Blog Archives

Isometric Construction

7/29/2019

Isometric drawing is way of presenting designs/drawings in three dimensions. In order for a design to appear three dimensional, a 30 degree angle is applied to its sides. Here is how easy it is to set this up and create!

To make creating isometric drawing easier, set up your Construction Guides to be at 30°. Do this under the Preferences>Smart Guides. Turn on the Construction Guides check box and add 30 and -30 into the fields.

Using the Line Tool, draw a line and rotate it -30° in the Transform or Properties panel.

Select the line then OPTION (ALT) click and drag the line down a bit. Use COMMAND + D to duplicate the line several times.

Select all the lines and use the Flip icon in the Properties Panel to flip the set. Move the lines over each other to create a 30° grid.

Select all the lines and choose View>Guides>Make Guides. This takes all the lines and turns them into a grid structure to allow points and lines to snap to them.
Make sure your Smart Guides are on, your Guides are visible and the Snap to Point is turned on. All of these are under View>Guides.

The easiest way to draw isometric panels or shapes is with the Pen Tool. The points will snap right to the grid and the Smart Guide hints will show you when the points snap.

To draw anything flat, follow the grid and complete the shape.

To draw a vertical panel, you will need to follow the lines top and bottom, then create vertical lines.

These basic horizontal and vertical shapes will be used to create many different constructions.

When creating the panels, if there is a Stroke applied, the corners will be sharp and create odd points.

Set the shapes to have rounded corner strokes in the Stroke panel. This only applies to a stroke, not the shape.

This only applies to a stroke, not the shape and solves the problem with a stroked object having odd overlapping corner points.

Duplicate the panels and send them backwards to create the outer back panels.

Duplicate the side panels to create the roof panels. Draw a vertical line from the center of the front panel up past the rood point.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top path of the roof panel and move it until the corner touches the vertical line.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top path of the back roof panel and move it until the corner touches the vertical line. Delete the line when done.

Select the shapes and select the Shape Builder Tool (Shift+M). With the Shape Builder Tool, drag across the three shapes to create one shape.

Fill the shape with a color and you have the end panel of the house.

Another way to create shapes is to draw them shape then use the Skew Tool to skew it 30° horizontally or vertically.

With the shape selected, select the Skew Tool and double-click on the skew Tool to call up the dialog box. Click the Preview button to see what is Changing. Set the shear angle to 30° or -30° and click on horizontal or vertical shear to get the anlge desired.

This is how you can add windows and doors without drawing and snapping to the grid.

Add some gradient fills, create more details and you have created an Isometric construction!

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Plaid Fabric

7/15/2019

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Create some cool plaid with the grid and the simple Transform effect. Use the Recolor artwork to get any color plaid you can imagine.

Create a grid under Preferences. Set the Gridline every: to 100 mm and set the Subdivisions to 10. Under the View Menu choose Snap to Grid and also choose Show Grid.

Each Gridline will be a darker gray, the subdivisions are a lighter gray. I refer to each darker gray sections as units. Draw a rectangle 9 units wide, 1 unit high. The rectangle will snap to the grid with the Snap to Grid turned on.

One the next set of units below, create one of color then one unit of black, repeat this for a total of 9 units.

Select the first tow rows created and duplicate it so there are 7 rows total.

Draw a 10 point line on the grid from corner to corner. Round cap the ends in the Stroke panel. Duplicate the line.

Select the line and choose Effects> Distort & Transform> Transform. Set the Horizontal offset to -10 mm. Set the number of copies to 100. Click OK. This will take the single line, duplicate it 100 times to the left, skipping every other sub-unit.

Move the Transformed set into position over the check board. This is an effect so the one line is simply transformed 100 times 10 mm each time. This makes it much easier to select one line instead of 100 if a change is needed.

To edit the Transform effect, open the Appearance panel and click on the Transform link.

With the duplicate line, choose Effects> Distort & Transform> Transform. Set the Vertical offset to -10 mm. Set the number of copies to 80. Click OK. This will take the single line, duplicate it 100 times skipping every sub-unit.

Move the vertical Transformed set into position over the checker board squares.

Duplicate the transformed lines, both vertical and horizontal covering all the black squares.

Create a smaller line the size of one subunit.

Turn off the Snap to Grid. Move the line so the center of the line is directly in the center of one unit.

Select the line and choose Effects> Distort & Transform> Transform. Set the Horizontal offset to -10 mm. Set the number of copies to 100. Click OK.

Move the line into the vertical center of the first row.

Duplicate the row vertically 1 unit down. Set the first row of lines to white, the second row of lines to red.

Repeat the rows, white, red, white, red, white, red, white.

Repeat the transform with the vertical lines. Set the Vertical offset to -10 mm. Set the number of copies to 80. Click OK.

Repeat the columns, red, white, red, white, red, white, red, white, red.

Select all the shapes and Group them. Object>Group.

Turn the Snap to Grid on under the View Menu. Draw a rectangle 9 units wide, 7 units high. Click on the Draw Inside mode at the bottom of the Tool Bar. Cut the Grouped art, paste it into the Rectangle. Click on the Draw Normal mode when done.

Nice Plaid, but how about some other colors?

Select the artwork and choose Edit>Recolor Artwork. Click on the Edit tab at the top of the Recolor Artwork panel. Click on the link icon to the lower right of the color wheel, linking the colors together.

Move the colors handles around he wheel to actively change all the colors in the plaid.

Try several different color renditions quickly with the Recolor artwork.

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Eye Dropper Icon

7/7/2019

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Create this eye dropper icon with a few gradients and the easiest droplet you have made. Add a few highlights an done.

Start with a rectangle. Add a heavy stroke.

Select the lower two corners with Direct Selection tool. Pull the corner widgets into the center to round the end.

OPITON + CLICK on the corner widget target (twice) to cycle through the different corner options until you get to a point.

Draw another rectangle over the end for the eye dropper tip.

Select both shapes and use the Pathfinder Unite mode to make them one shape.

Draw a square for the top part of the eyedropper.

OPITON + CLICK on the corner widget target (twice) to cycle through the different corner options until you get to a point.

Start with a rectangle. Add a heavy stroke. Select the upper two corners with Direct Selection tool. Pull the corner widgets into the center to round the end.

Select both shapes and use the Pathfinder Unite mode to make them one shape.

Open the gradient panel and create a gradient from blue to dark blue. Double click on the color stops and choose the color.

Add this gradient to the stroke and the fill of the upper part of the eye dropper.

Select the lower section, fill it with a light blue. Choose Path>Offset Path. Set it to -4 and click OK.

Add a fill to the new offset shape, remove the stroke.

Apply a gradient to the fill offset path. Set the gradient angle at -45°.

Assemble the shapes into the eye dropper.

Draw a rectangle and rotate it 45° over the green fill. Select the green fill and rotated rectangle, Choose the Pathfinder Minus front mode.

Add lines to the eye dropper. Round the ends on the stroke panel. Set the line opacity to 30%.

To create the drop, create a circle.

Use the Direct Selection tool to select the top point and move it up. In the Properties panel , convert the point from a rounded point to a corner point.