Many people recognize Microvellum Toolbox for its support of both the 2D and 3D design environments. They utilize 3D for its ability to visualize, create, and authenticate design parameters, and 2D for its simple flat architectural drawings.

To unleash the power of both, there must be a method of creating architectural elevations from 3D models.

This tutorial will show you how to create a flattened 2D presentation drawing of a 3D model. When you create the drawing, you have the option of inserting the resulting drawings as a block or saving them as a separate drawing. The blocks that are created would be used to assemble drawings commonly known as “Architectural Submittal Drawings.”

This tutorial will show you how to create a flattened 2D presentation drawing from a 3D model using the FLATSHOT command. This command is quite a bit different in its purpose, and how it works, when compared to the  Toolbox Flatshot Tokens .

1. Before we begin, make sure you are working in Model Space. Also, make sure that your model space viewport is set up to contain only the intended 3D cabinets, that any other 3D objects that you want to exclude are placed on layers that are turned off or frozen. This is significant because all 3D objects in the model space viewport are captured in the flatshot. Perhaps a better option if you have multiple rooms and elevations of 3D objects that will all show up on the 2D drawing produced, is to explode the block and rearrange the individual elevation drawings in a later step. With that in mind, among the final steps of this tutorial is one that does just that - explodes the block containing any multiple 2D elevations. This prepares them for moving to the correct locations in the submittal drawings.
   
2.   I’ve created two elevations of cabinets that I’ll use for this tutorial. If you are following along, pause the video here and create your elevations.
   


3. Once you have your elevations, switch to a North or Front view by entering “UN” at the AutoCAD command prompt.
   
4. Enter FLATSHOT at the AutoCAD command prompt.
   




5. Enter your preferred values for the options there. For example, you have the option of inserting the resulting drawing as a block or saving it as a separate drawing. For this tutorial, check the radio button for Insert as a new block, check the ObscuredLines. Show checkbox, and click the Create button.
   




6. Select a location to place the 2D drawing and hit the Enter key two times to accept the X Scale and Y Scale of 1, and one more time to accept the Rotation Angle of 0.
   




7. Enter FLATSHOT at the AutoCAD command prompt again, and enter your preferred values for the options there. This time, check the radio button for Replace existing block, uncheck the ObscuredLines. Show checkbox and click the Create button. This will demonstrate one of the differences in the FLATSHOT options.
   




8. Select a location to place the 2D drawing and hit the Enter key two times to accept the X Scale and Y Scale of 1, and one more time to accept the Rotation Angle of 0.
   




9. If your drawing contains multiple 3D objects (cabinets) grouped as different elevations, enter Explode at the AutoCAD command prompt and select the newly made 2D block.
   




10. Move the individual 2D elevation views around your drawing as needed to set up the submittal drawings.
    
11. Dimension and annotate as needed.
    

This short video will demonstrate these steps included in this article.