TABLE OF CONTENTS We've all heard that "a picture is worth a thousand words" but in practice, a picture is often worth incalculably more; it's often the difference between getting a contract and losing one. Visualization is a science of two aspects: interacting with design data in-house and presenting realistic imagery to clients. In the past, these visualization aspects may have been handled with different software packages. AutoCAD 2007's visualization features have advanced so much that you can handle both facets without leaving AutoCAD.
This chapter will teach you how to navigate virtual space like a pro, whether you're zooming, orbiting, walking, or flying. You'll be styling when you see how to make views, cameras, and visual styles your own. Mastering materials and texturing techniques will raise your 3D models to new heights of realism.
One of the unspoken assumptions in AutoCAD is that the model is static that is, unless you animate, but that's another subject. Your creations are fixed with respect to the world origin of virtual space. As the all-seeing (but, unfortunately, not all-knowing) navigator, you have the power to change your point of view, to see the model from every angle. Getting around the model is essential, and this section offers a few tricks to make your navigation experience more efficient and intuitive.
You've probably been zooming in and out of drawings for years, so what could you possibly learn that's new, right? Well, you just may be surprised by paying attention to some of...
