Technical Drawings

Article-6

Technical Drawings

Technical drawings are a means to communicate fine, detailed information about a piece of designed jewelry which helps in its construction. It is the link between the designer and the craftsman. With the help of technical drawing a craftsman is able to determine how the piece will turn out to be and what methods of manufacturing he has to apply in order to attain the desired result.

There are two basic categories of technical drawing:

Orthographic Representation

Perspective Drawing

In this post of Jewel Affair only orthographic representation will be covered.

Importance of Technical Drawings:

When one looks at the basic front view of a design it can be interpreted in different ways. For example if one looks at a circle drawn on paper it can be either interpreted to be a sphere or a flat disc. But if one provides the same circle with a technical view, it communicates exactly what has been thought of and hence, it avoids unnecessary confusion.

IMPORTANCE OF TECHNICAL DRAWINGS

Orthographic Representation:

It is a way of representing a three dimensional object in two dimensions. This is achieved by creating different views of an object. These views are:-

Top view: this view can be defined as the face of an object or how the product appears when viewed from top.

Front view: the elevation of the product is referred to as the front view.

Side view: this view usually shows the left or the right side of an object.

This helps in replicating the product with precision and accuracy. To create the orthographic representation actual dimensions of an object are used.

Construction of an Orthographic View:

CONSTRUCTION OF ORTHOGRAPHIC VIEW

Material required- pair of set squares, ruler, pencil, eraser and a drawing sheet.

With the help of your set squares draw the ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis. Mark 30 mm on all four quadrants. And then join the marked points to create a square. What we achieve here is a big square with four small squares inside. These small squares are called quadrants.

The outlines created are called the projectors and they are perpendicular to the faces of the object and parallel to each other.

The quadrants are marked with numbers.

RULE:

Never draw inside the quadrants. Drawing has to be done on the extended lines of quadrants 2, 3, and 4.

In quadrant 1 we draw an angle of 45° and extend the line outside the big square. Top view is represented by extension of quadrant 2. Front view by quadrant 3 and side view by quadrant 4.

Always take the measurements in millimeters and show the measurements always in the front and side views.

This is the basic guideline of an orthographic view.

Further illustrated here is the view of a flat band.

 

ORTHOGRAPHIC VIEW OF A FLAT BAND

Construction: Material required- pair of set squares, ruler, pencil, eraser, a drawing sheet and a compass.

Draw the basic guideline as explained above.

Measure the ring size or the finger size, the thickness of the shank the width of the band and outer size (ring size + thickness of the shank)

Extend the lines of quadrant 2 horizontally and vertically. Mark the width of the band on the ‘y’ axis (vertical) and the outer size on the ‘x’ axis (horizontal). Now, with the help of the set squares draw a rectangle with these measurements. This is the top view of the band.

Extend the lines of quadrant 2 corresponding to the outer size vertically downwards to quadrant 3. Mark the outer size on ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis and draw a square of this size. Using a compass to draw a circle of 9 mm radius, touching the four corners of the square. Also draw a smaller circle of 8 mm radius inside the 9 mm circle. This represents the elevation or the front view of the flat band.

To create the side view lines have to be extended both from top and front view.

From the top view extend the line which corresponds to the width horizontally until it meets the extended angle line created in quadrant one. From the point where it meets the angle line, extend the line vertically downwards.

From the front view extend lines corresponding to the outer width and lines corresponding to ring size horizontally towards quadrant 4. When the lines from both the front and top view meet the side view is automatically created.

One could also create cross sections in the front and side views to facilitate clear understanding of the design.

For this flat band, cross section of the side view is presented. To draw the same extend the lines of the side view vertically downwards. Using the same measurements create the same view as above. The only difference will be that the cross section will reveal the thickness of the shank.

Tip: try to imagine the flat band in your head and how it will look when it is cut.

Imagination is a powerful tool for a designer. One has to give it a right direction to achieve desired results. Similarly orthographic view is what will give one the direction to accomplish the pre-determined idea.