AutoCAD® 2012 and AutoCAD LT® 2012 Essentials: Autodesk® Official Training Guide

Using Visual Styles

Visual styles control the way models appear in each viewport. The default visual style is 2D Wireframe, which is what you have been using in previous chapters. Consider for a moment how 3D models are displayed on a 2D screen—an illusion. Creating the illusion of where objects are situated in space requires some visual indication as to which objects are in front of other occluded objects. A wireframe representation does not give this indication. Rather, to show occlusion, objects need to be either hidden or covered by the shading of other objects according to the visual style that is selected.

Visual styles are never photorealistic like a rendering can be (see Chapter 18, “Presenting Your Design”), but many offer more realistic ...