Drafting As An Art Of Technical Drawing
Drafting is also known as technical drawing, it is the method of
creating drawing for architectures and engineering. A person who
is skilled in this field is more popularly known as a draftsman.
The fundamentals of drafting are easy. To be able to draft
something, a draftsman places a piece of paper (or other drawing
material) on any surface that has straight sides and right angle
corners (drafting table).
Another tool needed for drafting is a t-square. A t-square is a
ruler-like tool that slides on a straight edge, making it easier
for a draftsman to move his/her tool on the drafting table.
The t-square enables its users to draw parallel lines by moving
this tool and running your pencils edge along its straight edge
line.
T-squares can also be used to hold other drafting devices like a
set of squares or triangles. This way, the right angle of the
t-square plus the angle of the triangle can create a perfect
straight and angled line onto your paper.
Modern day drafting tables now come equipped with parallel ruler
supported by both sides of the table. This ruler can also slide
through your drafting table, assuring you that parallel lines
that you draw are going to turn out parallel.
Other drafting tools are used to create circles and curves. A
primary tool used in drafting is the compass. This instrument is
used to create simple circles in your drawing.
A French curve on the other hand, is a plastic curved ruler that
helps create simple and complex curves for your project. For
more intricate curves, a spline is a drafting tool that is made
of an articulated metal covered in rubber to enable users to
bend this tool in different curves.
The simplest drafting system needs to pay full attention to the
placement of tools and the accuracy of the table. The most
common mistake in drafting is to let the triangle push the top
of the t-square slightly down. When this happens, it will throw
off all the proper angles in your drawing.
Another common problem in the area of drafting is the difficulty
in drawing two angled lines and making them meet at a point.
Because this was such a tedious task, the introduction of the
"drafting machine" came into the light of possibility.
This machine makes it possible for the draftsman to have a
precise angle wherever part of the paper he wishes to draw at.
He does this with the help of the pantograph.
A pantograph is a special mechanical tool connected to the
drafting table that when used to draw, it moves in a fixed
relation to every other element of itself. Also, one major
advantage of the drafting machine enables the ability to modify
angles, thus eliminating the use of triangles.
Drafting must seem easy to most people, but to be able to draft
something, it requires a certain knowledge in engineering.
For a time, drafting was a sought after profession in the United
States, considering that the draftsman was a very skilled at his
craft. But because of the creation of the drafting machine,
drafting has become fully automated and largely accelerated
using computer aided design or CAD.
An innovation of CAD is the less recognized CADD or computer
aided design and drafting. Although this may be the case,
skilled draftsmen may still be of use to some who need routine
changes to their drawings.
Drafting is an art common to architects, engineers, or
machinist. Some of the uses of drafting are for birds eye view,
elevations, plan view, isometric projections, cross sections and
the like.