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CHAPTER ONE
Introduction to Technical Drawing
Drawing is:
✓ A graphic representation of a real thing, an idea, or a proposed design for later
manufacture or construction.
✓ A graphic that represents an idea, a concept, or an entity which actually or potentially
exists in life.
✓ A way of communicating all necessary information about an abstraction such as an idea
or a concept.
✓ A drawing is a graphic representation of an object, or a part of it, and is the result of
creative thought by an engineer or technician.
There are two basic types of drawings:
1. Artistic drawings
2. Technical drawings
1. Artistic Drawing
Artistic drawings range in scope from the simplest line drawing to the most famous paintings.
Regardless of their complexity, artistic drawings are used to express the feelings, beliefs,
philosophies, and ideas of the artist.
2. Technical Drawing (TD)
The technical drawing, on the other hand, is not abstract. It does not require an understanding of
its creator, only an understanding of technical drawings.
A technical drawing is a means of clearly and concisely communicating all of the information
necessary to transform an idea or a concept in to reality. It contains more than just a graphic
representation of its subject. It also contains dimensions, notes and specifications. Therefore
technical drawing is a formal and precise way of communicating information about the shape,
size, features and precision of physical objects.
Types of Technical Drawing
✓ Three Basic Types of Technical Drawings based on the tools or equipment used.
Freehand sketches Instrument drawings Computer drawings and models

Figure 1.1: Types of Technical Drawings

The two broad types of projections, based on projection

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Purpose of Technical Drawings

Any product that is to be manufactured, fabricated, assembled, constructed, built, or subjected to
any other types of conversion process must first be designed. For example, a house must be
designed before it can be built.
The deign process start from the simple free hand drawing it goes to different analysis with final
part, assembly drawing and optimization. It helps the manufacturer to use the resource, time of
manufacturing and cost of product effectively.
Application of Technical Drawing
TD are used in many different applications. The main areas of filed are manufactured, fabricated,
assembled, constructed and engineering.
TD equipment's or tools
All drawings are made by means of various instruments. The quality of drawing depends to a
large extent on the quality, adjustment and care of the instruments.
List of drawing instruments
✓ Drawing board
✓ Drawing sheets
✓ T-square, or parallel-ruling straightedge, or drafting machine
✓ Drafting tape
✓ Drafting pencils
✓ Pencil sharpener
✓ Lettering instrument
✓ Eraser
✓ Erasing shield
✓ Triangle (set-square) (450 and 300 - 600)
✓ Architect’s or engineer’s scale
✓ Irregular curves (French curve)
✓ Drawing instrument set (Compass, Divider, extensions)
✓ Protractor
✓ Templates

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Drawing board
o Drawing tables come in many different size and design. It could be fixed, movable, with
drawer, adjustable, etc.
o They are used to attach drawing sheet.
o Keep your drawing table clean and dry not to affect your drawing quality.
o Don’t use blades to cut drafting tapes on drawing table.
Drawing sheet
o Made from different materials with different quality.
o Drawing sheets will determine selection of pencil grade
o In this day A3 and A4 paper most commonly used.
Designation Dimension in mm
A0
A0 841*1189

A1 594*841

A2 420*594

A3 297*420

A4 210*294 A1 A2

A3 A4

Figure1.1: Types and Dimension of drawing sheet

Title block is a rectangular frame that is located at the bottom of the sheet. It is recommended
that space should be provided in all title blocks for such information as description of title of the
drawing, dates, designer (drawer), and name of enterprise or educational institute, size (scale).

Figure1.2: Title block position

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5mm

20mm 5mm

Title Black

5mm

Figure 1.8: Boarder line

DR.BY: DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY 9mm
CKD. BY: INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 9mm
DATE: PRE ENGINEERING 7mm
SCALE: Angel of DR.NO: 9mm
projection TITLE: 9mm
ID NO: 7mm
50mm 100mm 30mm
Figure 1.3: Title Black

Drawing pencils

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o Most drawing pencil leads are made from graphite. They are usually made in 17
degrees of hardness
Pencil grades Strength Application
9H, 8H, 7H, 6H Hard Light constructions
5H, 4H Medium hard Dimensioning, center lines,
invisible object lines
3H, 2H Medium Visible object lines
H, F Medium soft Lettering and free hand
sketching
HB, B Soft
2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B Softness increases in the
given order
Eraser
o Rub out fault from the paper.
Erasing shield
o Covering for well-done areas not to be erased.

Figre1.4: Erasing Shield

Triangles
o Used to draw lines at standard angles and by connecting any two points
Template
Used to draw
o Circles of different diameters
o Ellipse various size
o Bolt heads etc.

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T-square
o They can be made from different materials, mostly from wood or plastic.
o Parts: blade and head
o The head is fixed at 900 to the blade
o The cleanness of your T –square greatly affect your drawing quality and
cleanliness.

Figure1.5: T-square
The use of T-square are shown in the figure blow

Figure1.6: application or use T-square

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Drawing instrument set

o It may include compass with pen part and pencil part, divider, lengthening bar,
bow pen, bow pencil and ruling pens
o Dividers:- used to transfer distance
o Compass:- used to draw circles or arcs (which are parts of a circle)
French Curves
o Used to draw irregular curves
o It is available to align at least three points the curve to be drawn
Scale (ruler)
o A number of kinds of scales are available for varied types of engineering design. Scales
with beveled edges graduated in mm are usually used.
Conventional Lines
Each line on a technical drawing has a definite meaning and is drawn in certain ways. There are
certain conventional lines recommended by American Standard Association. According to the
standard,” three widths of line, thick, medium, and thin are recommended… exact thickness1
may vary according to the size and type of drawing…”

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Example application of line

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Figure1.7: application of line

Free Hand Lettering
o Lettering plays a major role in overall appearance of a drawing.
o Lettering should be executed in one stroke
There are four kinds of stroke

Straight Slanted Horizontal Curved

Figure 1.14: kinds of stroke

Upper-case, lower-case letters & Numerals

Figure1.8: Upper-case, lower-case letters & Numerals

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GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTION
Strict interpretation of geometric construction allows use of only the compass and an instrument
for drawing straight lines, and with these, the geometer, following mathematical theory,
accomplishes his solutions. In technical drawing, the principles of geometry are employed
constantly, but instruments are not limited to the basic tools as T-squares, triangles, scales,
curves etc. are used to make constructions with speed and accuracy.
GEOMETRIC NOMENICLATURE
A. POINTS IN SPACE
A point is an exact location in space or on a drawing surface. A point is actually represented on
the drawing by a crisscross at its exact location. Never represent a point on a drawing by a dot;
except for sketching locations.

Figure 1.16: Representation of point in space

B. LINE
Lines are straight elements that have no width, but are infinite in length (magnitude), and they
can be located by two points which are not on the same spot but fall along the line. Lines may be
straight lines or curved lines. If the end points of a line are important, they must be marked by
means of small, mechanically drawn crossbars, as described by a pint in space. The symbol used
for parallel line is//. Lines, which are tangent and at 900 are considered perpendicular. The
symbol for perpendicular line is ⊥.

Figure 1.17: different kinds of lines

C. ANGLE
An angle is formed by the intersection of two lines. There are three major kinds of angles: right
angels (900), acute angles (00 > Y > 900) and obtuse angles (900 > X > 1800). A straight line is
1800

X
Y Figure 1.9: Different kinds of angel

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D. TRIANGLES
A triangle is a closed plane figure with three straight sides and their interior angles sum up
exactly 1800. The various kinds of triangles: a right triangle, an equilateral triangle, an isosceles
triangle, and an obtuse angled triangle.

Figure1.10: Triangles
E. QUADRIALTERAL
It is a plane figure bounded by four straight sides. When opposite sides are parallel, the
quadrilateral is also considered to be a parallelogram.

Figure 1.11: Quadrilaterals

F. POLYGON
A polygon is a closed plane figure with three or more straight sides. The most important of the
polygons as they relate to drafting are probably the triangle with three sides, square with four
sides, the hexagon with six sides, and the octagon with eight sides.

Figure 1.12 Polygons

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G. CIRCLE
A circle is a closed curve with all points on the circle at the same distance from the center point.
The major components of a circle are the diameter, the radius and circumference.

Figure 1.13: Circle

H. SOLIDS
They are geometric figures bounded by plane surfaces. The surfaces are called faces, and if these
are equal regular polygons, the solids are regular polyhedral.

Figure 1.14: Solids

TECHNIQUES OF GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTIONS
To construct the above mentioned geometric figures, we have to know some principles and

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procedures of geometric construction.

A. How to Bisect a Line or an Arc
To bisect a line means to divide it in half or to find its center point. In the given process, a line
will also be constructed at the exact center point at exactly 900.
Given: Line A-B or Arc A-B
Step 1: Set the compass approximately two-thirds of the length of line A-B and swing an arc
from point A.
Step 2: Using the exact same compass setting, swing an arc from point B.
Step 3: At the two intersections of these arcs, locate points D and E
Step 4: Draw a straight-line connecting point D with point E. Where this line intersects line A-B,
it bisects line A-B. Line D-E is also perpendicular to line A-B at the exact center point.

Figure 1.15: Bisect a line or arc

B. How to Bisect an Angle
To bisect an angle means to divide it in half or to cut it in to two equal angles.
Given: Angle BAC
Step 1: Set the compass at any convenient radius and swing an arc from point A
Step 2: Locate points E and F on the legs of the angle, and swing two arcs of the same identical
length from points E and F, respectively.
Step 3: Where these arcs intersect, locate point D. Draw a straight line from A to D. This line

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will bisect angle BAC and establish two equal angles: CAD and BAD.

Figure 1.16: Example on how to bisect an angle

C. How to Draw an Arc or Circle (Radius) Through Three Given Points
Given: Three points in space at random: A, B and C.
Step 1: With straight line, lightly connect points A to B, and B to C,
Step 2: Using the method outlined for bisecting a line, bisect lines A-B and B-C
Step 3: Locate point X where the two extended bisectors meet. Point X is the exact center of the
arc or circle.
Step 4: Place the point of the compass on point X and adjust the lead to any of the points A, B, or
C (they are the same distance), and swing the circle. If all work is done correctly, the arc
or circle should pass through each point.

Figure 1.17: How to draw an arc or circle

D. How to Draw a Line Parallel to a Line Curved Line at a Given Distance
Given: Curved line A-B, and a required distance to the parallel line,

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Step 1: Set the compass at the required distance to the parallel line. Starting from either end
Of the curved line, place the point of the compass on the given line, and swing a
series of light arcs along the given line.
Step 2: using an irregular curve, draw a line along the extreme high points of the arcs.

Figure 1.18: How to draw parallel curved line

E. How to Draw a Perpendicular Lines to a Line at a Point
Given: Line A-B with point P on the same line.
Step 1: Using P as a center, make two arcs of equal radius or more continuous arc (R1) to
intercept line A-B on either side of point P, at points S and T.
Step 2: Swing larger but equal arcs (R2) from each of points S and T to cross each other at
point U.
Step 3: A line from P to U is perpendicular to line A-B at point P.

Figure 1.19: How to draw a perpendicular line, to a point outside the line

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F. How to Draw a Perpendicular to a line from a Point Not on the Line

Given: Line A-B and point P
Step 1: Using P as a center, swing an arc (R1) to intercept line A-B at points G and H.
Step 2: Swing larger, but equal length arcs (R2) from each of the points G and H to intercept
each other at point J.
Step 3: Line P-J is perpendicular to line A-B

Figure 1.20: How to draw a perpendicular line, to a point outside the line
I. How to Draw a Triangle with Known Lengths of Sides
Given: lengths 1, 2, and 3.
Step 1: Draw the longest length line, in this example length 3, with ends A and B. Swing an arc
(R1) from point A whose radius is either length 1 or length 2; in this example length 1.
Step 2: using the radius length not used in step 1, swing an arc (R2) from point B to intercept the
arc swung from point A at point
Step 3: Connect A to C and B to C to complete the triangle

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Figure 1.21: Example on how to draw triangles with given sides

K. How to Draw A Pentagon (5 Sides)
Given: The locations of the pentagon center and the diameter that will circumscribe the
pentagon.
Step 1: Bisect radius OD at C.
Step 2: With C as center, and CA as radius, strike arc AE. With A as center, and AE as
radius, strike arc EB.
Step 3: Draw line AB, then set off distances AB around the circumference of the circle, and draw
the sides through these points.

Figure 1.22: How to draw pentagon with a given side

L. How to Draw A Hexagon (6 Sides)
Given: To draw a hexagon, given the distance across the corners
Steep1: Draw vertical and horizontal center lines and a circle with a diameter equal to the
given distance.
Steep2: Step off the radius around the circle to give six equally spaced points, and join the
points to give the required hexagon.

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Figure 1.23: How to draw hexagon with a given side

M. To draw an external tangent to two circles
Given: two circles with different diameters
Steep1: Join the centers of the circles by line AB, bisect AB, and draw a semi-circle.
Steep2: Position point E so that DE is equal to the radius of the smaller circle. Draw radius
AE to cut the semi-circle at point G.
Steep3: Draw line AGH so that H lies on the circumference of the larger circle. Note that
angle AGB lies in a semi-circle and will be 90°.
Steep4: Draw line HJ parallel to BG. Line HJ will be tangential to the two circles and lines
BJ and AGH are the normal.

Figure 1.24: How to draw a tangent to two circles

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