First, it is important to note the difference between an isometric drawing and an isometric projection. An isometric drawing is created by measuring true distances in a principal isometric direction (+ or - 30°, or vertical). To create an isometric drawing of a 120” cube you would measure off a 120" distance at a 30° slope, then vertical 120” etc. With an isometric projection, you would rotate a cube with dimensions of 120” so that it is viewed from an isometric orientation (i.e., looking down any of the diagonals of the cube). An isometric projection will be about 82% the size of an isometric drawing.
Orienting a 2D drawing to an isometric orientation in 3D space can be done via two rotations about principal axes or one rotation about a skewed axis. For example, to place a square constructed on the XY plane at an isometric projection orientation do the following in AutoCAD:
Give the rotate3d command (not 3drotate) and rotate the square about the Y axis by 45° then use rotate3d again to rotate the object by 35.2644° about the X axis. Looking from the top view you should see an isometric projection of a square.
To rotate a circle representing the outer edge of the cylinder in your drawing try the following.
- Create a circle of radius 60 on the XY plane.
- Rotate3d about the X axis by -45° (this will tilt the circle back to be on a plane parallel to the plane of the cylinder in your drawing).
- Rotate3d about Y axis by -45°
- Rotate3d about x axis by -35.2644°
- This will place the circle in the correct orientation but because it is an isometric projection rather than a drawing you are looking at you need to scale it up by 1/0.82 = 1.22. Scale the circle by 1.22.
- Use the flatten command (from the top view) to project the circle to the XY plane yielding the desired ellipse! It’s the yellow ellipse in the attached drawing.
Note, the 35.2644° angle is the angle of a cube's diagonal with the base = atan(1/sqrt(2))
~Lee
lee.minardi