Just like 3D solids, AutoCAD can create the same list of primitive shapes, but this time as mesh objects. The full list of mesh primitive buttons can be found in the Create panel on the Home tab in the 3D Basics workspace. If you are using the 3D Modeling workspace, you can find them on the Mesh tab, as shown in the following screenshot:

The mesh primitives will work exactly like the solid primitive commands. For more details about each command, you can refer to Chapter 11, Creating Primitive 3D Shapes. The following diagram shows a preview of the primitive mesh box and the primitive mesh cone:

The number of mesh divisions or cells in the mesh object can be controlled using the mesh primitive options. You can access it by clicking on the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Primitives panel in the 3D Modeling workspace. This will open the Mesh Primitive Options window, as shown in the following diagram. On the left, you have the Tessellation Divisions option mentioned earlier to control the number of divisions in the mesh object.

You select a shape from the list of all available primitives, and then type the desired number of divisions for each side. On the right-hand side, you have a small window showing a preview of the mesh, as shown here:

Let's now have a look at the second way of creating a mesh object, which is by using the smooth command.