autocad tutorial drawing in 3d

This is the first 3d architectural visualisation tutorial I've fabricated where we'll go from Autocad plans through to 3ds max and photoshop!

Overview

For this 3d architectural visualisation tutorial I'm going to start with an autocad drawing, clean it up a trivial then bring it into 3ds max for tracing. I'll finish the model and so light it with vray and finally render it out to be placed inside a location shot.

Here's the final image (click for larger):

Stride 1: Preparing Autocad Cartoon

First we demand to gear up the Autocad drawing for importing into 3ds max. This tin have a while as nosotros need to brand sure everything is pretty damn make clean and who knows what country a drawing is going to exist in.

This is a 'earlier' screen catch (click for larger):

This is an 'later' screen grab (click for larger):

The basic idea here is to accept every view (front, back, left, correct, floor 1 and floor 2) and group them so they are each one block item on its ain layer. I even had separate layers for the doors and balconies – this can be useful if you lot have objects or features which can obscure details behind them.

Obviously from paradigm 1 to image two I have removed whatsoever unwanted line work such every bit people, trees, lettering, landscaping and furniture – this brief was exterior only.

I as well took the footing floor and 1st floor and made them perfectly overlap using the snapping function. Snapping is key in this whole exercise. I've separated the floors to a higher place for illustration purposes, just on export they were on elevation of each other.

With each side on a separate layer, I can then move them effectually in 3ds max to get them in position.

Step 2: Aligning the views in 3ds max

Note: you can align everything in autocad if yous experience more comfortable doing so. I prefer max is all.

This is a tricky pace. One false move and the whole business firm might be ruined just you might non even realise until hours if non days of work have passed. Become this correct beginning!

Snapping…

As you tin can run into here, I've got my snapping prepare to ii.five and highlighted the vertex snap and the Border/Segment snap. You lot'll be swapping between these two ofttimes.

Here'due south another set of useful tools – axis constraints…

Y'all can admission these past r-clicking the top toolbar (r-click menu shown above) and choosing 'Axis Constraints'. This is very useful for when you desire to drag something and marshal it to the edge of something. It may already exist perfectly set upward in X so when you drag in Y you lot don't want the object's X values to slide effectually. Or vice versa.

Here's an case of getting the ii sides to line upwardly (left side and correct side of building)…

Start nosotros select the initial side we want to move/marshal (note: hover over the 'side', don't just drag the entire object – you can see the side or 'edge' I've chosen i light blue). Here I likewise fabricated sure to utilise axis constraint to merely elevate in one axis.

So drag to your desired align location side or edge. Again, anything that qualifies equally a side will low-cal upward in blue and exist snap-to-able (that's not a word!).

Adjacent I changed the centrality constraint and did the same to marshal it vertically. At present both sides are identical in their alignment.

I won't become into more detail about aligning. I basically used this method throughout until I got somehting that looked similar this…

Step 3: Tracing the Drawing.

This footstep is fairly straight frontwards. I volition say at this point, having the plans in a PDF form to refer to was nearly essential. Hither is a picture of what I was using for visual reference rather than having to wait at the cad drawing all the time…

This is just one page of a supplied PDF which contained all the site drawings. It'southward only much easier to expect at than the DWG file.

I began in the tiptop viewport using the line tool and just traced all the walls in 2d. One time everything was traced over, I extruded it to the desired height. I and so added an edit poly modifier and used the 'Slice Aeroplane'…

This will slice all my geometry at a given height and once again to the bottom edge of the windows. I and so would delete all facing polygons betwixt door and window openings and utilize the 'Bridge' tool to connect the polygons, thus closing the gaps.

Footstep four: 3ds max progress shots

Here are the progress stills. I won't get into much detail on modelling every bit this is intended as a full general arch viz tutorial, only the modelling wasn't anything special. Just some box modelling.

It's worth noting at this stage that myself and the client had established a favoured view from which to render the property. Every bit such I merely modelled the bare essentials on the contrary side, focusing on the detail we would see.

The merely other matter worth mentioning nearly modelling is that I did use the 'ProBoolean' tool to cut diverse tricky shapes – mainly around the roof. It would otherwise be very difficult and could take a lot longer for absolutely no discernable difference on the final image. Time is money.

Once caveat nigh this though, was that when information technology came down to unwrapping the UVW mapping for the roof, there were a few messy bits of geometry that I had to make clean up.

Step five: Photoshop

Here is our location photograph:

This is a pretty grim prospect for photoshopping in a building. Information technology has to go right in the center of all those trees which ways a fair bit of cutting and copying and digital gardening!

Hither is the return…

I cropped the photograph down a little. To go the building just where I wanted, I had to await at the site plans. I still wasn't 100% certain so I had the builder on the phone and shared my screen over skype. Better to go it done in one become than keep emailing shots.

Oh aye, Vray. Naught fancy hither at all. I used a Vray sun and a HDRI with a fairly sunny/cloudy image. I made sure and set the environment and reflection override to the HDR image while the background was set to this picture. I also used Reinhard as the 'color mapping' and unchecked 'affect background' and then the jpeg wouldn't get blown out (or be too dim, I forget at present).

To a higher place you can see the method I used for creating foliage in front of the house. I got some tree masks from my personal stock collection and lasso'd off a few branches/bunches of leafyness, then did a copy and paste from a light-green/leafy area and just moved it into place.

A little colour correction, some balance, photoshop magic and hey presto… final image…

Click the higher up for larger image.

I hope you learned much from this tutorial. Do come up back for more!

Edit: I've created my own web site showcasing all my 3d architectural visualisation renderings. Go bank check it out!

As well, follow me on twitter for updates: #SIWonderland

mayesthationfing.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.stayinwonderland.com/2012/07/3d-tutorial-architectural-visualisation-in-3ds-max-from-autocad-drawings/

Share this post