Basic Engineering Drawing

1. Introduction
1.1 History (Reading Assignment)

What is Engineering Drawing?

Engineering drawing is a two dimensional representation of three dimensional objects. In
general, it provides necessary information about the shape, size, surface quality, material,
manufacturing process, etc., of the object. It is the graphic language from which a trained person
can visualise objects.

Drawings prepared in one country may be utilised in any other country irrespective of the
language spoken. Hence, engineering drawing is called the universal language of engineers. Any
language to be communicative should follow certain rules so that it conveys the same meaning to
everyone. Similarly, drawing practice must follow certain rules, if it is to serve as a means of
communication.

Engineering drawing are made up of graphics language (describe a shape) and word language
(describe size, location and specification of the object).

1.2 Objective of the Course

Have you noticed that a drawing is more powerful and efficient in expressing objects than a
collection of words?
We can see this through an example
Example State in words the object (shaft) represented below.

The above example shows us that English or another language involving words can’t efficiently
used for communication in the industry world in which accurate dimensions and representations
are of great value. Thus technical drawing is an important subject to learn and understand so that
the engineer would be able to communicate. Therefore students at the end of this course should
be able to read and understand technical drawings and must have the skill to express their ideas
using graphical language.

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Graphic language in “engineering application” use lines to represent the surfaces, edges and
contours of objects.

 The language is known as “drawing” or “drafting”.

 A drawing can be done using freehand, instruments or computer methods.

1.3 Lettering

Lettering is very important in engineering drawing and the student is advised to master it by
constant practice and continuous efforts to improve.

Bad lettering can spoil the appearance and even usefulness of a drawing.

Most engineering lettering is single-stroke Gothic font. Lettering is drawn freehand and is drawn
within light horizontal guidelines.

All lettering uses upper case letters. Lower case letters are rarely used in technical drawings.

There are four fundamental drawing strokes and their directions in basic lettering. Horizontal
strokes are drawn from left to right, vertical strokes are drawn from top to bottom, and curved
strokes are drawn downward.

Straight Slanted Horizontal Curved

Upper-case Letters

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Lower-case Letters

The text’s body height is about 2/3 the height of a capital letter.

Leave the space between words equal to the space requires for writing a letter “O”.

1.4 Alphabets of line

a) Types of Line

Technical drawings are composed chiefly of symbolic lines.

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b) Title block

The title block is part of technical drawing on which different descriptions of the drawing are
written. Companies and organizations may have their own style of title block.

The conventional one include

 Name of the draftsman who made the drawing

 Name of the chief draftsman, chief engineer or another in authority who approved the drawing
 Date
 Scale
 Name of the manufacturing
 Drawing Number

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1.5 Drawing Instrument

1. Drawing Board

It is a board on which a drawing paper is attached while drawing. A drawing board would have
smooth surface and straight edge.

2. Drawing Paper

It is the working media of the whole drawing. Basically there are about five different standard
types of papers starting from the smallest A4 (210x297) to the largest A0 (841x1189).

A4=210x297

A3=297x420

A2=420x594

A1=594x841

A0=841x1189

3. Drafting tape

Drafting tape is used to fasten the drawing paper to the drawing board

4. Drawing Lead (Pencils)

The first consideration in the selection of a grade of lead is the type of line work required. For
light construction lines and guide lines for lettering use a hard lead. For all other line work, the
lines should be BLACK. The lead chosen should be soft enough to produce jet black lines but
hard enough not to smudge.

HARD MEDIUM SOFT

9H 8H 7H 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H H F HB B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B

Hard leads are used where Medium leads are used for Soft leads are used for various
extreme accuracy is required. general purpose line work in kinds of art work. These leads
Generally these leads are used technical drawing. are too soft to be useful in
for construction lines. mechanical drafting.

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Drawing Lead Applications

TASK LEAD GRADE LINE WEIGHT

CONSTRUCTION LINES 3H, 4H, 6H THIN, LIGHT

VISIBLE OBJECT LINES H, F, HB THICK, DARK

HIDDEN LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

CENTER LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

DIMENSION LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

EXTENSION LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

LEADER LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

CUTTING PLANE LINES H, F, HB THICK, DARK

PHANTOM LINES 2H, H THIN, DARK

LETTERING H, F, HB THIN, DARK

5. Erasers

They are used to clean unnecessary lines

6. T-square

T-square has straight edges and used for drawing straight lines, particularly horizontal lines.

7. Set-square

Set-squares are used

 To draw vertical lines by setting them against the T-square

 To draw parallel lines by sliding one over the other or against the T-square
 To draw inclined lines at 150, 300, 450, 600, 750 etc.
8. Scales

They are used to draw an object to scale.

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Enlarged Same size Reduced
200:1 1:1 1:10
100:1 1:20
50:1 1:50
20:1 1:100
10:1 1:200
5:1 1:500
2:1 1:1000

9. Curves

Curved rulers, called “irregular Curves” or “French Curves” are used for drawing curved lines
7other than circle and arcs. The patterns for these curves are made from ellipse, spirals or other
mathematical curves in various combinations

10. Case Instrument

These are composed mainly of compasses and dividers :

 Compasses are used for drawing the regular curves (circle and arcs)
 Dividers are used to layout lengths or to transfer dimensions from one drawing to another
11. Templates

Templates are drawing instruments used for drawing

 Circles of various diameters (circle template)

 Ellipse of various sizes (ellipse template)
 Bolt heads (bolt or hexagon template)

Note:-

Before starting, prepare the drawing instruments and clean them properly. The drawing table is
also to be set in such a way that the light comes from and it is better to attach the drawing paper
near the left edge of the board 30cm or 50cm. T-square is more rigid near the head than towards
the outer end. To draw an eye attracting drawing the drawing must be positioned in such a way
that its distance from the left and right boards as well as from the top and bottom borders must be
equal as much as possible.

1.6 Geometric construction

Engineering drawing consists of a number of geometrical constructions. A few methods are

illustrated here without mathematical proofs.

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To draw a tangent to a circle
(a) At any point P on the circle

1. With 0 as centre, draw the given circle. P is any point on the circle at which tangent to be
drawn
2. Join 0 with P and produce it to PI so that OP = PPI
3. With 0 and PI as centers and a length greater than OP as radius, draw arcs intersecting each
other at Q.
4. Draw a line through P and Q. This line is the required tangent that will be perpendicular to OP
at P.
(b) From any point outside the circle
1. With 0 as centre, draw the given circle. P is the point outside the circle from which tangent is
to be drawn to the circle
2. Join 0 with P. With OP as diameter, draw a semi-circle intersecting the given circle at M.
Then, the line drawn through P and M is the required tangent.
3. If the semi-circle is drawn on the other side, it will cut the given circle at MI. Then the line
through P and MI will also be a tangent to the circle from P.

Construction of an Ellipse by four-center method

1. Draw the major axis AB and the minor axis CD intersecting at O.

2. Connect the end points of the two axes AC.

3. With radius OA and center O, strike an arc to intersect the extension of minor axis at E.

4. With radius CE and Center on C, mark off point F. Note AF=AO – CO and OA=OC+CE.

5. Draw perpendicular bisector of AF and extend it to intersect the major axis at K and
the minor axis at J.

6. With a divider or compass mark off OL equal to OK, and OJ equal to OM.

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7. With M as a center and radius equal to MD, draw the bottom arc between TT.

8. With J as a center and same radius MD ORJC, draw the top arc between TT.

9. With L as a center and radius equal to LB, draw the right side end arc between TT.

10. With K as a center and radius LB OR KA, draw the left side end arc between TT.

Assignment
Prepare a guide line and Write the following sentences and numeric by keeping appropriate
spacing between letters, numbers and words in the sentences. Use letter height of 5mm and use
single strokes both in upper and lower cases.
a) THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS ON THE LAZY DOG.
b) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

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