not to be awful, but in many areas, where the students are lucky to have great school, drawing isometrics is the 10th grade, not a college junior, so maybe I totally miss the context of your question.
My problem with your question is that I understand an isometric drawing as being "lines on a page which represent the outline of 3D objects" -- an isometric drawing is a 2D drawing, so I don't "get" the question.
All that said, if you want to know how to set up for an isometric, that is a chapter of a book, not 2 paragraphs I could write here -- or I am sure there are online tutorials.

I just typed "autocad isometric tutorial" into Google and got a page from my cadsite dot com with a tutorial for setting up in 2007. Look for more.
And please write back if I miss what you need.
BTW--- AutoCAD 2007 introduced a giant improvement in 3D, perhaps to counteract the 3D competitors.  I know engineers change slowly (many are on AutoCAD 14, 10 yrs old), but drawing 3D objects in 2D is like painting a house with a small brush, and will eventually end.

BOB