To Pursue
Look at Rhino's Group and Join commands.
Setting Up Autocad Display Like Rhino
This is for interest only and to see how it might be beneficial to draw in multiple viewports in AutoCad from the start as Rhino users do. Practically this means seting up a template or an empty drawing file that can used as a template.
First set the limits so the origin is at center of the screen. I use the over-all rato of 4 wide and 3 high. In this case I am using 400 by 300 drawing units.
LIMITS _|
-200, -150 _|
200,150 _|
GRID _|
10 _|
Z(OOM) _|
A(LL) _| (to center the work area ..notice the origin is in the middle of the screen.
Toggle F7 to turn the grid on and off. Leave it off.
Make the layer for the green colored axis rays
(LA)YER _|
Pick New
raygreen _|
Pick the color swatch under the heading Color
Pick the color green from the Standard Colors
OK
Pick Current
Pick OK
For the green y axis ray visable in Rhino's Perspective and Top views.
RAY _|
0, 0, 0 _|
0, 1, 0 _| (to indicate the y direction)
_|
Make the layer for the red colored x-axis ray.
(LA)YER _|
Pick New
rayred _|
Pick the color swatch under the heading Color
Pick the color red from the Standard Colors
OK
Pick Current
Pick OK
For the red x axis ray visable in Rhino's Perspective, Top, Front and Right views.
RAY _|
0, 0, 0 _|
1, 0, 0 _| (to indicate the x direction)
_|
In Rhino the views are labled Perspective, Top, Front and Right. This facility is not available in AutoCad and probably not necessary for experienced people but I choose to add a light blue z axis ray to aid visual orientation.
Make another layer "rayblue" and set it at the standard color cyan (the very light blue) or blue or, if you are comfortable selecting non-standard colors, I like color 150. Make the the layer current.
RAY _|
0, 0, 0 _|
0, 0, 1 _| (to indicate the z direction)
_|
Make an Object or Outline layer, or select the existing layer you usually start drawing in, and make it current.
Now lock the three axis ray layers so we can use the mutual end points at the origin to snap to when drawing and also prevents the rays being selected during drawing operations.
Pick the drop-down arrow to the right of the layer box in the object Properties Toolbar and pick on each of the three open lock symbols for the three ray layers. The lock symbols will turn into closed locks. The three ray layers are now locked.
Notice the Ucs icon is at the origin in the center of the screen. Use the following commands to make it appear in the bottom left of the screen all the time rather than at the Origin (0,0,0) where it would normally position itself if possible.
UCSICON _|
N _| (for Noorigin ..not at Origin)
To go to 3D Wireframe
SHADEMODE _|
3 _| (for 3D wireframe)
Now make 4 viewports in AutoCad's model space (assumes you've been in model space up to now!)
-VPORTS _| &nsbp (no alias)
4 _|
Getting there! Now to set up the four views like Rhino's Perspective, Top, Front and Right views.
Perspective View (Rhino's terminology).
Pick inside the upper right viewport.
-V(IEW) _| (neg sign to avoid the diaogue box)
SEISO _| (for SE Isometric)
Top View.
Pick inside the upper left viewport.
-V(IEW) _| (neg sign to avoid the diaogue box, -V is the alias)
O _| (for Orthographic)
T _| (for Top ..the top view!)
Front View.
Pick inside the lower left viewport.
-V(IEW) _|
O _| (for Orthographic)
F _| (for Front ..the front view!)
Right View.
Pick inside the lower right viewport.
-V(IEW) _|
O _| (for Orthographic)
R _| (for Right ..the right view!)
Save this file as AcadRhinoBlank.dwg and use it as a master file.