I assume you mean autoCAD..which these days may not be the best for complex geometry or for complete building models...in my opinion..but... Given that you probably don't want to learn a new software like RHINO or REVIT, I recommend going into the sketchup warehouse and searching for the platonic solids..You can take these into the CAD and manipulate them...also 3ds has the 'geosphere' tools that make complex geodesics.


http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a5fae87fdf9c95b1f5004e5c8f216a71&prevstart=0

thanks... i'll see what i can come up with......

yeah...it's been a loooong while since i messed with cad for 3d....i know i should learn a modelling program...but i want to make sure this project is all 1 style.......

i have 5 churches and if i get the hang of it i might be able to get 1 done a day.....

practice using subtract and union for solid modeling in autocad. i use those a lot to 'chop' and 'weld' shapes. similar methods and techniques with metal fabrication.

can you post images of the steeples?

yeah.... been messing with those tactics a bit.....

i'll post something in a few........

heres the first church i started to mess with..... i got most of the massing down.... not sure if i want to do the points at the top of the steeples though...and no doors/windows

this is for a 1/200 model



next church is in the upper left corner....

ughh, looks like a life long task. Google earth has massing models of most of downtown detroit.

actually got a decent massing of a few churches..... i'm doing a casting so i cant have undercuts....plus it's a small scale.... but the angles keep getting to me...... ucs was driving me crazy

are you making use of the "3 points" when changing ucs?

i found "3 points" to be the easiest.

if ucs is confusing you, it might be easier for you to draw the components in world ucs first and then just "assemble" them by using the move command. draw some reference lines for you to snap on to.

i was using the face/ucs command..... seemed to do well........ things got a little tricky when i had to do a dual angle though....... i ended up just using cones for the steeples...... unless theres a way to facet a cone....... i really dont tooo much patient for 3d modelling (which is my down fall) but i want to finish up this model really soon....... hence all the hard stuff .....