Discover the process of creating technical digital designs with this comprehensive guide on drawing a toilet using the VDCI template. The article goes through the step-by-step process, explaining how the complex shape of a toilet can be achieved using various functions such as layer properties, bounding boxes, offsets, and arcs.
Key Insights
- The tutorial demonstrates how to start a new design using the VDCI template, which begins by creating a new layer with the color 120.
- It explains the importance of creating the bounding box for the toilet design, which is 1 feet 10 inches wide and 2 feet 6 inches tall, and is located 1 inch away from 0, 0.
- The material also gives a detailed tutorial on using functions such as Offset, Explode, and three-point Arc to create the complex and organic shape of a toilet, demonstrating efficient techniques to minimize the number of commands used.
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In this video, we will work on the toilet. I will go File, New.
Use the VDCI template. File, Save. And this is named Toilet.
Let's make our layer. Layer Properties. A-fixed.
And our color will be 120. And I'll make it my current layer. If we look at the handout, we can see that the toilet is a fairly organic shape.
It is not boxy like the other objects we've drawn so far. However, the same general rule applies. We will start with our bounding box and work our way in.
We can see the bounding box is 1 feet 10 inches wide and 2 feet 6 inches tall. And it is located 1 inch away from 0, 0. So let's get started. I'll draw my rectangle.
I'm picking any point on the screen. D for dimensions. 1 feet 10, Enter.
And 2 feet 6, Enter. I can choose any quadrant because we're about to move it in a second. So I'll click on the screen here.
And Zoom Extents. Again, you can always check the dimensions by using the measure. And Quick Measure shows me that I have it correct.
Now, instead of using Tracking, I will move this rectangle from the midpoint here to the absolute coordinate 0, 1. Because I know that that is 1 inch above 0, 0. So I will go Move. Pick my rectangle. Enter to say that I'm done selecting objects.
Shift-Right-Click midpoint. And I will move that to 0, 1. Enter. Zoom Extents.
Control-S to save. Now we need to create some construction geometry so we can draw the rough outline of this toilet. I can see on the handout that starting on the left, I go in 1 inch, then 3 inches, then 1 half inch.
And I can see that the toilet is the same on both sides. So I will make the same offsets from the right moving to the left. However, before I make any of those offsets, I will need to explode my rectangle.
So I can go Explode, choosing my rectangle. I'll hit ENTER. And now I will use Offset.
But instead of doing one side at a time, I will work on both sides moving inwards at the same time. And I'll show you why. Follow along with me.
I will go Offset. And the first distance is 1. Enter. I'll choose this side to the middle and click.
And because I know the offset on the right is the same, I can click and click. And I only needed to use one offset command for two offsets. If I did 1 inch, then 3 inch, then 1 half inch, then moved back to the other side, I would have to do 6 total offset commands.
I'll hit ENTER to say that I'm done. And Enter to go back in. 3. Enter.
I'll pick here. And click. And pick here.
And click. Enter to say that I'm done. Enter to go back in.
Now this is 1 half inch, so I can type 1 over 2. Enter. Pick here. And click.
And pick here. And click. Enter to say that I'm done.
Now we can look at the vertical offsets, which create our horizontal lines for this grid. I can see moving from the bottom to the top that it is 10.5 inches, 7 inches, 6 inches, and 6.5 inches. And this is what I would call a continuous dimension, where the dimensions are one after another in a continuous string.
This is very helpful when creating offsets, because we can offset one after another using the last object as our reference. Let's do that together. Offset.
The first distance is 10.5. Enter. I'll pick here. And click.
Enter to say that I'm done. Enter to go back in. 7. Enter.
Pick here. And I need to show above and click. Enter to say that I'm done.
Enter to go back in. 6. Enter. I'll pick here.
And again, I'll show above and click. Enter to say that I'm done. Now I do not want to create an extra offset, because we already have a line at the top of our rectangle.
But to make sure that it's 6.5 inches, I can measure and hold my mouse in here, and I can see 6.5 inches. I'll hit Escape and Control-S to save. Now I would like to trace the outline of this toilet by going up diagonally from the endpoint intersection here to the intersection here, and then here, and then here.
So I can turn on my running object snaps, but the only snap I need active is intersection. That way, I don't accidentally grab any midpoints. I'll come down to running object snaps and turn it on.
And I'll hit the arrow and make sure that endpoint and midpoint and all other snaps are off, and only turn on intersection. Now I can go to my line tool and I will start at this intersection. Go up one and over one.
Go up one and over one. And up one and over one. Enter to say that I'm done.
Enter to go back in. And this time, I will start from the bottom right. And up and over.
Up and over. And up and over. You can tell if you have it correct because each diagonal line only is in one of these rectangular segments.
Now before we delete any of our helpful guides, I want to add the semicircle at the top of the toilet. This can be done with a three-point arc or a two-point circle. Or we could use a center circle, but we've used a lot of those already.
Let's try this with a three-point arc. I will go to arc and make sure that my three-point arc is active. And this time, I want to go from this intersection.
Now if I look for the midpoint, I can see it's not on because it's not one of our running object snaps. So I can shift right click midpoint. Make sure you grab this top midpoint up here.
And then back down to our intersection. And click. There we go.
