TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter will help you establish a foundation for working in 3D space. Even though the principles and techniques explained in this chapter are in the book section emphasizing wireframes, they apply equally well to surface models and solid models.
This chapter
describes AutoCAD's 3D World Coordinate System;
explains how to interpret and manage AutoCAD's coordinate system icon;
discusses the proper orientation of models in 3D space;
shows you how to establish viewpoints in 3D space;
describes techniques for specifying points in 3D space.
AutoCAD uses three mutually perpendicular lines, which intersect at a point called the origin, to identify point locations in 3D space. These three lines are named the X axis, the Y axis, and the Z axis. With them, the location of any point in 3D space can be specified by the point's distance from the origin in the X direction, in the Y direction, and in the Z direction. These three distances, which are called coordinates, are usually written together, separated by commas.
A point, for example, having the coordinates of 2.25, 1.75, 2.50 is 2.25 units from the origin in the X direction, 1.75 units from the origin in the Y direction, and 2.50 units from the origin in...
