CADD From 3D

CADD From 3D generates a 2D drawing from any 3D object in the project — a pier, a girder, a bearing assembly, a foundation block — by projecting it onto a plane. Use it when you want a 2D view of a specific 3D component (an isolated pier elevation, a bearing detail, a wingwall outline) without going through the alignment-based CADD From Section workflow.

CADD From Section is the right tool when the cut should follow an alignment (cross sections, profile elevations, deck plans). CADD From 3D is the right tool when the view should be aligned to a specific 3D object's local axes — useful for component-level details that don't reference the bridge alignment.

What gets drawn

Object: The 3D object to project. Pick any 3D component in the project (pier, girder, bearing, abutment, footing, etc.). The resulting 2D drawing is the projection of that object's outline onto the view plane.

View orientation

Rotation X / Y / Z: The view plane's orientation. Default (0, 0, 0) produces a top-down view (looking down the world Z axis). Common settings:

• Plan view: (0, 0, 0) — looking straight down.
• Front elevation: (90, 0, 0) — looking horizontally along Y.
• Side elevation: (90, 0, 90) — looking horizontally along X.

For an arbitrary view, set the rotation angles to align the view normal with the direction you want to look from.

Anchor X / Y / Z: The point about which the view rotation is applied. Set to a meaningful point on the 3D object (its centroid, or a specific corner) so the view stays centered as you adjust rotations.

Clipping

Clip X1 / X2: Horizontal extent of the view (in the view plane's local coordinates). Limits the drawing to a window — useful when the 3D object extends beyond what you want to draw.

Clip Y1 / Y2: Vertical extent of the view.

Clip Z1 / Z2: Depth extent (perpendicular to the view plane). Geometry outside this depth range is excluded from the drawing.

Set the clipping ranges generously by default (large positive and negative numbers); tighten them only when you need to exclude specific parts of the 3D object.

Notes

CADD From 3D produces a single projection of the 3D object onto a plane. It doesn't classify lines as Cut vs Projection (CADD From Section does); every line in the result is a visible silhouette/outline edge of the 3D object as seen from the view direction.

For an isolated component drawing — a single bearing assembly detail, a single pier elevation independent of the alignment — CADD From 3D is the simplest way to get a 2D outline without manually tracing.

For drawings that should follow the alignment (cross sections at any station, profile views along the bridge, deck plans), use CADD From Section instead — the alignment-based workflow handles station-relative positioning, skew, and superelevation that CADD From 3D doesn't.