Engineering Drawing Manual

Lesson 1
Introduction to Engineering Drawing

TOPICS
1. History of Engineering Drawing
2. Drafting standards
3. Drafting Tools and equipment

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
Explain topics related to the history of engineering drawing
Determine the applicable drafting standards
Identify the different drafting tools and equipment

TOPIC 1: History of Engineering Drawing

Engineering drawing serves as a common language of engineering

and describes the process of creating drawings for any engineering or
architectural application. Engineering drawings, produced based on accepted
standards and format, provide an effective and efficient way to communicate
specific information about design intent.

Significantly, engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing

reflecting a graphical language used to communicate ideas and information
from one mind to another. Engineering drawing is also coined as drafting,
engineering drafting, mechanical drawing, mechanical drafting, technical
drawing and technical drafting.
Drafting is a graphic language using lines, symbols and notes to describe
objects for manufacture or construction; it is sometimes used by technical
discipline like architecture, civil and electrical engineering, electronics,
piping, manufacturing and structural engineering.
Mechanical drafting is commonly used by manufacturing industry,
construction industry
Manual drafting describes the traditional drafting practices using pencil or
ink on a medium such as paper or polyester film, with the support of
drafting instruments and equipment.
Technical drawing is a means of clearly and concisely communicating all
the information necessary to transform an idea or a concept into reality.
Computer-Aided Drafting uses computers and software and has taken the
place of manual drafting.

History of Engineering Drawing

The history of engineering drawing equivocally means looking at the
history of man and the history of building things. Drafting and design has been
around since the pre-historic period. The earliest recorded history of
engineering drafting was in 2000 B.C., of which we have a fossilized aerial view

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plan of a Babylonian castle. Since then, and with the advent of paper,

it was an art form perfected by skilled designers and essential

infrastructure. For quite a long time, engineering meant getting out paper and
drawing out plans and designs by hand.

Most of the early creators of engineering drawings were artists and

inventors. Leonardo da Vinci is well-known for his Mona Lisa and The Last
Supper, he also an inventor who designed machines such as the glider and

when the need for drawings of greater accuracy and dimensions were realize.
An early author of architecture and engineering, Leon Battista Alberti, covered
the architecture of town planning and from
engineering the philosophy of beauty.
The importance of using Multiview two-
dimension drawing was influenced by the
development of descriptive geometry with the work of

Descartes (1596-1650) and the work of Frenchman

Gaspard Monge. It was Gaspard Monge who
devised a system to communicate an object to
anyone across the world when he started as an Engineer in French Military.
The system is known as the Orthographic Gaspard Monge (1746-1818)
Projection. French mathematician and the
Father of Descriptive Geometry

From then, evolution of engineering drawing principles has been

developed and can be summarized by the following:
Perspective drawing technique was invented during the Renaissance
period (1300-1500)
Descriptive geometry was invented by Gaspard Monge in 1765
Orthographic projection technique was invented during the Industrial
Revolution period (1770-1850)
2-D CAD systems were developed in the 1980s
3-D CAD systems were developed in the 1990s

TOPIC 2: Drafting Standards

Industries, schools and companies establish standards as guidelines in

specifying the drawing requirements, appearance and techniques, operating
procedures and record-keeping methods. The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers (ASME) defines the term standard as a set of technical definitions
and guidelines, instruction for engineers, manufacturers and users. Standards
promote safety, reliability, productivity and efficiency in most of industry that
uses engineering components.

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Standards are important in engineering communication since it

serve as a language in defining the quality and establishing the safety criteria.
Drawing standards may include but not limited to the following:
File templates
Units of measurement
Layout characteristics
Borders and title blocks
Symbols
Layers and text, table, dimensions and other drafting styles
Plot styles and plotting

TOPIC 3: Drafting Tools and Equipment

Manual drafting requires the sued of appropriate drafting equipment

and supplies. The following is a list of items normally needed for typical
manual drafting:
Drafting pencils and lead
Technical pens
Erasers
Compass and dividers
T-squares
Triangles
Circle and Ellipse templates
Scales
Drafting tape

Drafting pencils and lead

Mechanical pencil is the common type of pencil used for drafting,
sketching and technical drawing. It refers to a pencil with a lead chamber that
advances the lead from the chamber to the writing tip by the push or button tab
when a new piece of lead is needed. The pencils are
available in several different lead sizes (Madsen,
2012).
1. Hard: 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H,9H - They are
commonly used for construction and
lettering guides
2. Medium; B, HB, F, H,2H, 3H- The common
lead used for line work and for lettering and
sketching
3. Soft: 2B, 3B, B, 5B, 6B,7B- The common lead used for art work, they
are soft to keep a sharp point and they easily smudge.

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Technical Pens
A technical pen is a specialized instrument used by
an engineer, architect, or drafter to make lines of constant
width for architectural, engineering, or technical drawings.
"Rapidograph" is a trademarked name for one type
of technical pen. A full set of pens have the following nib
sizes: 0.13, 0.18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.4, and 2.0 mm,
which correspond to the line widths as defined in ISO 128
(Lutz, 1991)

Erasers
Erasers are used to erase mistakes.

Compass and dividers

Compass is an instrument used to draw circles and
arcs. It is especially useful for large circle. While dividers are
used to transfer or to divide a distance into a number of equal
parts.

T-squares
A T-square is a technical drawing instrument used
by draftsmen primarily as a guide for drawing horizontal lines
on a drafting table. It may also guide a set square to draw
vertical or diagonal lines; the name comes from its
resemblance to the letter T. T-squares come in varying sizes,
common lengths being 18 inches (460 mm), 24 inches
(610 mm), 30 inches (760 mm), 36 inches (910 mm) and 42
inches (1,100 mm).

Triangles
There are two standard triangles used in engineering
drawing. The 30°-60° that has angles of 30° x 60° x 90°; the 45°
has angles of 45° x 45° x 90°. Drafters prefer to use the triangles
in place of a vertical drafting machine scale.

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Circles and Ellipse templates

Circle templates are available with
circles in a range of sizes starting with 1/16.
The circles on the template are marked with
their dimeters and are available in fractions,
decimals, or millimeters. While the ellipse
templates are circles seen at an angles.

French Curves
Irregular curves or French curves are curves
that has no constant radii. A French curve is
composed of a radius and is tangent. The radius on
these curves is constant and ranges from 3ft to 200ft.
it is commonly used in highway drafting.

Scales
Scale is an instrument with a system of
ordered marks at a fixed intervals used as a
reference standard in measurement. It establishes a
proportion used in determining the dimensional
relationship of an actual object to the representation
of the same object on a drawing.

Drafting tape
Tapes are used to hold the paper while
drawing

REFERENCES
Lutz, Ronald J. (1991). Applied Sketching and Technical
Drawing. The Goodheart - Willcox Company. ISBN 0870067648

Luzzader, Warren J. Fundamentals of Engineering Drawing, 11th edition,

Prentice Hall, Inc.1992

Madsen, David A; Madsen, David P. , 2012, Engineering Drawing and

Design 5th Edition. Delmar Cengage Learning.

United States War Department (1940). Topographic Drafting. U..S.

Government Printing Office. pp. 27 28.

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 Engineering Drawing Manual

Lesson 2
Lines and Lettering

TOPICS
1. Types of Lines
2. Lettering

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
Identify the lines found in a given industry drawing
Write letters according to standards
Mention the application of each line types in technical drawings.

TOPIC 1: Types of Lines

Engineering drawing is a graphic language using lines, symbols and

notes to describe objects to be built or drawn. Each line on a technical
drawing has meaning and is drawn in certain ways. According to American
Standard Association, there are three widths of line: thick, medium and thin
based on the size and type of drawing and there should be a distinct contrast
in the thickness of different kinds of lines, especially between the thick lines
and thin lines

Visible Object Line Chain Line (Thick)

Section Line (Thin)

Leader Line (Thin) R 2.00
Hidden line (Thin)
Long Breaks (Thin)
Center Line (Thin)

Phantom Line (Thin) Short Breaks (Thin)

Dimension Line (Thin)

Stitch Line (Thin)
2.00
Extension Line (Thin) Stitch Line (Thin Dots)

Cutting Plane and Viewing Plane

Line of Symmetry (Thin)

Figure 2.1. Types of Lines

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Visible Object Lines describe the visible surfaces or edge of an object.

Visible lines are drawn as thick lines with 0.20 to 0.6mm wide.

Section Lines thin lines used in the view of a section to show where the
cutting plane has cut through material. Section lines are optional but generally
used to show the material being cut by the cutting plane. Section lines are
drawn equally spaced at 45° but they cannot be parallel or perpendicular to
any line of the object.

Hidden Lines represent an invisible edge on an object. Hidden liens are thin
lines drawn 0.01in (0.3mm) thick.

Center Lines are used to show and locate the centers of circles and arcs to
represent the axis of a circular or symmetrical form. Centerlines are thin lines
on a drawing with the recommended thickness of 0.01in (0.3mm).

Phantom Lines are thin lines made pf one long and two short dashes
alternately spaced. Phantom liens are used to identify alternate positions of
moving parts adjacent positions of related parts, repetitive details or the
contour of filleted and rounded corners.

Dimension Lines are thin lines capped on the ends with arrowhead and
broken long their length to provide a space for the numerical dimension.

Extension Lines are thin lines used to establish the extent of a dimension.
Extension lines can be used to show the extension of a surface to a
theoretical extension.

Chain Lines are thick lines of alternately spaced long and short dashes to
indicate that the portion of the surface, next to the chain line received
specified treatment.

Leader Lines are thin lines used to connect a specific note to a feature, used
to direct dimension, symbols, item numbers and parts numbers on drawing.
Leaders can be drawn at any angle but 45°, 30° and 60° are the most
common.

Break Lines are used to shorten the length of a long object or part or to
provide a partial view of a feature.
Short breaks are common on detail drawings
Long break lines are drawn with a long break symbol paced
throughout the length of the line.

Stitch Lines are used to indicate the location of a stitching or sewing process

Cutting plane lines are thick lines used to identify where a sectional view is
taken. While the viewing plane lines are also thick lines used to identify
where a view is taken for view arrangements, removed views or partial views.

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Exercises:
Identify the types of lines indicated in the object.

TOPIC 2: LETTERING

Information on drawings that cannot be represented graphically by lines

can be represented by lettered dimensions, notes and titles. Lettering refers to
all letters and numbers on drawing and related documents. Letter styles are
can be classified as Gothic, Roman, Italic and Text.

The plainest and most legible style is the gothic from which our single-
stroke engineering letters are derived. Gothic letters are considered as the
standardized lettering format. There are upper-case letter and lower-case,
vertical and inclined Gothic letters, but vertical uppercase letters is widely used
as the standard letters

There are three necessary steps in learning to letter:

1. Knowledge of the proportions and forms of the letters, and the order
of the strokes.
2. Knowledge of composition- the spacing of the letters and words.
3. Persistent practice, with continuous effort to improve.

Styles of Letters
As mentioned, Letter styles can be classified as Gothic, Roman, Italic
and Text; that can be written using speedball pens producing single stroke
letters. While, filled-in letters are draw in outline and filled. Gothic letters are
the plainest and most legible style single stroke engineering letters. Roman
letters have wide ward strokes and thin connecting strokes. While the Italic
letters are inclined letters and text letters are old English letters.

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A. Gothic Letters
Lettering having all the alphabets or numerals of uniform thickness is
called Gothic Lettering.

1. Single Stroke Gothic Letters

Single stroke Gothic letters
are letters having uniform
thickness.

2. Single Stroke Inclined Gothic Letters

These are single stroke letter
inclined at 75 to the Horizontal.

3. Double Stroke Vertical and Inclined Gothic Letters

Vertical letter drawn by double Stroke of pencil with uniform
thickness between these strokes are called Double Stroke Vertical
Gothic Lettering. While the double stroke inclined letters are done using
angle.

B. Roman Lettering
These are the letters formed by
thick and thin elements.

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Guidelines (Lettering guidelines)

Extremely light horizontal guidelines are necessary to regulate the height
of letters. In addition, light vertical or inclined guidelines are needed to keep the
letters uniformly vertical or inclined. Guidelines are absolutely essential for good
lettering, and should be regarded as a welcome aid, not as an unnecessary
requirement. Guidelines are made by light lines so that they can be erased after
the lettering is completed (Taffesse and Kassa, 2005).

Guidelines for Upper-case letters:

Upper-case letters are commonly made 3mm high, with the space
between lines of lettering from ¾ to the full height of the letters. The vertical
guidelines are not used to space the letters (as this should always be done by
eye while lettering), but only to keep the letters uniformly vertical, and they
should accordingly be drawn at random. Figure 1 shows the sequences/order
of strokes for vertical upper-case Gothic letters (Taffesse and Kassa, 2005).

Figure 2.2. Single-stroke vertical upper-case letters

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Guidelines for Lower-case letters:

Lower-case letters have four horizontal guidelines, called the cap line,
waistline, and base line and drop line. Strokes of letters that extend up to the
cap line are called ascenders, and those that extend down to the drop line,
descenders. Since there are only five letters (p, q.g, j, y) that have descenders,
the drop lines are little needed and are usually omitted. In spacing guidelines,

stroke for vertical lower case Gothic letters (Taffesse and Kassa, 2005).

Figure 2.3. Single-stroke vertical lower-case letters.

Guidelines for Inclined letters:

Gothic letters can also be written in inclined strokes. The spacing of
horizontal guidelines is the same as for vertical capital lettering. The American
Standard recommends slope of approximately 68.2° to 75° with the horizontal

guidelines at random with T-square and triangles (Taffesse and Kassa, 2005).

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Figure 2.4. Single-stroke Inclined lower-case letters

General Rules in Lettering:

The I-H-T Group - The letter I is The Foundation Stroke. - The top of T
is drawn first to the full width of the square and the stem
is started accurately at its mid-point.
The L-E-F Group - The L is made in two strokes. - The first two strokes
of the E are the same for the L, the third or the upper stoke
is lightly shorter than the lower and the last stroke is the
third as long as the lower - F has the same proportion as E
The V-A-K Group - V is the same width as A, the A bridge is one third
up from the bottom. - The second stroke of K strikes stem
one third up from the bottom and the third stroke branches
from it.

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The M-W Group - are the widest letters - M may be made in consecutive
strokes of the two verticals as of N - W is made with two

The O-Q-C-G Group - The O families are made as full circles and made
in two strokes with the left side a longer arc than the right.
- A large size C and G can be made more accurately with
an extra stroke at the top.
Guidelines
The light thin lines drawn to obtain uniform and correct height of letters
are called Guide Lines. Guide line should be drawn very light and thin, so that,
it can be erased after the lettering is finished.

REFERENCES
Lutz, Ronald J. (1991). Applied Sketching and Technical
Drawing. The Goodheart - Willcox Company. ISBN 0870067648

Luzzader, Warren J. Fundamentals of Engineering Drawing, 11th edition,

Prentice Hall, Inc.1992

Madsen, David A; Madsen, David P. , 2012, Engineering Drawing and

Design 5th Edition. Delmar Cengage Learning.

United States War Department (1940). Topographic Drafting. U..S.

Government Printing Office. pp. 27 28.

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