

The term "isometric" is often mistakenly used to refer to axonometric projections, generally. In all these cases, as with all axonometric and orthographic projections, such a camera would need a object-space telecentric lens, in order that projected lengths not change with distance from the camera.

Lines drawn along the axes are at 120° to one another. Depth is also shown by height on the image. The x-axis extends diagonally down and right, the y-axis extends diagonally down and left, and the z-axis is straight up. Starting with the camera aligned parallel to the floor and aligned to the coordinate axes, it is first rotated horizontally (around the vertical axis) by ±45°, then 35.264° around the horizontal axis.Īnother way isometric projection can be visualized is by considering a view within a cubical room starting in an upper corner and looking towards the opposite, lower corner. In a similar way, an isometric view can be obtained in a 3D scene. Isometric graph paper can be placed under a normal piece of drawing paper to help achieve the effect without calculation. Note that with the cube (see image) the perimeter of the resulting 2D drawing is a perfect regular hexagon: all the black lines have equal length and all the cube's faces are the same area. Next, the cube is rotated ±45° about the vertical axis, followed by a rotation of approximately 35.264° (precisely arcsin 1⁄ √ 3 or arctan 1⁄ √ 2, which is related to the Magic angle) about the horizontal axis. For example, with a cube, this is done by first looking straight towards one face. The term "isometric" comes from the Greek for "equal measure", reflecting that the scale along each axis of the projection is the same (unlike some other forms of graphical projection).Īn isometric view of an object can be obtained by choosing the viewing direction such that the angles between the projections of the x, y, and z axes are all the same, or 120°.

Classification of Isometric projection and some 3D projections
