pdf_doc 06.11.

2003 11:27 Uhr Seite 4

Tutorial

technical_illustration_redefined
About this Manual

IsoDraw, CADprocess, IsoCompose and IsoView are registered trade-

marks of D. Weidenbrück. This manual along with all other documen-
tation and the program itself are protected by copyright. Reproduction
or publishing of any kind is prohibited without the prior consent of
the manufacturer. This also applies to the program and library.

© 1990-2003 D. Weidenbrück

Warranty and liability aspects are regulated in accordance with the

“General Terms and Conditions” of the manufacturer and the conditi-
ons for use of software products accompanying the program.

All brand and product names are either trademarks or registered

trademarks, owned by their respective proprietors.

We have made every endeavor to make the documentation as

comprehensive as possible and to exclude all errors. Should you
nevertheless discover any errors, we would be grateful if you would
notify us of such.
 Contents
Introduction Practical examples

Notes for Users ............................................................................. 1 Drawing Bézier curves,

Differences between the versions ......................................... 2 Tracing of raster graphics ...................................................... 43
Differences between the keyboards ...................................... 2 Raster editing ............................................................................. 49
Distinctions made in this manual .......................................... 3 Raster graphic Templates ...................................................... 57
Foreword ........................................................................................... 4 Fills .................................................................................................. 63
IsoDraw and parallel perspectives .......................................... 5 Filling elements .......................................................................... 63
Working Environment ................................................................. 6 Filling single areas ..................................................................... 63
Creating an outer contour .................................................... 64
Filling all areas ............................................................................ 65
Introducing the elements Drawing a flange ........................................................................ 71
Drawing a gear wheel ............................................................. 75
Drawing a line ............................................................................... 7 Drawing a handwheel ............................................................. 79
Drawing rectangles ..................................................................... 8
Drawing bores,
Cutting functions ....................................................................... 10
Drawing a part ........................................................................... 13
Drawing inner threads,
Element info, line styles and shadows ............................. 22
Drawing a bolt,
Outer threads and polygons ................................................. 26

Transformations

Scaling ........................................................................................... 32
Rotation ........................................................................................ 32
Perspective rotation ................................................................. 34
Reflection ..................................................................................... 36
Perspective reflection .............................................................. 37
Projection into other planes ................................................. 40

Contents
 Notes for Users
The Tutorial presents you the individual elements and important
functions. You will learn with practical examples how to work with
IsoDraw.

The following styles are used to emphasize special sections of the

text:

Thread point Terms shown in bold type in the body of the

text are keywords in the sections they are
found in.

Special notes on using the program or tips that can make

your work easier are shown indented and in italics.

The title at the start of each section and a footer on each page tell
you what topic is dealt with in this particular section.

Additional sources of information

You will already have read about the basic features of IsoDraw in the
“Introduction” manual. In addition to this Tutorial, you will also have
received a Reference Manual containing information on all the com-
mands used by IsoDraw. Details of all the data formats supported by
IsoDraw can be found in the “Data Exchange” manual. Finally, the
Reference Card contains a summary of all the keyboard commands.
These will show you “shortcuts” that can greatly accelerate your
work.

Notes for Users 1

Differences between the versions
There are a number of differences between the Macintosh and Win-
dows versions of IsoDraw. You can find full details in the “Introduc-
tion” section of the Reference Manual. The differences in the key-
boards are shown below.

Differences between the keyboards

Macintosh Windows
Name Symbol Name Symbol

Command key Control key

Option key Alt key

Alpha Lock key Caps Lock

Home Home

End End

Control key not available

The “Control“ key is specific to the Macintosh and not available under
Windows. Its functions are accessed in some cases by clicking the
right-hand mouse button.

2 Differences between the versions

Distinctions made in this manual

If the two IsoDraw versions use different keys or keys with different
designations, the version (Macintosh or Windows) in question will be
shown in the text.
The keys will be pictured above each other, with the Macintosh key
on top.

As a rule, only the dialog windows of the Windows version are shown.
The Macintosh keys will be shown where they differ from Windows
keys.

Differences between the versions 3

Foreword
Welcome to IsoDraw — the professional solution for Technical
Illustration.

The exercises and examples featured in this tutorial will instruct you
step by step in the various functions of IsoDraw and their use.

We would advise you to start at the beginning. As banal as this may

sound, it does make plenty of sense since the exercises are presented
in a logical, structured sequence. The first few pages will acquaint
you with the basic principles of IsoDraw. You will get to know the
various elements and how to handle them.

You will soon begin drawing actual parts such as those you encoun-
ter in your daily work. The examples will gradually become more
complex and you will need to develop a certain feel for perspectives.

To obtain a complete picture of the functions offered by IsoDraw you

should refer to the Reference Manual. Here you will find sections on
the individual functions complete with full descriptions. Should you
have questions about converting files from other programs, have a
look at the Data Exchange Manual. There you will find useful hints
for import and export. If you search information on the different
types of perspective, refer to the “3D Windows” section.

Before you start this Tutorial you should be familiar with some of the
general procedures for using your computer. These include operation
of the hardware, the functions of the operating system, how to save
files etc.

We wish you every enjoyment in your training!

4 Foreword
 IsoDraw and parallel perspectives
The IsoDraw program has been developed primarily for perspective
illustration in the field of Technical Illustration and Documentation.
Parallel perspectives supported by IsoDraw are employed in many
fields, such as the automobile industry, the aircraft industry, plant
construction and mechanical engineering.

When you start IsoDraw for the first time, you will see an isometric
grid. The isometric perspective is the most common form of
parallel perspective. Its primary advantage over the vanishing point
perspective lies in the fact that all drawn elements can be manipu-
lated (e.g. copied, scaled, rotated etc.) as required and then transfer-
red to other documents without having to be redrawn.

With the vanishing point perspective, the presentation changes, as

you can see in the illustration opposite. If a 2D program is used for
drawing, as is often the case in an effort to save time or cost, this will
in effect involve a redrawing.

In the isometric coordinate system, the Y axis is vertical (as in the Y

Cartesian coordinate system). The X axis and Z axis, however, are Y
X
angled at 30° and –30° respectively to the horizontal. X
There are also other forms of parallel perspective in which the axes 30°
-30°
are set at different angles, e.g. 7°/42°. In these cases, however, we are
no longer talking about isometric projection, but about dimetric or Z
trimetric projection.

The angles between the major isometric axes are 120° in each case.
120°

In principle, IsoDraw can generate all types of perspective,

though the greatest level of support is provided for the parallel
perspective. 120° 120°

IsoDraw and parallel perspectives 5

 Working environment

Pictured in the following is a scaled-down IsoDraw drawing window.

On the left-hand side of this window you can also see the toolbox
from which you can select the various tools.
Displayed along the bottom of the window are the size of the screen
display, the status of the capture mechanisms and the dynamic di-
mension display. The dimension display fields appear next to these
when elements are activated. The element type determines which di-
mension is displayed in which field.

As a standard the window displays a section of the total drawing

area. You can move the section around as you want by means of the
scroll bar. The size of the display can be changed by selecting the
“Size” command in the “Window” menu.

Located in the background of the drawing area is an isometric grid.

The angles in this grid are fixed at 30°/30°, while the size can be set
by the “Preferences” command. This command can also be used to
change the colour.
Virtually all elements align to this grid. The grid points can be mag-
netic if required.

IsoDraw can also be used to create other parallel-perspective

grids (see section “Grids” in the Reference Manual).

6 Introduction
 Introducing the elements
Example: Drawing a line

Select the line tool in the toolbox. Click the drawing area with the
mouse. Keep the mouse button depressed and drag a line.
The changing length of the line is displayed while the button is de-
pressed. The ends of the line are attracted by the magnetic grid.

Now move the mouse in a circle around the starting point.

The line snaps automatically to the major isometric axes or to the
horizontal.

Keeping the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed

while dragging the line will allow you to draw oblique lines which lie
off the major isometric axes. In this case, two dimensions will be dis-
played along the major axes.
If you keep the Command key (Macintosh) or Control key (Win-
dows) depressed while dragging the line, this deactivates the grid
magnetism, thereby enabling you to generate lines of intermediate
length.

The end points marked in red are magnetic and are attracted by grid
points and the element points of other elements.

The toolbox contains two line tools. The upper one is for the de-
scribed isometric lines, the lower one for polylines. Polylines com-
prise a chain of adjoining line segments.

Drawing a line 7
 Example: Drawing rectangles

Select the rectangle tool from the toolbox.

Click a grid point and drag a rectangle from point A to point B.
Then click point B and drag a rectangle from B to C and then from
C to A.
Select the “Preview” command from the “Window” menu. You can
now see that the outer edges of the cube have been drawn with the
“Thick” pen, while the inner lines have been drawn with the “Thin”
pen.

IsoDraw automatically generates rectangles half with thick and half

with thin lines.

Drag rectangles in different directions. As you can see, the arrange-

ment of the line thicknesses is governed by the “dragging direction”.

Select the arrow cursor from the toolbox and click a rectangle in
order to activate it.
Reverse the line thicknesses by making a quick double click on the
element.
Select the rectangle tool again from the toolbox. Hold the Com-
mand key (Macintosh) or Control key (Windows) depressed while
dragging the rectangle. The act of depressing the Command key de-
activates the grid magnetism for a brief period.
Keep the mouse button depressed and move the end point in a circu-
lar motion around the start point. The rectangle is positioned in the
various isometric planes depending on the position of the mouse.

8 Introducing the elements

Holding the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed
while dragging the rectangle will generate a rectangle with 90°
angles.

The toolbox contains two rectangle tools and one tool for defining
the corner radius. The isometric rectangle described above is selec-
ted by the first symbol. The second symbol allows you to create
rectangles with rounded corners.
The third symbol is used to define the corner radius for the rounded
rectangles. Selecting it will summon up a dialog box which requests
you to enter the required value.

Drawing rectangles 9
 Example: Drawing bores,
Cutting functions

Select the ellipse tool from the toolbox.

Click the indicated point where the grid lines intersect in order to
define the midpoint of the ellipse. Drag an ellipse on one side of
your cube.
Keep the mouse button depressed and move the cursor in a circle
around the start point. The ellipse snaps to different isometric
planes depending on the position of the mouse.

The ellipse value of the ellipse is also set in the toolbox. When
you start IsoDraw, the correct standard ellipses for the major
axes are set automatically. If you wish to draw ellipses with
other ellipse values, select the desired value from the pop-up
menu. The “Other...” command in this menu allows you to enter
any value you choose.

To illustrate the point, drag an ellipse in each of the two remaining

sides of your cube with the correct orientation angle. Watch how
each ellipse rotates to the correct orientation angle. With the ellipses,
too, the line thicknesses change depending on the direction in which
the ellipses are dragged.
Now delete two of the ellipses to make the drawing less crowded for
the steps which follow. Do this by selecting the arrow cursor from
the toolbox.
Click the element you want to delete and actuate the Delete key.
Alternatively, you can select the “Delete” command from the “Edit”
menu.

10 Introducing the elements

A single ellipse indicates that there is a bore in your cube. Since no
other edges are visible in this bore, the end of the bore lies outside
the field of vision.

If the cube is hollow, however, a second ellipse needs to be drawn in

order to show the wall thickness.

Draw this second ellipse as shown.

Part of the ellipse now has to be deleted. Therefore select the rear
ellipse using the arrow cursor and click the part of the ellipse you
want to delete.
Now select the “Delete part/Select points” function from the “Edit”
menu. You will now see various points on the ellipse. The red point is
located at the position where you clicked the element. It always
marks the piece to be deleted. You will also be able to see several
green points nearby. These are intersection points between the
ellipse and other elements.
Click the arrow cursor at green intersection points A and B. The
unwanted part of the ellipse will be deleted.

Being the outer edge of a body, the remaining section of the ellipse
must be drawn with the “Thick” pen. Reverse the line thickness if
needed by giving a double click.

Drawing bores 11
 There is a further simplification where intersections are unambiguous.
First draw two ellipses which intersect as shown.
Select the arrow cursor from the toolbox and activate the rear el-
lipse. Click the part of the element to be deleted.

Now select the “Delete part/Auto” function from the “Edit” menu. The
ellipse is deleted from the point at which you clicked it to the nearest
intersection points.

The ellipse is the key element in perspective drawing. It determines

the orientation and inclination of a drawn part in space. IsoDraw
therefore incorporates a wide range of functions for drawing or
generating ellipses. The toolbox contains the following variants:

The centerd ellipse which can be dragged from the midpoint to one
of the vertices.
A second ellipse which can be dragged from one vertex to another.

Whilst dragging the ellipse, alignment to the isometric axes can be

deactivated by depressing the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key
(Windows).

12 Introducing the elements

Example: Drawing a part

This example will illustrate how to draw an angle part. For this pur-
pose, create a new document by selecting the “New” function from
the “File” menu. The window of a new document with the name
“Untitled - 1” will appear.

20

60
20
Call up the “Save” command from the “File” menu. The dialog box 80

shown below will appear. Enter a name for your document (e.g.
R 10 M 20
“Part”) and find a suitable folder in which you would like to save the
document.

60
Confirm your entry by clicking “Save” or “OK“.

20
40 20

Drawing a part 13
 Before you start the example, enlarge the screen display. Click the
first field at the bottom left of the window. Hold the mouse button
depressed and select 200% from the pop-up menu. You can also
select the screen display with a keyboard command. Press the Com-
mand and Option key (Macintosh) or the Control and Alt key
(Windows) at the same time. The cursor changes into a magnifying
glass with a “+” symbol in its center.
Clicking once on the page will double the size of the screen display.

You will require rounded corners for the finished part. This is achieved
by means of ellipses. It is advisable to start with these corners. Select
the ellipse tool from the toolbox.

Position the cursor in the center of the corresponding grid diamond

and press the mouse button. Keeping the mouse button pressed, drag
the cursor to the right until a diameter of 20 mm is displayed. Then
release the mouse button. The ellipses are fitted automatically into
the grid diamond.

The dimensions of the drawn ellipse appear in the dimensions bar at

the bottom of the window. The first display field shows the diame-
ter of the ellipse, i.e. 20 mm. The second displays the ellipse value
and the third the orientation angle of the ellipse relative to the ho-
rizontal. The dimensions show you immediately whether you have
drawn the ellipse correctly. Dimensions are also displayed for other
selected elements. You can change any dimension directly in the dis-
play field. Confirm your entry with the Enter key. Use the Tab key
to move from field to field. To find out which dimensions are shown,
refer to the “Dimensions display in the dimensions bar” section in the
Reference Manual.

14 Introducing the elements

Select the Tangent between two ellipses tool from the toolbox.
Select the from the toolbox. Click the lower ellipse with the tangents
tool and drag the cursor to the upper ellipse. The line snaps to the el-
lipse tangent point.

Now select the line tool. Draw the lines as shown in order to produce
a parallelogram. In doing this, you will notice that the drawing cursor
does not have to be positioned precisely on the point from which you
want to draw. This is because the start point and end point of a line
are magnetic like the ellipse points and thus attract other points. The
same applies to all element points and grid points.

You have thus drawn the first section of the part, a parallelogram
with two rounded corners. All you have to do now is to delete the
unwanted parts of both ellipses. You do this by first selecting the
arrow cursor from the toolbox.

As with any other object, you could delete the entire ellipse simply by
selecting it and pressing the Delete key. It is also possible to delete
parts of elements. One way of doing this is by selecting only a part of
an element. Keeping the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Win-
dows) depressed, click the part of the ellipse which you would like to
delete. Only the segment between the two nearest element points is
selected.
Now press the Delete key and the part you selected will disappear.
Delete the remaining segments of the ellipse in the same way. You
can also select the “Delete part/Auto” function in the “Edit” menu to
modify the second ellipse.

Drawing a part 15
 Now select the lower half of the drawn shape. You can select an ele-
ment by clicking it with the mouse. Its element points will then
appear as red dots. Should you wish to select further elements, you
simply have to hold the Shift key depressed while clicking the ele-
ments. You should therefore select the two lower lines and the two
rounded corners.

The lower edge of the part runs parallel to the selected objects. This
enables you to make a copy of it a little lower down on the screen.
IsoDraw allows you to move a copy of a selected object. Do this by
calling up the “Move” function from the “Edit” menu.
The following dialog box appears:

16 Introducing the elements

Enter a distance of 20 mm and a value of 270° when specifying the
angle.
You can also specify the angle by clicking on the arrow or the “Y axis”
(if you click the “Y axis” here, you must enter a distance of –20 mm).

Since you want to move the elements along the major axis in the
perspective, you will need to take the reduction into account. You
should therefore select the “With foreshortening” box and confirm by
clicking “Copy”.

You will see that the copy has been moved and the outlines of a body
are intimated. Double click the various objects to set the correct line
thickness.
Let us now turn to the left edge of the body. Use the line tool to draw
a line to represent the left-hand edge of the angle. Here, too, set the
element point of the ellipse and drag the cursor upwards until the
line snaps to the upper ellipse.

Part of the lower ellipse is now projecting. Click the projecting seg-
ment with the arrow cursor and select the “Delete part/Auto”
command from the “Edit” menu. The unwanted segment will be de-
leted automatically.

Now insert a threaded bore into the plate using the same procedure
you employed for the ellipses.
Select the inner thread tool and position the cursor to the middle
of the grid line of the upper surface as shown opposite. Drag the
thread to the left with the mouse button depressed. The direction in
which you drag the thread determines the arrangement of the line
thicknesses and the thread alignment. This completes the work on the
lower plate for the time being.

Drawing a part 17
 You will now create the vertical section of the angled part.
You can do this by means of a new function. Select the arrow cursor
and then press the Alpha Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps Lock (Win-
dows). The cursor changes into a double arrow. Use this arrow to
select the top right edge of the plate and, holding the mouse button
depressed, drag the line straight upwards by two grid lines. You will
see that the line is copied.
In addition, the element points of the old and new lines are linked by
further lines.

Release the Alpha Lock key or Caps Lock and select the line tool.
Now draw the outline of the angle as you can see in the figure oppo-
site.

Click the right end of the bottom line with the arrow cursor and
move the line to the right in the direction of the angled part. Then
correct the thicknesses of the individual lines by double clicking the
elements in question.

18 Introducing the elements

Finally, you need to insert the bridge. Use the line tool to drag an ob-
lique line downwards from the lower plate (see illustration).

To do this, depress the mouse button and the Option key (Macin-
tosh) or Alt key (Windows) simultaneously. Then move the cursor.
You will see that the line can be moved freely at any angle. Move the
cursor to the point as shown in the diagram and then release the
mouse button.

Drag the remaining lines as shown in the illustration. The second

edge of the bridge, the vertical and the two horizontal edges of the
bridge are inner edges and must be drawn thin. You should therefore
select the “Thin” pen from the “Paint” menu. Now draw the four lines
directly in the required thickness.

Drawing a part 19
 Click again the center of the angle's inner edge (point A in the
illustration) with the arrow cursor. Use “Delete part/Select points” to
display all the intersection points along the edge. Click intersection
points B and C to delete the part of the edge behind the bridge.

Now reduce the screen display in size. Click the zoom display at the
bottom of the window, keep the mouse button depressed and select
“Original size” from the pop-up menu. The screen display can be
selected using keyboard commands. To do so, simultaneously press
the Command, Option and Shift keys (Macintosh) or the Control,
Alt and Shift keys (Windows).
The cursor changes to a magnifying glass with a “–” in the center.
Give a single click on the page. This reduces the screen display and
allows you to view the “part” in its entirety.

You can be proudly pleased of your drawing!

In order that you can return to your drawing later, you should save
your document again at the end using the “Save” command from the
“File” menu.

20 Introducing the elements

You can also export your drawing into another format for editing in
other programs. After calling up the “Export” command from the
“File” menu you will be presented with the following dialog box:

Click the pop-up menu and select the format for storing your
drawing. Select from the various options available depending on the
program you want to export the drawing to. Choose EPS format if
you want to use the drawing as a PostScriptTM file in DTP programs.

After you have made your choice, enter a name and select the folder
you want to store your file in. Confirm your selection by clicking
“Save” or “OK“.

You can find detailed information on the various formats in

the separate “Data Exchange” manual.

Drawing a part 21
 Example: Drawing inner threads,
Element info, line styles and shadows

In the following example you will learn to modify the familiar inner
thread. Open a new file first.
Select the rectangle tool and draw a cube as shown opposite. Now
select the inner thread tool. Click the midpoint of the bore and drag
the thread in the same way as an ellipse. A complete inner thread is
generated immediately.
This assumes that the rear end of the thread is located so deep that it
is not visible from this angle of vision.

If the rear end of the thread does lie in the field of vision, however,
the presentation will need to be changed. Choose the arrow cursor
from the toolbox and select the inner thread. In addition to the usual
red selection points you will now also see a green thread point on
the circumference of the thread.
Click the green point and move it to the lower right with the mouse
button depressed. A further ellipse appears during this procedure. This
new ellipse represents the rearmost turn of the thread which you are
in the process of moving. As soon as you release the mouse button
the inner thread will be matched accordingly.

The line thicknesses are generated in the typical manner for an inner
thread.

22 Introducing the elements

You can also control the characteristics and dimensions of an ele-
ment by value inputs.
Click the inner thread with the arrow cursor. Then select the “Ele-
ment info” command from the “Element” menu.
A dialog box appears which indicates the current characteristics of
the element:

The pop-up menu at the top allows you to convert the inner thread
into an ellipse or an outer thread if you wish.
The entry field at the top is used to define the diameter of an ellipse
or a thread.
The fields for ellipse value and orientation angle allow you to
enter values directly or to make changes via the pop-up menus. The
ellipse value is selected as with the toolbox.
The various functions can be used to rotate the orientation angle to
one of the major axes or to rotate it around 180°.

Drawing inner threads 23

 The depth of the threaded bore can also be changed here. If the
thread is so deep that you no longer need to display the end of it,
check the Full box. Should you require a specific wall thickness,
deselect the box and enter the value you want.

The distance regulates the thread “pitch”, i.e. the distance between
the parallel ellipses inside the bore. If the Auto box is checked, the
distance is determined by the diameter of the inner thread. If you
wish to enter a special distance for a thread, click the checked box to
deselect it. Then enter the required value in the entry field.

The “Preferences...” command in the “Edit” menu can be used to

set the automatic thread distances.

Quit the “Element info” command by clicking “OK” or “Cancel”.

You can find detailed information on the “Element info” dialog

boxes for the individual elements in the IsoDraw Reference
Manual.

24 Introducing the elements

A dashed center line is often inserted for a bore of this type in order
to establish a reference for a bolt or another component.
To do this, select the “Center line” pen from the “Window/Attribu-
tes” menu.

Drag a center line from the middle of the inner thread along the grid
line. The line appears in the typical dashed line style. At the same
time, you will notice that the line on both sides is isolated from the
background. This is achieved by means of a white line, the shadow,
which lies behind the actual center line.

The “Window/Attributes” menu includes further pens, styles and

shadows.

If the standard pens “Thick”, “Medium”, “Thin” and “Center line”

prove insufficient for the presentation, it is possible for you to
define your own pens.

For the following example you will need to delete all elements on
your page:
Select the “Select all” function from the “Edit” menu or use the key-
board command Command key - A (Macintosh) or Control key - A
(Windows).
Then press the Delete key.

Since the last pen you used was the “Center line” pen, you will need
to select the “Thick” pen from the “Window/Attributes” menu.

Drawing inner threads 25

 Example: Drawing a bolt,
Outer thread and polygons

In order to draw an outer thread in one of the major axes, the

ellipse value must be set to Standard ellipse. If you can see three
ellipses in the toolbox symbol, the angle for the standard ellipse has
been set correctly.
If a different ellipse value has been set, the relevant angle value will
be displayed on the toolbox button.

Select the outer thread tool from the toolbox.

Click a grid point and drag the base ellipse of the outer thread.

The outer thread also has a movable thread point. Therefore, select
the arrow cursor from the toolbox.

Click the green point on the thread circumference and drag the
thread to the “rear”. The thread turns are drawn automatically.

26 Introducing the elements

Now select the ellipse tool from the toolbox.

Click a grid point which lies slightly behind the last thread turn and
drag an ellipse.
Since you are working with the magnetic grid, you will have no diffi-
culty in exactly matching the diameter of the ellipse to the outer
thread.

Select the line tool from the toolbox.

Click one of the red vertices of the ellipse and drag a connecting line
to the outer thread. Do the same on the other side.
Since the red element points are magnetic, the lines snap exactly to
the corresponding element points of the ellipse.

We now have to delete the unwanted half of the ellipse.

Select the arrow cursor from the toolbox and click the part of the
ellipse you want to delete.
Select the “Delete part/Auto” function from the “Edit” menu.

Drawing a bolt 27
 Select the Polygon tool. As the basic setting is “6 sides“, the polygon
tool is automatically set right.

Click the midpoint of the ellipse and drag a polygon.

While drawing the polygon, an ellipse is displayed which reproduces
the circumcircle and the ellipse value of the polygon.

Polygons are always generated so that they match the ellipse

value which is currently set. This ellipse value is set via the
appropriate field in the toolbox.

Select the arrow cursor from the toolbox and depress the the Alpha
Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps Lock (Windows). The arrow cursor
then changes to a double arrow.

Click one of the polygon lines and move it to the rear. Ensure that the
connecting lines run parallel to the major axis.
Should it prove difficult to drag the polygon accurately, press the
Shift key in order to restrict the angle to the major axis during the
moving process.
Release the the Alpha Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps Lock (Win-
dows).
You have now copied the first polygon and moved it to the rear. At
the same time, all corner points of the two polygons have been
connected by lines.

28 Introducing the elements

Delete the unwanted lines:
First click point A and select the “Delete part/Select points” function
from the “Edit” menu. Then click intersection points B and C.
Select lines D and E and depress the Delete key.
Click point F and select the “Delete part/Auto” function from the
“Edit” menu.

If necessary, reverse the line thicknesses with a double click on the

corresponding elements.

Threads can be changed quickly and easily. Click the outer thread
with the arrow cursor in order to select it.
You can use the arrow cursor at any time to move the thread point
if you wish to change the shaft of the bolt. Lengthen the two outer
lines if necessary.

The other side of the outer thread can also be changed:

Click the base ellipse of the outer thread and hold the mouse button
depressed. If you then also keep the Command key (Macintosh) or
Control key (Windows) depressed, this allows you to change the
length of the “bolt”.

Drawing a bolt 29
30 Introducing the elements
 Transformations
Transformations are specific changes to elements which have already
been drawn. They include the functions Move, Rotate, Reflect,
Scale and the Projection of elements into other planes.
IsoDraw generally allows you two ways of transforming an element
or a group of elements — either with the mouse or via the dialog
boxes.

Select the “Open” command in the “File” menu.

The following dialog box appears:

Select the “Flange” or “Flange.iso“ file from the “Tutorial”

folder and confirm with “Open” or “OK”. A new window is opened
which shows the contents of this file.

Before you begin the first example — Scaling — you should first
group the elements of the flange so that you can select everything
later with a single click of the mouse.
Select all the elements by means of a selection rectangle. To do
this, activate the arrow cursor and click the drawing (but do not
click an element).
While you are moving the mouse, the selection rectangle is displayed
until you release the mouse button. Then select the “Group” function
from the “Element” menu.

Scaling 31
 Example: Scaling

Click the group with the arrow cursor in order to select it. Select the
scaling tool from the toolbox.

All selected elements are framed by a dashed rectangle. Click one of

the corner points of this rectangle and move it. While you are moving
it, the changing scaling factor is displayed as a percentage.
The flange is displayed in the new size as soon as you release the
mouse button.

Example: Rotation

Select the group with the arrow cursor. Then select the rotation tool
from the toolbox.
Position the cursor over the required rotation point. Hold the Shift
key depressed and click with the mouse. The following dialog box
appears:

32 Transformations
Enter a rotation angle of 120°. In isometric projection, this represents
the angle between two major axes. Now click “Copy” to confirm your
entry and to generate a copy of the selected group which is rotated
accordingly.

You can now repeat the last command. Select the flange you have
just generated and call up the “Repeat rotation” function from the
“Element” menu. The selected group is copied again and rotated by
120°. You have thus generated three flanges in the three major iso-
metric axes.

Rotation/Scaling 33
 Example: Perspective rotation

Open the “Flange” or “Flange.iso“ file again in order to have the same
starting point for the following steps.

Select the ellipse tool from the toolbox and draw an ellipse as
pictured opposite. If you do not like the diameter of the ellipse, you
can change it via “Element info” in the “Element” menu.

To allow you to perform the following steps more effectively, turn off
the magnetic grid. Click the grid magnetism field in the bar at the
bottom of the screen.

After you have clicked this field, the symbol appears without an
arrow. The grid points are now no longer magnetic.

34 Transformations
Select the perspective rotation function from the toolbox pop-up
menu.

Leave the ellipse selected.

Depress the Shift key and click the ellipse of the bore. This specifies
the plane the active element is to be copied in and the midpoint
around which it is to be rotated. The following dialog box appears:

Enter an angle of 45°. To ensure that perspective rotation is not re-

stricted to the selected ellipse, confirm by clicking “Copy”. You have
now generated a second ellipse and rotated it in the required per-
spective around the inner bore.
Repeat the last step until you have drawn all the required ellipses.

Perspective rotation 35
 In order to simplify this repetition procedure, you can use the “Repeat
rotation” function from the “Element” menu. This function repeats
the last step one time. However, since you want to generate several
ellipses at the same time you should keep the Shift key depressed
when selecting this command.
The following dialog box appears:

Enter a “6” and confirm with “OK”.

Example: Reflection

Select all the elements making up the flange and group them
together. Reduce the screen display as shown.
Now select the reflection tool from the toolbox.

Hold the Shift key depressed and click the center of reflection.
The following dialog box appears:

36 Transformations
Confirm by clicking “Copy”. The original remains unchanged; a copy is
generated which is reflected around the 90° axis.

Example: Perspective reflection

Open the “Flange” or „Flange.iso“ file again in order to have the same
starting point for the following steps.

To allow you to perform the following steps more effectively, click the
grid magnetism field in the bar at the bottom of the screen. This
will turn off the magnetic grid.

Perspective reflection/Reflection 37
 The following steps will show you how to draw a groove which is
symmetrical to the Y axis. Select the line tool and draw three lines to
the inner ellipse as pictured opposite.

Make sure that the two lines on the X axis contact the ellipse. Other-
wise the intersection points with the ellipse will not be detected
automatically during subsequent cutting operations.

If you are unsure whether the end of the line is actually touch-
ing the ellipse, simply drag the line beyond the ellipse and then
delete the unwanted line segment.

Select the arrow cursor and activate the lines you have drawn. Then
select the perspective reflection function from the toolbox pop-up
menu.
Keep the Shift key depressed and click the bore ellipse with the re-
flection cursor.
The following dialog box appears:

38 Transformations
Click the “Y axis” field and confirm with “Copy”. A copy of the selec-
tion is reflected in the required perspective on the ellipse.

Change the left-hand vertical line from “thin” to “thick” by means of

a double click.
Now delete unwanted parts of the ellipse. Do this by selecting the
arrow cursor and clicking the part of the ellipse you want to delete.
Select the “Delete part/Auto” command from the “Edit” menu. The
unwanted part of the ellipse is now deleted automatically. Proceed in
the same way with the unwanted part of the ellipse on the right-
hand side.

Select the line tool from the toolbox and draw the two lines which
are still missing. Finally, set the required line thicknesses of the inner
and outer edges by double clicking the lines.

Perspective reflection 39
 Example: Projection into other planes

Open the “Connecting part” or “Connecting part.iso” file in the “Tuto-

rial” folder. In this exercise you will project elements into a plane
which lies outside the isometric plane.

Enlarge the screen display as shown. Activate the smaller ellipse and
select the perspective rotation function from the toolbox pop-up
menu.
Keep the Shift key depressed and click the bore ellipse with the rota-
tion cursor.

The following dialog box appears:

Enter an angle of 45° and confirm by clicking “Copy”.

You have now made a copy of the ellipse and rotated it in the
required perspective around the bore in the flange.

40 Transformations
Since you still need to draw a further six bores, you can simplify this
last operation. Hold the Shift key depressed while selecting “Repeat
rotation” from the “Element” menu.
The following dialog box appears:

Enter a “6” and confirm with “OK”.

Now select all the ellipses as shown.

If you have selected unwanted lines, you can cancel the selection by
clicking the object again with the Shift key depressed. You can then
duplicate the selected elements by selecting the “Duplicate”
command from the “Edit” menu.

Projection into other planes 41

 You should then “transfer” the duplicated elements to the lower
flange lying outside the isometric plane.
Do this by selecting the projection tool from the toolbox pop-up
menu.

Click the edge of the selected ellipse and hold the mouse button de-
pressed. Then drag the elements to the ellipse of the lower flange as
illustrated. You can release the mouse button as soon as you see that
these have been activated.

As you can now see, the objects you have moved have been “fitted”
automatically in the new perspective.
Finally, you should check that the line thicknesses of the inner and
outer edges are correct and should change these where necessary by
means of a double click.

42 Transformations
 Practical examples
Example: Drawing Bézier curves,
Tracing of raster graphics

You will often need to draw objects which cannot be represented by

simple lines or ellipses since their contours are too irregular. These
contours are drawn in IsoDraw by means of Bézier curves.
Several curve sections linked together are also known as a Bézier
path.

Each Bézier curve is controlled by the length and direction of its

handles. The handles occur at the element points of a path or curve.
If a curve section has no handles, a straight line is drawn between the
end points.

The “Elements” section of the IsoDraw Reference Manual con-

tains a precise explanation of the components of a Bézier curve
and how they are dealt with.

As a practical exercise in handling Bézier curves we will now draw the

wing of a motor vehicle.
Open the file “Wing with template” or “Wing_template.iso” in the
“Tutorial” folder.

In order to make your task a little easier, you will find a drawing of the
wing in the form of a template in the background of the drawing
area. It is displayed in the template color currently set. You can
change the color by means of the “Preferences...” function in the “Edit”
menu.

You will also see a number of lines on the drawing. These are intended
as an orientation aid to make the start easier.

Drawing Bézier curves 43

 The magnetic grid function in the bar at the bottom of the screen is
switched off in this file in order for you to use the Bézier function
more easily.
The grid display has also been switched off. You can switch it back on
again if you wish using the “Preferences” window in the “Edit” menu.

You will usually also switch off the grid alignment when work-
ing with templates. In this case, it is easier to leave it on.

Select the Bézier tool from the toolbox.

Draw the first curve section as shown in the illustration. To do this,

click the end point of the line on the left-hand side and hold the
mouse button depressed. Use the mouse button to drag a handle
upwards out of the point. Release the mouse button when the handle
is of approximately the length indicated.
Now click the other end point and drag a second handle. While you
are dragging this second handle, you will see the curve appear so that
you can control the shape with the length of the handle.
After releasing the mouse button, the curve should coincide as
precisely as possible with the template contour. If this is not the case,
do not worry about this at the current time and continue drawing.
You can match the curves later using the Bézier point handles.

44 Practical examples
Hold the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed
and click the upper Bézier point once with the Bézier cursor. The
right-hand Bézier point handle disappears. By clicking the Bézier
point in this way you have changed it from a curve point to a corner
point.

Now set the next point, clicking once to get a corner point.
Click the point again, hold the mouse button depressed and drag a
handle as shown.

Now draw the next segments by setting the points pictured opposite
and dragging the relevant handles.

Drawing Bézier curves 45

 In the next step, the last but one point you drew will be changed
from a curve point to a corner point. Do this by selecting the arrow
cursor and double clicking the specified point.

Click the end point of the left-hand handle and hold the mouse but-
ton depressed.
You can now move the handle separately.

Since this handle is not to lie on the major axis, depress the Option
key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows), so that you can change the
angle of the handle if required. Once the length and orientation of
the handle are as you want them, release the mouse button and then
the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows).

46 Practical examples
Now let us return to the last Bézier point so that you can continue
drawing. To do this, select the Bézier tool, hold the Shift key de-
pressed and click the Bézier point as shown opposite.

A new handle appears which you can use to set further Bézier points.

Set the missing points as shown.

Drawing Bézier curves 47

 Finally, select the arrow cursor and match the curve to the template
using the handles.

In the “Tutorial” folder you will find the “Wing” or “Wing.iso” file
which shows the finished wing. If you are not completely successful
with the shapes, you can refer to this file to see how they should be.

48 Practical examples
Example: Raster editing

In the last example we used an image element as our template. In

this example we want to change an image element.
Open the “Shaft.tif” file in the “Tutorial” folder. In order to display this
file for you to open it on a Macintosh, you must first select “Templa-
tes (PICT/TIFF)” or “ALL“ in the pop-up menu or, under Windows, “TIFF-
files (*.tif)” in the list “File format” at the bottom.

A new, untitled window is opened containing the image element.

Select the image element and then choose the “Edit image”
command from the “Element” menu. The image element is displayed
in a black frame. In addition, the toolbox has changed into the pixel
palette to enable you to edit the pixels of the image element.
The pixel palette contains tools which you can use for image editing.

Enlarge the screen display with the magnifying glass in order to ob-
tain a better view of the image element.

Raster editing 49
 Select the eraser tool from the toolbox.
Delete the ellipse, the centre line and bolt as shown by moving the
eraser tool with depressed mouse button over the concerned image
element.

Select the pen tool from the pixel palette. Use the pen to add the
missing section of the outer edge. Do this by clicking the mouse and
holding the mouse button depressed.

50 Practical examples
Reduce the screen display with the magnifying glass in order to ob-
tain a clearer view of the image element.
Quit the pixel editor by selecting the “Edit image” command from the
“Element” menu.
Select the image element and choose the ”Lock“ command from the
”Element“ menu.

Switch off the magnetic grid. Click the grid magnetism box in the bar
at the bottom of the screen.

Select the inner thread tool from the toolbox.

Draw a bore with an inner thread at the specified point. It is

sufficient for the purpose of this exercise to drag the element in
approximate terms. The size and position need not match the other
bores exactly.

Raster editing 51
 Select the line tool from the toolbox.

Starting from the midpoint of the inner thread draw a line as shown.
Then select the “Center line” pen from the “Window/Attributes”
menu.

Now use the “Open” function from the “File” menu to open the
“Hexagon Bolts” or “Hexagon Bolts.iso” file in the “Tutorial” folder.
Select the file and confirm by clicking “Open” or “OK”.
You will see a set of bolts on this drawing. Select the bolt as shown
and copy it using the “Copy” function from the “Edit” menu.

You can now close the file since you will not need it again.

52 Practical examples
Now position the bolt on your drawing by selecting the “Paste” func-
tion from the “Edit” menu.

The bolt must then be rotated to the correct orientation and matched
in size to the inner bore.

To do this, select the projection tool from the toolbox pop-up menu.

Hold the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed.

Click the lower edge of the bolt and keep the mouse button depres-
sed. Then drag the elements as shown to the edge of the inner
thread. As soon as the inner thread has been selected, release the
mouse button.

Raster editing 53
 This function has rotated the bolt to the correct orientation and
matched it in size to the inner thread.

Unlike the projection of ”flat“ elements between two planes,

the projection of complete parts requires matching ellipse
values for the starting and target ellipses – i.e. in this case the
ellipses of the outer thread of the bolt and the inner thread.

If this is not the case, the part will be distorted in perspective.

Select the arrow cursor and move the bolt to the end point of the
center line.

Release the still locked image template. Select the template and
choose the ”Unlock all“ command from the ”Element“ menu.

You can now continue editing the image template. Return to the
pixel editor by selecting the “Edit image” command from the
“Element” menu.

54 Practical examples
After selecting ”Edit image“ the ”RGB color window“ appears automa-
tically on screen. Here you can define colors or grayscales out of the
basic colors ”Red“, ”Green“ and ”Blue“.

Create a suitable color and select the bucket tool from the pixel pa-
lette. The arrow cursor turns to a bucket cursor.

Using the cursor, click the area of the image element which is to re-
ceive the fill.

The bucket tool fills inside “closed” areas. If you click into an
area of which the contour is not completely closed, the fill
cannot be generated automatically.

Raster editing 55
 If you save this illustration in IsoDraw format, the image elements
and vector elements (bolt, inner thread, center line) will be saved in
one file. A file of this type is known as a “hybrid” file since it contains
two different types of data.

For export into other formats you have to remember that only a few
formats are able to combine raster and vector data. These include the
EPS and the CGM formats.

As an alternative, you may also export the file as a TIFF file. In this
case, the vector data would be converted into pixels and then
combined with the raster data.
You should bear this in mind if you want to open your file later in
IsoDraw to edit the vector elements.

A full account of the various data formats can be found in the

separate “Data Exchange” manual.

56 Practical examples
Example: Raster graphic Templates

The example “Drawing Bézier curves” showed you how to use

raster graphic templates when drawing. You will now learn other ap-
plications which raster graphic templates can be used for. Close all
the windows which are still open.

Select the “Open” command in the “File” menu.

The following dialog box appears:

The “Tutorial” folder also contains templates. To display these, select

“Templates (PICT/TIFF)” from the pop-up menu at the bottom (for the
Macintosh version) or “TIFF files (*tif)” from the “File Format” list (in
the Windows version). Files in IsoDraw format are then no longer dis-
played, only TIFF files. On the Macintosh PICT files are also displayed.

Select the “Flange.tif” file and confirm it with “Open” or “OK”.

A new, untitled window is opened containing the image element.

Templates 57
 There are essentially two types of templates. The simpler case is a
line-art template, i.e. a template in which the information is either
completely black or completely white. An example of this would be a
scanned ink drawing.

Other templates have intermediate stages, i.e. gray tones or colors.

Templates of this type are known as contone templates. Photo-
graphs are typical contones.

In this particular case, we will be using a line-art template.

For tracing purposes, you can place the line-art template in the back-
ground.
Do this by selecting the layer window from the “Window” menu

Next select the image element and choose “Image element to tem-
plate” from the pop-up menu in the “Layers” window.
The template will be put automtically on the background layer and
displayed in the background color preset by IsoDraw.
If you want to change this color, double click on the “Background”
layer in the layer window.

58 Practical examples
The following dialog box appears:

This box shows the color used by the program for the background
display. Click the color field for the screen color and select a color
from the color circle.

You can now edit this image element at will, e.g. move or scale it or
delete parts of the image.

Before you begin drawing, it is best to select the standard layer as the
active layer. Do this by clicking the appropriate layer window.

Templates 59
 To prevent you selecting the template by mistake during tracing, you
should lock the background layer by clicking the appropriate symbol.

You can now draw in the normal way using the image element as
your template.

Each layer has five different attributes. You can switch these attri-
butes on or off for all five layers using the symbol bar at the top.
Clicking one of the symbols to the right of the layer name lets you
select/deselect the attributes to suit your specific needs.

A separate color can be assigned to each layer in order to identify all

elements on this layer. Once a color has been defined and activated,
all the elements on this layer are shown in this color. This color co-
ding allows you to easily identify the contents of each individual
layer. The color does not affect the print result.

A layer can be visible or invisible. If it is visible, the elements on this

layer will be displayed on the screen.

A layer can be locked. If it is locked, the elements on this layer cannot

be selected.

A layer can be printable or not printable. If it is printable, the ele-

ments on this layer will be printed. This option is useful, for example,
for auxiliary constructions or notes.

A layer can be exportable or not exportable. If it is exportable, the

elements on this layer are exported. This option, too, can be useful for
elements which are needed in the IsoDraw drawing but are not re-
quired for editing in DTP programs.

Close the file in order to continue with the next example.

60 Practical examples
This example illustrates a different form of template. Select the
“Open” command from the “File” menu. Select “Templates (PICT/TIFF)”
or “TIFF files (*.tif)” from the pop-up menu or “File Format“ list at the
bottom of the dialog window as in the first example.
Open the “Photo.tif” file.

For drawing purposes, it is best to reduce the intensity of the display

somewhat so that the lines which are drawn are easier to see. Double
click the “Background” layer in the layer window in order to open the
dialog box for the background display:

Switch over to grayscale and enter the value for the intensity of the
display, e.g. 50%. This means that the template display will be re-
duced to 50% of its original intensity.

Templates 61
 The new template is a photograph, in other words a contone tem-
plate. Position the template on the background layer as in the first
example.

The preferences for the background display can also be set

using the “Preferences” function in the “Edit” menu.

62 Practical examples
Example: Fills

Colors or grayscales are often employed for the emphasis or graphic

design of illustrations. In IsoDraw these colors are called fills since
elements or paths are “filled out” with a color or gray tone. IsoDraw
offers various functions and tools for generating fills.

Filling elements
Various elements can be filled directly. These include rectangles,
ellipses, polygons and Bézier paths. Select the required elements with
the arrow cursor and then choose the appropriate fill from the “Win-
dow/Fills” menu.

Filling single areas

In many cases, the area you want to fill will not be bordered by a
single element only but by segments of several elements. Areas that
are completely surrounded by all types of elements can be filled
directly using the bucket tool from the toolbox. First select the re-
quired color from the “Window/Fills” menu. Then select the bucket
tool. The cursor changes to the bucket cursor. Click the cursor on the
required area. The area is filled with the color selected in the “Win-
dow/Fills” menu.

Fills 63
 Generating an outer contour
The “Generate contour” command from the “”Element/Paths” menu
lets you generate an outer contour with ease. This is very helpful if,
for example, you combine the individual parts of an assembly into a
complete overview or want to set off a display from the background.
A white fill will conceal the areas of your display that lie behind it.
For this function you simply select all the elements of the part in
question and select the “Generate contour” command. A Bézier path
is generated which encompasses all the elements. It is filled with the
color selected in the “Window/Fills” menu.

64 Practical examples
Filling all areas
There are instances where the fill methods described above are simply
not sufficient. To illustrate the point, imagine you want to underlay
several smaller areas with one continuous fill area. You may find that
the automatic bucket tools do not give you the result you are looking
for, since the contours are not closed. The following example will
show how you can fill an area of this type.

In this example, you will be filling an area consisting of several smal-

ler areas. First of all, draw a bush as shown in the illustration.

The ellipses can be filled directly, but the surface of the sleeve cannot.
It will be necessary here for us to generate a Bézier path which fra-
mes this area. In order that you don't have to construct the individual
handles and curve sections, a function is provided which does this
work for you.

Select all the elements and copy them to the clipboard. Then open a
new page. Select the “Paste at same position” function from the
“Edit” menu.

This copying process is not essential but it makes it easier to follow

the subsequent steps. The variant of the “Paste” command which is
used results in the original positions being retained when the ele-
ments are pasted, thereby allowing them to be copied easily onto the
old drawing later.

Now delete all the ellipse segments which do not form part of the re-
quired contour until only the elements shown opposite remain. To do
this, select the “Delete part/Select points” function in the “Edit”
menu.

We are now left with lines and ellipse sections which fully enclose the
area we are interested in. Select all the elements and then choose the
“Join Bézier” function from the “Element” menu. This function is used
to link up sections of Bézier curves. If you need to, you can also link
up other element types, these being converted to Bézier sections for
this purpose.

Fills 65
 The following dialog box appears:

Since we are not using Bézier curves in this instance, you can confirm
directly with “OK”.

The precise significance of the Bézier points is described in the

“Elements” section of the Reference Manual and under the
description of the “Join Bézier” function.

A second dialog box appears:

This question is merely intended to prevent elements being converted

to Bézier curve sections by mistake. In this instance, however, we do
want to convert them and you should therefore confirm with “OK”.

66 Practical examples
You will then get the Bézier path shown.

Open the ”Fills“ window from the ”Window“ menu and select 50%
gray as a fill. You have such assigned the corresponding fill to the
Bézier path.

If you want to choose a color fill, leave the path selected and choose
the function ”Edit color“ in the pop-up menu of the ”Fills“ window.

The following dialog box appears:

Fills 67
 Click “New” in the dialog box to define a new color. In the pop-up
menu at the top, select “CMYK process color” instead of “Tone”.

Give the new color the name ”CYAN 80%“. Then create a 80% value
using the slider for Cyan. Confirm with “OK”.

Now select your newly created color from the color list in the ”Fills“
window:

68 Practical examples
Switch over to preview mode so that you can see the fills and line
thicknesses.
You will now see a Bézier element that has been filled. At the same
time, however, it still possesses its contour which is drawn with the
“Thick” and “Thin” pens. Since the edges of the bush are already
represented by lines and ellipses, you should select the “No pen”
option from the “Window/Attributes” menu. The Bézier curve contour
will disappear.

If you wish, you can naturally also delete the unwanted lines
and ellipse sections of the bush and use the Bézier curve
contour.

We now have to copy the path onto the old drawing. Select it with
the arrow cursor and choose the “Copy” function from the “Edit”
menu. Activate the original drawing by clicking on it with the mouse
or by selecting from the “Window” menu which shows all the open
windows.

Select the “Paste at same position” function from the “Edit” menu in
order to position the path at the same point. The path must be posi-
tioned at precisely the point it was intended for. Nevertheless, it will
conceal part of the lines and ellipses of the edge.

You can imagine a drawing as a desk. The elements which have

been drawn first lie right at the bottom. Just like folders or
unanswered post, the elements which follow are piled one on
top of the other.
The Bézier path was generated after the lines and ellipses and
therefore lies at a “higher” point in the pile. In other words, it is
located in the foreground. As with a desk, you can take an
element of a drawing from the top of the pile and place it at
the bottom instead, i.e. place it at the back. The converse situa-
tion is also possible in which an element is moved to the front.

Fills 69
 Now select the “Send to back” function from the “Element/Arrange”
menu. The elements are redrawn. The Bézier path now lies behind the
lines.

Finally, mark the ellipse with the arrow cursor and select the “white”
fill using the “Fills” window from the “Window” menu. This fills all the
areas of the bush.

70 Practical examples
Example: Drawing a flange

The following example will show you how to draw a flange in a flat
projection and then to project it into the isometric plane.

Set the current ellipse value in the toolbox pop-up menu to “Circle”.
Then select the ellipse tool.

Drag two circles of different sizes from the same midpoint. Then draw
another, smaller circle as shown. If the diameter is not to your liking,
you can also change it with the “Element info” function in the “Ele-
ment” menu.

The small circle is intended to represent a bore in a flange. Further

bores are to be positioned every 60° on the same circle. There are thus
still five bores to be created.

Leave the small circle selected and click the rotation tool in the tool-
box. Hold the Shift key depressed and click the midpoint of the two
large circles with the cursor. This defines that the small circle is to ro-
tate around this midpoint. The familiar dialog box appears:

Enter 60 for the angle. However, to ensure that not only the selected
circle is rotated, confirm by clicking “Copy”.

Drawing a flange 71
 This generates the second circle and thus the second bore. You can
now repeat the last step until all bores have been drawn.

In order to simplify this repetition procedure, you can use the “Repeat
rotation” function from the “Element” menu. This function repeats
the last step one time. However, since we want to generate several
circles at the same time, keep the Shift key depressed while you are
selecting this function.
The following dialog box then appears:

Enter a “4” and confirm with “OK”.

We have now completed the front plane drawing of the flange. We

now want to convert this drawing into an isometric representation.

72 Practical examples
Set the ellipse value back to “Standard ellipse” and draw an ellipse
as shown opposite. Then select the arrow cursor.

Now select all the elements except the ellipse and then choose the
projection tool from the toolbox pop-up menu.
Move the selected elements towards the ellipse. As soon as the ellipse
is activated, you can release the mouse button.

You can see the outcome opposite. The circles have been “fitted into”
in the ellipse value and orientation angle of the reference ellipse and
lie in the isometric plane.
You should now delete the reference ellipse which is no longer
required.

Drawing a flange 73
 Finally, the flange is to be assigned a thickness. Select the arrow cur-
sor and press the Alpha Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps Lock (Win-
dows). Click the largest ellipse and move it along the major isometric
axis.

If you are unable to get the right direction when dragging an

element, depress the Command key (Macintosh) or Control
key (Windows) to deactivate the grid magnet and the Alpha
Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps Lock (Windows) which limits the
angle of movement to the major axes.

If necessary, change the line thicknesses by giving the elements a

double click and cut away any unwanted parts by means of the
“Delete part/Select points” function.

Then click the large ellipse at the back with the arrow cursor. You
will then see its midpoint marking. Now duplicate the ellipse which
represents the shaft hole and move it to the rear. The midpoint of the
ellipse will be displayed when you do so. If you move this midpoint
near the aforesaid midpoint it will be automatically attracted by the
latter. Here, too, remove the unwanted sections of the ellipse.

74 Practical examples
Example: Drawing a gear wheel

The “Tutorial” folder contains a drawing with a tooth already prepa-

red. Open the “Tooth” or “Tooth.iso” file in the normal way.

You will see the drawing contains a single tooth (consisting of four
lines) and a circle. This circle serves merely for orientation purposes;
its midpoint will form the center of rotation.

Select the lines of the tooth — but not the circle — with the arrow
cursor. Select the rotation tool and click the midpoint of the circle
with the Shift key depressed.
The following dialog box appears:

The tooth is constructed so that the gear wheel will later have 16
teeth. The angle of rotation is thus 360/16. Enter this value and con-
firm by clicking “Copy”.

Drawing a gear wheel 75

 Hold the Shift key depressed again and select the “Repeat rotation”
function from the “Element” menu. Since we already have two teeth,
enter the number 14.
Confirm with “OK”.

Your gear wheel should now look like the illustration opposite.

Select all elements now. Then choose the Extrusion tool from the
”Element /Advanced tools“ menu.

76 Practical examples
You can see the result opposite. The elements of the gear wheel have
been automatically projected into the 35° perspective and created
with an editable depth.
The depth can be changed with the green dragging points. Drag
with the arrow cursor on of the points to the front or to the back to
change the length of the gear wheel.

With a mouse click and depressed Shift key you enter the following
dialog:

Enter the value ”-15“ for the depth and check the ”closed cuts“ box.
Confirm with ”OK“. The gear wheel should now look like the illustra-
tion opposite.
All unnecessary lines have been automatically deleted. The gear
wheel is shown with the typical thick and thin lines for the inner and
outer edges.

Drawing a gear wheel 77

 Another mouse click on the drawing surface opens the following dia-
log:

If you check the box next to ”Find elliptical arcs“, all Bézier paths with
an elliptical form appear as segments of an ellipse. For further editing
with other IsoDraw tools this option should be activated.
By clicking ”Yes“ you finish the projection. A further editing with the
Extrusion tool is no longer possible.

Convert the line thicknesses where necessary by double clicking on

the relevant elements.

78 Practical examples
Example: Drawing a handwheel

A handwheel is to be attached to a pipe which has already been

drawn. The important point to note is that the handwheel does not
lie on one of the major isometric axes. The simplified technical
presentation shows that the angle between the horizontal and the
handwheel axis is 60°.
This example is also intended to show you how to round off edges
with the fillet function.

60°
10

ø
60

The “Tutorial” folder contains a “Pipe” or “Pipe.iso” file. Open it in the

usual way. This file contains the pipe with the sleeve the handwheel
is to be added to. You will also see that the centre axis has an auxi-
liary line which indicates the height of the attachment.

Drawing a handwheel 79
 First of all, we will construct the contact point between the hand-
wheel and the surface of the sleeve. For simplicity's sake, we have
chosen to do so without spacers or threaded necks and to position
the handwheel directly on the surface of the sleeve.

Select the line tool and draw a line horizontally from the midpoint of
one of the ellipses outwards. The line should lead to the outer point
of the larger ellipse.

Leave the line selected and select the perspective rotation tool
from the toolbox pop-up menu. Click the partial ellipse with the cur-
sor as shown in the illustration opposite and press the Shift key at
the same time.
The following dialog box appears:

Enter “–60” for the angle. This is the angle which you will also find in
the technical drawing. Confirm with “OK”.

80 Practical examples
The line has thus been rotated around –60° in the 35° plane.

Move this line to the lower element point of the auxiliary line.
The outer end point of the line now marks the contact point between
the handwheel and the sleeve.
Select the line and outer ellipse of the sleeve surface as indicated.

An important part of the isometric drawing work lies in selecting the

correct ellipses for angles and planes. As you already know, the 35°
ellipses are always used for the major axes.

Away from the major axes, the ellipse value and orientation angle of
ellipses are governed by the orientation of the plane in which the
ellipse is located. The orientation of the plane in turn is easiest
described by determining the deviation from the major planes.

Drawing a handwheel 81
 You will be pleased to know that IsoDraw has a special function
which will help you find the correct ellipses. In our particular case,
the correct ellipse can be described as follows:

1. It runs vertically to the major horizontal plane since it is

perpendicular to the ends of the pipe.
2. The ellipse axis runs in the precise direction of the handwheel
axis which you have just constructed.

In the last step you used the arrow cursor to select an ellipse of the
sleeve surface. This forms the reference plane.
The selected axis of the handwheel determines the angle of the
ellipse to the reference plane.

Now select the “Find ellipse” function from the “Element” menu. The
following dialog box appears:

Enter the diameter of the desired ellipse into the box. The ellipse will
be used as an auxiliary ellipse in generating the polygon and is there-
fore assigned the diameter of the polygon which has not been
rounded off, i.e. 60 mm. Confirm with “OK”.

82 Practical examples
You can see the result opposite. The midpoint of the ellipse should
touch the surface of the sleeve.

There are a number of variations for the “Find ellipse” function.

If you hold the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt Key (Windows)
depressed when selecting the function, you will get all three
ellipses (with short axial sections) which are appropriate for
this orientation. If you depress the Shift key, however, you will
get an ellipse which is perpendicular to the one just generated.

The “Element info” for the new ellipse provides you with important
information on the plane you are now drawing in. As you can see, the
ellipse value of the ellipse is 45°, as is the orientation angle. The
two angles are generally not the same, however.

Now change the ellipse value in the toolbox to 45°. In doing so, you
specify that all ellipses, polygons and threads which you are going to
draw will have this ellipse value.

As you now want to draw a 5-sided polygon, you must also change
the number of sides in the pop-up menu for the polygon tool.

Click the midpoint of the ellipse and drag a polygon. You will notice
when you are drawing that the polygon aligns to the major axes. It
was for this reason that you drew the auxiliary ellipse. Hold the
Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed in order to
deactivate polygon alignment and move the cursor to the end point
of the ellipse. This end point is magnetic and therefore pulls the poly-
gon into the correct orientation.

Drawing a handwheel 83
 Our next job is to round off the polygon corners. Since the fillet
function can only be used between line sections, select the polygon
with the arrow cursor and choose the “Convert into elements” func-
tion from the “Element” menu. The polygon is broken down into indi-
vidual lines which are grouped together. Ungroup these with the
“Ungroup” function in the “Element” menu.

Now select the fillet function from the toolbox.

This function fits an ellipse between two lines. The cursor shows a
small 1 near the arrow. Click the left-hand line of the two lines indi-
cated. The cursor now has a small 2 to indicate that the first line has
been found. Hold the Shift key depressed and click the right-hand
line.
The following “Element info” dialog box appears:

As you can see, an ellipse value of 45° has already been entered
since the angle in the toolbox has been set to this value. Now enter
10 mm for the diameter and 45° for the orientation angle. This is
the same orientation angle as for the large ellipse.

Confirm your entries by clicking “OK”.

84 Practical examples
An ellipse section is generated with the desired values and fits
precisely. The lines have been cut accordingly so that you can now
simply delete the sections you no longer need after rounding off.

When rounding off the remaining four corners, you do not need to
re-enter the values each time.

Click the two desired lines one after the other and hold both the
Shift and Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) depressed
when you release the mouse button. The values used for the last fillet
are then inserted automatically.
Then select the arrow cursor and delete the line segments left over
after rounding.

As is so often the case, there are several different ways to generate

the thickness of the handwheel. The most simple method is to
generate an auxiliary line and then to drag the polygon with all
ellipse sections.

Copy the axis of the handwheel and position it again at the midpoint
of the polygon. Change the length of the line in the “Element info” to
10 mm.

Reduce the diameter of the auxiliary ellipse to approx. 20 mm using

the “Element info” or the mouse.

Now select all the elements (without the axial sections) belonging to
the handwheel. Depress the Alpha Lock key (Macintosh) or Caps
Lock (Windows) and drag the small ellipse to the end point of the
new auxiliary line. Release the mouse button.

We now have to reorganize the window. Delete all the unwanted ele-
ments and element sections. Reverse the line thicknesses if necessary
by giving a double click.

Drawing a handwheel 85
 This is how the handwheel should now appear. Delete the auxiliary
lines and cut out the hidden edge of the sleeve.

Once an ellipse has been defined, you can adopt its characteristics
without any problem whatsoever. Duplicate the small ellipse, for
example. Use the arrow cursor to drag it to the required size. The
ellipse will naturally align to the major isometric axes. Keep the
Shift key depressed while dragging the ellipse in order to ensure it
retains its current orientation angle.

Then activate both ellipses and select a thinner line thickness in the
”Window/Attributes“ window..

If you only want to delete parts of the ellipses (in order to emphasize
the inner edges, for example), use the arrow cursor to click the part
of the ellipse you want to delete. Select the “Delete part/Select
points” function from the “Edit” menu. You can now set free
intersection points by pressing the Shift key and clicking the
ellipse with the cursor.

86 Practical examples