Drafting is a practice that requires great precision.
Machines are responsible for maintaining the comforts we take for granted in our day-to-day lives such as heating, air conditioning, ventilation, hot water, transportation and even food. Engineers and mechanical drawings lie at the heart of every machine. Without these drawings, the manufacture and implementation of machines would be impossible. Drafting is an essential part of our day-to-day lives, even if we aren't the ones making the drawings - we are indirectly using them by using the machines they describe.
Instructions
1. Acquire all of the relevant measurements for the machine you will be drawing.
2. Convert the measurements you have acquired into a scale that will fit your ideal paper size.
3. Draw the outline of your object very lightly using a pencil and ruler. Use your compass, when required, to precisely mark angles and curved shapes. Use your triangle to quickly mark any 90 or 45 degree angles. Continue doing this until you have outlined the entire object.
4. Check the scale and placement of all of the lines drawn. Fix any imprecise lines now before moving on.
5. Draw in all of the remaining lines in your drawing. Keep your line weight the same as your outlines for now, all of your lines should be about as light as you can draw them.
6. Check all of your measurements once more, fix any errors before moving on to the next step.
7. Darken any lines that lie out an outside edge on the object. For example, if you are drafting a fan you will want to darken all of the lines that lie on the outside edge of the blades, and all of the lines that lie on the outside edge of the body of the fan. Make these lines about as dark as you can make them without tearing the paper. This helps to clearly define the predominant shapes and clearly communicate this to the viewer, even if they are not familiar with the object.
8. Retrace all remaining lines using different line weights for each major group based on their relative distance in space. Lines that would be closer to the viewer in three dimensions should be darker than those that would be further away. This again helps the viewer to understand the object as it would exist is space and greatly improves the appearance of your drawings.
9. Write your name, the title of the drawing and the scale at which it was drawn along the bottom edge of the drawing in a clean, unadorned type face. Be sure to keep the words parallel to the edge of your paper to maintain the sense of precision you wish the drawings to convey.
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