Isometric drawings are not actual 3D drawings, they are made with 2D geometries but they appear like 3D. Isometric drawing in AutoCAD can be made by tilting viewing angle to 30 degrees for all of its sides in the 2D plane.

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In this article, I will show you methods of making an isometric drawing in AutoCAD. For explaining this feature I will use the geometry shown in the image above.

I have also prepared a video to explain this tip, watch it here. If you prefer article instead of video then scroll down to continue reading the article.

Isometric drawing in AutoCAD 2014 and older versions:

At first, you need to change your snap settings to isometric. Type DS on the command line and press enter.

Drafting settings window will pop up from this window select snap and grid tab and make sure Isometric snap radio button is checked. Click OK to exit drafting settings window.

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Now make sure ortho mode is turned on from the status bar, if it is not turned on then press F8 to turn it on.

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You can now select isometric plane for your drawing by pressing the F5 key. The three Isoplanes available for selection are Isoplane top, right and left.

Press F5 key to activate Isoplane top and then select line command and click anywhere in the drawing area to start your line. Specify a direction and type 5 on the command line then press enter, repeat this process by changing directions of line to make a closed square as shown in image A below.

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Now press F5 again to change the Isoplane to right or left. Start line command again and make lines from three corners of the square of length 5 units towards downward direction as shown in the image B above.

Again change Isoplane to Top by pressing F5 key and join all three end points of the vertical lines to make a complete cube. In a similar way, you can make other isometric drawings as well.

Isometric drawing in AutoCAD 2015 and later versions:

With AutoCAD 2015 and later versions, this process of creating an isometric drawing has been greatly simplified. You can directly start isometric drawing using ISODRAFT option of the status bar.

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Click on ISODRAFT icon on the status bar as shown in the image above and select plane on which you want to create your drawing by pressing F5 key. Rest of the process is same as mentioned above.

Related: Making Isometric dimension and text in AutoCAD

Do you have questions related to isometric drawings? Let me know in the comments below.