Course Content
AutoCAD 3D Modeling
About Lesson

In this lesson I will show you how to model the interior elements of the walls on the first floor.

To begin with, I will switch to the part of the drawing that represents the plan of the floor and, with the help of the Layer Isolate function, isolate the layer on which the partition walls are located. If you look a little closer, you will notice that there are shorter segments missing here and there, so I will do my best to correct this deficiency. To that end, I will first use the keyboard to launch the Layer Make Current function and activate the layer with the walls in one move. This is confirmed by the information that appeared on the bottom edge of the screen, so I can start the Line command and immediately draw the corresponding segment. After that I can use the Trim function and remove the excess parts of everything that is between the adjacent walls. In the same way, I will complete the walls on the back side, which means that I again need one line, of which only a few shorter segments will remain after trimming.

I can arrange the next detail by applying the Fillet function and the others by adding the appropriate segments. I will form the side edge again by trimming one longer line and manually add a couple of shorter segments. It seems to me that there are a few broken contours on the front as well, so I will try to get them in the correct condition as well.

Now that I’ve completed all the walls this way, it’s time to move on to the next step, which involves drawing a new rectangle that’s large enough to encompass the entire plan. Before I go any further, I’m going to open the Layer Properties Manager and check if there’s a layer in this list that’s intended for walls. It’s not hard to find, but since the ground floor walls are already there, I’ll create another Layer and place everything belonging to the second floor on it. After that, I just need to activate it and go back to the drawing.

Contours suitable for conversion into 3D objects are most easily created using the Boundary function. So I’m going to enter the appropriate shortcut on the keyboard, press Enter twice and click on the dot inside this rectangle. If I press Enter again after that, the whole process will complete successfully, so I can remove all the helpers. This primarily refers to this frame, but also to the Layer on which the rest of the plan is located. Now that I have everything I need to model the interior walls, I can run the Extrude command, select their contours in one stroke, and enter a numeric value representing the height.

As you can see for yourself, I successfully completed most of the work in this way, but I still have to fill in the gaps that occur between individual segments. Overhead beams should appear in those places, so I will first draw the appropriate contour and then make a 3D object out of it. After that, it won’t be difficult for me to copy this element to several more locations, because all the doors should have the same dimensions.

Admittedly, in some places the wall extends in the opposite direction, but this problem can also be easily solved by using the Rotate and Move functions. After that, I can start copying again and thus complete this part of the object.

In the end, I just have to add the segment above this slightly wider passage. I will apply the same procedure here, which means that first I need a rectangle that I can turn into a real lintel with Extrude. The same applies to this separated segment – first the contour is drawn and then a 3D object is made from it.

Since I have created all the elements that represent the partition walls in this way, I just need to connect them as a whole. To that end, I will start the Union command and select all objects in one move. If I press Enter after that, AutoCAD will make them into a unique element.

Now I can display all the Layers again, select the object that represents the partition walls and raise it to a level corresponding to the height of the first floor. In the end, all I have to do is use the Move command again and move the same element 300 units to the left. As you can see, the partition walls fit perfectly with the rest of the 3D model, which means that I successfully completed this task as well.

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