Help with AutoCAD Project

Mac-Chops

Howdy boardsies,

Finishing off a final year project in Civil Eng on the design of Constructed Wetlands and my project adviser has asked for me if possible to provide a drawing such as this:




I have multiple 2d drawings so far (plan/elevation etc), which do suffice but something like the above would give some extra oomph.
My question is would it be reasonably possible to jazz up an isometric view of a 2d version such as:



to something even along the lines of the above.

So far I have tried importing some models of trees/houses from various websites including ones listed on a thread below, to not much avail.

I've been advised to ask architecture students for help as my level of AutoCAD experience would make this a fairly tedious process. Sadly I don't know anyone with such experience and so I am here wondering if any advice is available!

Cheers!

ftlnn

I'd suggest you just do a nicely shaded 2d plan, set a viewport up in the paper layout with perspective view on the same plan. Use the natural colours of the elements. Green open space, grey road surface etc. if you need some 3d representations of simple items that can be done easily as well...

Dudda

This is what I would do.

Change those hatches to solid. This makes them easier to select and then save it as a PDF. To do this you can Print it as a PDF but this won't save your layers in the PDF so batch plot it as a pdf. I've no idea why or if it's just my computer and settings but doing it this way saves the layers in the PDF.

Next I'd open it in Photoshop. Here I'd add perspective. Next I'd get a photo of grass or grass image tile and use the solid hatch as a layer mask. I'd basically do the same for materials like roads, buildings etc. Then add drop shadow, inner glows and gradients. and other effects to give the elements dept. I'd bring in photos of cut out trees you can easily find on the internet. Add a sky backdrop and probably something like a gradient overlay from the top as white to the bottom as transparent to give the foggy far away effect and the image distance.

The problem here is you'd need a decent knowledge of photoshop. Generally Architecture students are good at photoshop and AutoCAD but I'm worried you may only have AutoCAD skills. If you only have 2D AutoCAD skills you won't get that quality I'm afraid and should just go with the above suggestions.

shane6977

Are you familiar with the 3d modelling tools in Autocad?

They are not that difficult to master in order to produce the sort of masterplan type image that you are looking for - some simple extrusions and basic mass elements are all you need. There are lots of 3d tutorials on the web (try youtube) and plenty of books which you will probably have available in your college library.

Autocad, has a decent enough rendering engine these days as well. So with a little bit of playing around you could produce a good 3d rendered image for your project.

Mac-Chops

Cheers for the replies and advice. I had a mess about with a few things mentioned and some help from a mate with (previously unknown) graphic design background.

I have some experience with 3D/extrude/render in AutoCAD alright, just not enough as of yet. It was sprung on me kind of late notice that 'it'd be great' to get that type of drawing in so didn't have the time to do it myself.

Anyway it's handed up now and am happy with finished product. Have a bit more time in coming weeks to mess about and maybe get something better in to a slide for presentation.