I LIKE TO USE 3D FIXTURES IN MY DRAWINGS, LIKE TOILETS BATHTUBS, ETC, WHEN I PLOT A ISOMETRIC VIEW DRAWING, EVERYTHING LOOKS GOOD, BUT SOMETIMES I WANT TO PLOT A SIMPLE FLOOR PLAN IN 2D WITH DIMENSIONS, IF I PLOT IT SHADED, EVERYTHING IS SHADED, FOR EXAMPLE, MY DIMENSIONS COME OUT THE COLOR THAT THEY ARE DRAWN IN, I ONLY WANT BLACK AND WHITE, IF I PLOT IT IN WIREFRAME THE TOILETS AND FIXTURES LOOK LIKE A CRAPPY WIREFRAME, I WANT THESE SHADED, AND MY DIMENSIONS, A REGULAR, CLEAR LEGIBLE DIMENSION.   ANYONE HAVE ANY INPUT ON THIS, I WOULD APPRECIATE IT THANK YOU MY NAME IS ERIC, I HAVE A SMALL STEEL DETAILING BUSINESS, BUT HAVE BEEN DOING ALOT OF ASBUILTS LATELY WHERE THE ABOVE ITEMS APPLY TO THANKS FOLKS ERICFOSCO STEEL DETAILING

If you only want black and white why aren't you plotting in monochrome?Yes, 3D objects printed in 2D wireframe will look like crap that's why most CAD techs will use 2D blocks in a 2D drawing not 3D blocks.  Major manufacturers of fixtures such as toilets and sinks usually have available both 2D and 3D blocks of all their products.  If you still want to use 3D blocks then you could always open up the drawing of the block itself and extract a 2D plan view of the fixture using the FLATSHOT command then copy/paste this 2D block into your floorplan.Another option would be to use SketchUp  instead of AutoCAD for your "as built" drawing.  It is more conducive to presentation style (shading, color, etc.) drawings.
John Connor2016-02-18 11:24:55

I SEE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, ITS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TRYING TO AVOID.  SO YOU ARE SAYING I WOULD BASICALLY HAVE TO HAVE TWO DRAWINGS OF THE FLOOR PLAN, ONE TO PRINT MY 3D ISOMETRIC, AND ANOTHER TO PRINT THE 2D FLOORPLAN WITH THE DIMENSIONS.  THIS SEEMS LIKE SUCH A WASTE BECAUSE THE WHOLE POINT OF A 3D DRAWING IS TO BE ABLE TO SWITCH BETWEEN ALL OF THE VIEWS.  I SHOULD BE ABLE TO JUST HIT THE TOP VIEW BUTTON AND PRINT MY FLOOR PLAN, ..........  I GUESS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR WAS A WAY JUST TO SHADE CERTAIN OBJECTS ONLY IN A DRAWING, SO IN MY PLAN VIEW, JUST THE BATHROOM FIXTURES AND KITCHEN FIXTURES WILL BE SHADED, AND NOT LOOK LIKE AN ANIMAL CAGE.  I KNOW I CAN GET BLOCKS OF 2D OBJECTS FROM COUNTLESS PLACES, OR EXTRACT THEM, I WAS SIMPLY TRYING TO AVOID ALL OF THIS, I THINK THIS WOULD BE A GOOD SUGGESTIOIN FOR AUTODESK!!    SINCE I FIRST STARTRED USING AUTOCAD, I HAVE HAD DRAWINGS WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE TEXT IN A 3D DRAWING, BUT TO NO AVAIL, I JUST END UP PUTTING IT IN PAPER SPACE.  ANYWAY THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE, I THOUGHT MAYBE THERE WAS A WAY AROUND THIS ERIC

I DONT PLOT IN MONOCHROME BECAUSE I HAVE A PLOT STYLE FOR THE FIRST LIKE 9 COLORS, I HAVE EACH ONE OF THESE SET AT A PEN WEIGHT TO GIVE MY DRAWINGS CONTRAST.  IVE GOT ALL OF THE COLORS TO PRINT IN BLACK WITH ITS OWN LINEWEIGHT, BUT IF I SHADE A PLOT THE RESULT IS  A COLORED DIMENSION, OR TEXT.  WHO DOES FLOOR PLANS IN COLOR? I HOPE AUTODESK COMES UP WITH A WAY TO USE TEXT AND DIMENSIONS WITH A 3D DRAWING THANKS ERIC

[QUOTE=eaaronf01]
I DONT PLOT IN MONOCHROME BECAUSE I HAVE A PLOT STYLE FOR THE FIRST LIKE 9 COLORS, I HAVE EACH ONE OF THESE SET AT A PEN WEIGHT TO GIVE MY DRAWINGS CONTRAST.  IVE GOT ALL OF THE COLORS TO PRINT IN BLACK WITH ITS OWN LINEWEIGHT, BUT IF I SHADE A PLOT THE RESULT IS  A COLORED DIMENSION, OR TEXT.  WHO DOES FLOOR PLANS IN COLOR? I HOPE AUTODESK COMES UP WITH A WAY TO USE TEXT AND DIMENSIONS WITH A 3D DRAWING THANKS ERIC[/QUOTE]AutoDesk doesn't have to come up with a way to place text and dimensions in model space in a 3D drawing.  CAD techs have been able to do this for quite some time.You
say you don't plot in monochrome then go on to ask "Who does floor
plans in color?"  While I may assign color to a layer I certainly don't
plot my floor plans in color.
John Connor2016-02-18 16:30:16

[QUOTE=eaaronf01]
I SEE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, ITS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TRYING TO AVOID.  SO YOU ARE SAYING I WOULD BASICALLY HAVE TO HAVE TWO DRAWINGS OF THE FLOOR PLAN, ONE TO PRINT MY 3D ISOMETRIC, AND ANOTHER TO PRINT THE 2D FLOORPLAN WITH THE DIMENSIONS.  THIS SEEMS LIKE SUCH A WASTE BECAUSE THE WHOLE POINT OF A 3D DRAWING IS TO BE ABLE TO SWITCH BETWEEN ALL OF THE VIEWS.  I SHOULD BE ABLE TO JUST HIT THE TOP VIEW BUTTON AND PRINT MY FLOOR PLAN, ..........  I GUESS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR WAS A WAY JUST TO SHADE CERTAIN OBJECTS ONLY IN A DRAWING, SO IN MY PLAN VIEW, JUST THE BATHROOM FIXTURES AND KITCHEN FIXTURES WILL BE SHADED, AND NOT LOOK LIKE AN ANIMAL CAGE.  I KNOW I CAN GET BLOCKS OF 2D OBJECTS FROM COUNTLESS PLACES, OR EXTRACT THEM, I WAS SIMPLY TRYING TO AVOID ALL OF THIS, I THINK THIS WOULD BE A GOOD SUGGESTIOIN FOR AUTODESK!!    SINCE I FIRST STARTRED USING AUTOCAD, I HAVE HAD DRAWINGS WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE TEXT IN A 3D DRAWING, BUT TO NO AVAIL, I JUST END UP PUTTING IT IN PAPER SPACE.  ANYWAY THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE, I THOUGHT MAYBE THERE WAS A WAY AROUND THIS ERIC[/QUOTE]I don't understand your insistence on having bathroom fixtures shaded in 2D views.  You are doing an "as built" you aren't doing a drawing that will be used as a part of a presentation.You don't necessarily have to do two floor plans (one in 3D and another in 2D).  2D views can be extracted from a 3D model or you can just view your 3D model in a "top" view and a 3D Hidden visual style.  But again I don't know of anyone that uses a 3D model as their floor plan.
John Connor2016-02-19 11:32:10

3D model dimensioned in model space.

Hello Eric ( and John ), if you want to plot 2D view of 3D models it shouldn't be any problems, but you will have to learn about placing texts and dimensions in the model space; on the other hand if you do 3D modelling you will have to learn all about viewpoints and UCS.When placing texts and dimensions you will have to set An UCS for each dimension in the beginning but with some experience you will learn how to set UCS Object to modify a dimension and use ALIGN ( 2D or 3D with the last option "fit to size" ) to even place new dimensions.Your dimensions styles will have special settings for 3D use, etc... Please see my file : TEP5T_3D_LIGHT 1 GB.dwg in the CAD/BIM Blocks library right here in the site. Please tell me ( us ) if this helped or not.

I had it all figured out back in Release 9 but thanks for the primer.  Well maybe I exaggerate...it could have been Release 14 but I know I have been able to add dimensions and text in model space to a 3D model for a long time so hearing someone say that AutoDesk needs to come up with a way to do this just makes me laugh.
John Connor2016-02-19 11:34:49