Good looking forum and thank you to whomever maintains it.
 
Now, I am new here and have not used any more than the most basic plan view drawing and not to any ANSI standards.
 
I only have a diploma in drafting and have lost so much over the years from not using my training on a regular basis. I design plan view custom curved staircases for approval of customers to see how it fits in their foyer and then take my drawings and break out parts for production. Some of the parts get patterns cut on our CNC machine with a DXF file. Other parts I may have to send to a sub contractor and get balusters turned and such.
 
I am wanting to learn to do drawings in 3D. What is my best way to do this? I am thinking of self teaching by "playing" around with it but if anyone has any suggestions or manuals that I could get info from it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks in advance!!!!Vision Stairs2010-06-30 16:01:48

What version of Autocad are you using?If you are using 2007 or later, you can take a look at these tutorials: http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/tutorials/index.htm. They were written for 2010, but most of it still applies to earlier versions, back to 2007. Here is another good one, written for Autocad 2009: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/48-568/PDFs/3D_AutoCAD_2009.pdfIf you are using 2006 or earlier you will need different tutorials.But I would recommend that you get yourself a good book, written specifically for Autocad 3D. Just make sure you get a book for your version of Autocad. You can find lots of them on Amazon.com
Cad642010-06-30 21:34:09

Thanks Cad64 for the answer. I am using 04 light. Hey, old but does what we need it to do for now.
 
I will see what books are available and just dive in. I will probably be posting a lot more questions as I go along so I hope some of you have patience with me.
 
Thanks again !!!!

Oh, if you're using Autocad LT, you won't be able to do any 3D work. You will have to purchase the full version if you want to dive into the 3D world.

OK, so this is why I am posting questions. So when I do a drawing, I can go to 3D views and if my line types have thickness, the depth shows up. So, can I not assign line thicknesses to each place where I know what the depth or height is?
 
Please educate me !!!
 
Thanks

In Autocad LT, I believe you can view 3D models that were created in the full version, but you cannot create surfaces or solid models. There are no 3D commands available. That's one of the reasons Autocad LT is so much cheaper than the full version.