Mechanical 2012 3D wireframe/solid - how to go back to old interface?

[tcharbonneau]

I've been drawing in wireframe with some simple solid modeling off and on since release 12.  Mechanical 2011 was ok.  Mechanical 2012 has changed something.  I can't move things and pick points and get them to go where I intend.  I turned off the z axis but that hasn't helped.  I can't draw lines or move things much of the time.

Is there any way to make 2012 behave like earlier releases when doing 3d wireframe and solids?

[michaelsu]

Hi,

Have you got your problem resolved?

If not, can I have a look at your sample drawing first? Please send your sample drawing to zhiyuan.su@autodesk.com. Or you can post some snapshots showing the differences and what you want so it would be easier to understand the problem and provide some workaround.

[Anonymous]

You could try if 3D OSNAP (F4) is the culprit because I haven't noticed really big changes in 3D behavior on drawing lines or moving objects... (oh, and remember that polar tracking (F10) is mostly x-y and that mechanical will place some objects on z=0 whatever you try)

[tcharbonneau]

Thanks. I tried 3D OSNAP and Polar Track but that's not it. It seems to be like you say, it keeps some things on Z=0 no matter what. When drawing freehand of course you stay on the UCS, but I used to always be able to draw to endpoints, midpoints, etc. of existing geometry regardless of UCS. Is there any way to get back to this?

BTW I don't think I did any wireframe during the brief time we had Mechanical 2011, but I did a lot with Mechanical 2006 and it worked fine.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but was that "Mechanical" or "AutoCAD Mechanical"? AutoCAD Mechanical is primarily a 2D tool stuck in pre-R12 methods which will ignore the z coord quite often, Mechanical is a discontinued semi-3D tool.

AutoCAD Mechanical is usable for 3D, but generally you then need to take care not to use the "ampower-" commands: "copy", not "ampowercopy" etc.