Autocad 3d pulley - Graphic Design Courses

Creating objects like a 3D pulley in Autocad’s 3D interface is a straight-forward process which we illustrate in our Autocad 3D training courses.
First of all we need to create two items: a 2d profile for the pulley wheel and an axis of rotation. This will allow us to use the Revolve function to rotate the profile around the axis, thus creating a 3D wheel object.
We would use the Line and Circle tools to create the profile, then Trim off the unwanted sections, Offset the line created and close off the ends with the Line tool. We then need to convert the lines into a single polyline – this is not essential, but will result in less segments on the final shape. To do so type PE into the Command Line, which stands for Polyline Edit. Then use the Join the function to join all the lines into a single polyline path.
To one side we then create a vertical line for the axis of rotation. Now we can shift our view of the objects by rotating the top right View Cube, or by pressing down on Shift and clicking and dragging the mouse-wheel. This gives us an isometric view.
Now choose the Revolve tool: go to the Home tab > Extrude , and click on the drop-down list to reveal the Revolve tool. If using a version of Autocad pre-2009 go to the 3D Make control panel and choose the Revolve tool.
Select the profile shapes and hit Enter, then click on the two endpoints of the rotational axis and hit Enter again. This will rotate the shape around the default of 360º, unless you choose another angle like 180º or 270º.
Note that you can add dimensions as in a standard 2D drawing. And that you can also group objects together or explode them. We would now add lighting and materials to this object, copy it twice to create the pulley system, and sweep a shape around a path to represent the pulley’s drive belt.
The 3d interface in Autocad is user-friendly and easy to learn, and we take time to teach a broad range of applications in our classes including modeling, materials, lighting and animation. See many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page. For more information there are lots of resources on the web, but try the Autodesk site to begin with: www.autodesk.com. Support options and user forums are also available from the home page.
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