EMG 1102/EME 1201 ENGINEERING DRAWING

COURSE NOTES

CHAPTER ONE: GRAPHICS LANGUAGE

DEDAN KIMATHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

PREPARED BY MR. OKOTH

© 2023

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1 Chapter One: Graphics Language
1.1 Introduction
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface such as a wall, paper, canvas, computer screen,
etc., to inform (communicate) or to entertain. Examples of graphics are:

• Pictures • diagrams
• Photographs • engineering drawings, etc.
• visual art
The graphic language is the idea of communicating thoughts from one person to another by means
of graphics. The role of the graphics language is:

i. To communicate ideas
ii. To communicate feelings
iii. To convey information

Written language is essential for discussing concepts, meanings or feelings, the things that do not
have form, whereas things that have form are better explained or captured with the graphic
language. Just as a person must be literate in order to understand the written language, visual
literacy is also important in order to understand information in graphic form.

Communication by use of graphics has developed along two distinct paths:

• Artistic drawing
• Technical drawing

1.2 Artistic Drawing

The drawing representing any object or idea which is sketched in free hand using imagination of
artist and in which proper scaling and dimensioning is not maintained is called an artistic
drawing. They are used to express aesthetic, philosophic or other abstract ideas. Example:
painting, posters, arts etc. They can also be used to portray decorative aspects, to express joy,
sorrow, political or religious beliefs. It can be carried out on almost any surface and allows many
interpretations. Common tools for artistic drawing are:

• graphite pencils • charcoal

• inked brushes • markers
• crayons • waxed colored pencils, etc.

1.3 Introduction to Technical Drawing

Technical drawing (drafting) is the practice of creating accurate descriptions and representations
of existing or imagined physical objects using some graphics, symbols, letters and numbers for
technical, architectural and engineering needs. They are used in development of ideas for designs
and to convey technical information. A drawing can be prepared either using free hand or using
engineering instruments or using computer program. Technical drawing is referred to as the
universal language for engineering since it can be interpreted in any part of the world. An

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engineering drawing provides all information about different aspects of the object. Example:
Building drawing for civil engineers, Machine drawing for mechanical engineers, Circuit
diagrams for electrical and electronics engineers. Aspects of a technical drawing include:

• Shape, • Material,
• Size, • Assembly,
• Surface type, • Finish

Essential requirements for a technical drawing include:

• Clear and unambiguous

• Language independent
• Accurate
• Conform to standards
• Suitable for duplication

Table 1-1: Difference Between Artistic and Engineering Drawing

There are three types of technical drawings:

1. Multi-view drawings (orthographic); one or more views (projections) systematically

arranged.
2. Pictorial; one view drawn in 3D at a specified angle as it would appear in real life.
3. Schematic (diagrammatic); simplified functional drawing.

1.4 Drawing conventions

Drawing conventions (drawing grammar) allow people to communicate more effectively and with
clarity. An engineering drawing should be well specified and universally acceptable. That’s why
there are some specified rules for engineering drawing. These rules may vary slightly for different
regions. There are some drawing standards or drawing codes that accumulates the rules of
engineering drawing for a certain region. The conventions are set by various standards
organizations such as:

i. ISO International Organization for Standardization:

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 • ISO 128: Technical Drawings - General principles of presentation.
• ISO 129: Technical Drawings – Dimensioning
• ISO 3098/1: Technical Drawings – Lettering
• ISO 8048: Technical Drawings - Construction Drawings - Representation of views,
sections, cuts.
ii. KEBS Kenya Bureau of Standards
• KS 06-325. Year 1986. Title: Engineering drawing practice. scope: Specifies the general
principles of presentation and practice to be applied to engineering drawings. Subject:
Engineering drawings
• KS 06-1334 Year 1996. Title: Specification for engineer’s squares.
iii. ANSI American National Standards Institute iv. BS British Standards v. JIS
Japanese Industrial Standards

These standards ensure quality, safety and interchangeability of products and information.
Standards are updated periodically rendering the old ones obsolete.

1.5 Drawing Instruments

The most common instruments used for engineering drawing are:

a. Drawing board or drafting table (508 × 610), Optional equipment:

b. Drawing paper (A2 is appropriate),
c. T-square, i. Erasing shield
d. Set of instruments (draughtsman set) ii. Irregular curve (French
e. Set squares (Triangle 45°-45°-90° and Triangle curve)
60°-60°-90° or adjustable sets squares) iii. Lettering guide iv.
f. Protractor Ellipse template
g. Pencils HB, H, 2H, 4H v. Flexible curve vi.
h. Eraser Scales
i. Drafting tape (masking tape)
Objectives that students should strive to obtain:

1. Accuracy - should convey the correct information

2. Speed - for productivity
3. Legibility - (clear and legible for communication)
4. Neatness
5. Use only one side of the drawing paper.
1.5.1 Drawing Board
▪ It is a board or platform rectangular in shape.
▪ Size of drawing board need to be larger than that of drawing paper.
▪ It is made of wood.
▪ Top surface should be smooth.

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1.5.2 Drawing Paper
Drawing paper is the paper, on which drawing is to be made. All engineering drawings are made
on sheets of paper of strictly defined sizes, which are set forth in the respective standards. The use
of standard size saves paper and ensures convenient storage of drawings.

Desirable properties a good drawing paper:

• It should be smooth and uniform in thickness.

• It should be thick, strong and tough.
• Fibers of drawing paper should not be disintegrated when a good eraser is used on
it. A. Paper Types:
1. Detail Paper (used for pencil work).
2. White drawing paper (used for finished drawing)
3. Tracing paper (used for both pencil and ink work and useful for replicating a master
copy) B. Paper Size:

In this course, we will adopt the ISO A standard drawing sheet sizes and inside borders. The ISO
A0 size is defined as having an area of one square meter (1 m2). The sides are in proportions; paper
length : Paper width = . Each smaller sheet size is exactly half the area of the previous size.
Figure 1-1 shows ISO A paper size series. Table 1-1 shows dimensions of ISO A series drawing
sheet sizes, while Figure 1-2 clarifies the terms used in Table 1-1.

Figure 1-1: ISO A Drawing paper sizes

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 Figure 1-2: Drawing borders

Table 1-2: Dimensions of ISO A drawing sheet sizes

C. Drawing layout

The ISO standard (ISO 5457) require a 20 mm border to the left-hand edge (for filing) and a 10
mm border round the other three sides of the drawing sheet. However, the margin of paper can be
increased according to requirements and settings of printer/plotter. Resulting working area sizes
as shown in Table 1-2.

The drawing layouts can be in two formats as shown in Figure 1-3:

• portrait, the longer edge is vertical

• landscape, the longer edge is horizontal. This is the layout we will adopt for our class.

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 Figure 1-3: Portrait and Landscape Layout of Drawing Paper

D. Title Block

A title block is a system of labeling and cross-referencing drawings so that they may be stored and
when required, identified and located easily and efficiently. Title blocks are used to record all the
important information necessary for the working drawings. It contains general as well as specific
information.

The basic requirements for a title block located at the bottom right-hand corner of a drawing are:

• Title of the drawing • Dimensions

• Drafter’s name and number • Drawing number
• Name of firm or organization • Sheet number
• Scale of the drawing (example: 1:2 meaning • Projection symbol that the drawing is half
of actual component),
• Date

Figure 1-4 shows a sample title block

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 Figure 1-4: Title Block

1.5.3 Pencils
Pencils are used to draw different lines, shapes, symbols and to write texts in engineering drawing.
Based on the hardness of lead pencils are classified in three major grades as hard, medium and
soft. They are further subdivided and numbered as mentioned in Table 1-3.

Selection of proper grade pencil or lead is important for quality drawing. One has to be careful in
selecting a lead because very hard lead might penetrate the drawing, on the other hand, soft lead
may smear. Quality and type of drawing paper is an important factor in selecting lead. One other
importance consideration is the importance of line to be drawn. Inferior lines (like border lines,
guide lines, construction lines and any other auxiliary lines needed to be erased later) are drawn
using harder pencil. Comparatively softer grade pencil is used for drawing superior items (like
object line, texts, symbols etc.).

Table 1-3: Pencils of Different Grades

Hard Pencils are used where extreme accuracy is required-on charts, diagrams, etc. Medium
pencils are for general-purpose work in technical drawing. The softer grades (right) are used for
technical sketching, lettering, arrowheads, and other freehand work on mechanical drawings. The
harder leads (left) are used for line work on machine drawings and architectural drawings. The H
and 2H leads are widely used on pencil tracings for reproduction. Soft pencils are used for artwork

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of various kinds, and for full-size details in architectural drawing. They cannot be used for
mechanical drafting.

Common uses of different grade pencil are Table 1-4:

Table 1-4: Pencil Usage Guideline for Different Line Types

1.5.4 T-square:
• Used to draw horizontal straight line.
• Used to guide the triangles when drawing vertical and inclined lines.

Figure 1-5: T-square

1.5.5 Set-square:
1. Used to construct the most common angles (i.e. 300, 450 and 600) in technical drawings.
2. Used to draw parallel and perpendicular lines quickly and conveniently.

Figure 1-6: Set-squares

1.5.6 Protractor:
It is used for laying out and measuring angle.

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 Figure 1-7: Protractor

1.5.7 Scale (ruler):

A number of kinds of scales are available for varied types of engineering design. Scales with
beveled edges graduated in mm are usually used.

Figure 1-8: Scale

1.5.8 Compass
It is used to draw circles and arcs both in pencil and ink. It consists of two legs pivoted at the top.
One leg is equipped with a steel needle attached with a screw, and other shorter leg is, provided
with a socket for detachable inserts.

Figure 1-9: Compass

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1.5.9 Dividers
Used chiefly for transferring distances and occasionally for dividing spaces into equal parts. i.e.
for dividing curved and straight lines into any number of equal parts, and for transferring
measurements.

Figure 1-10: Divider

1.5.10 French curve:

It is used to draw irregular curves that are not circle arcs. The shape varies according to the shape
of irregular curve.

Figure 1-11: French curves

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1.6 Lettering
Lettering is used to give dimensions and other pertinent information of what is being drawn. Letter
Styles:
• Gothic • • Italic
Roman • Text
ANSI recommends that Single Stroke Gothic style be the accepted lettering standard due to the
following reasons:

• Most plain lettering style

• Written rapidly
• Highly legible

Single stroke lettering has all the strokes of uniform thickness, and each stroke is produced by one
movement of the pencil. Figure 1-12 and Figure 1-13 shows sample lettering using Gothic style.

Figure 1-12: Proportion of Width and Height for Single Stroke Gothic Letters (Uppercase) &
Numbers

Figure 1-13: Lettering using Single Stroke Gothic style (Uppercase) & Lowercase
Guidelines for lettering in technical drawing:

• Use HB pencils when lettering

• Pencils should be sharpened to a conical point
• Good lettering requires the use of guidelines drawn using construction lines (4H pencil)
• Characters should have the simplest form possible

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 • Letter spacing - use uniform area between letters and not uniform spacing
• Word and sentence spacing - should be equivalent to the letter height
• Letter height
▪ 6 mm for upper case letters
▪ 4 mm for lower case letters
• For dimensions and notes, a character height of 3 mm should be used.

• Spacing between lines of letters should be at least the letter height

• Lettering guides can be used (AMES lettering guide)

• Fraction: not 4/5.

• Uniformity in spacing of letters is a matter of equalizing spaces by eye.

1.7 Line Types

Each line on a technical drawing has a definite meaning and is drawn in certain ways. There are
certain conventional lines recommended by drawing codes. Usually, two types of widths are used
for the lines; they are thick and thin. Thick lines are in between 0.5 mm to 0.8 mm wide while
the thin lines are between 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm wide. However, the exact thickness may vary
according to the size and type of drawing. If the size of drawing is larger, the width of the line
becomes higher. There should also be a distinct contrast in the thickness of different kinds of lines,
particularly between the thick lines and thin lines.

• Thin line lines that are dark, and drawn with 2H pencil include: centerlines, extension
lines, dimension lines, leader lines, section lines, hidden lines.
• Thick lines that are dark and drawn with a HB pencil include; outlines, visible lines.
• Very thick lines that are dark and drawn with a B pencil include: cutting plane lines,
viewing plane lines.
• Thin Light lines drawn with a 4H pencil include: Guidelines used for lettering,
construction lines.
• Dark features drawn with a HB pencil include: arrowheads, lettering.

Figure 1-14
You will undertake exercises on:

1. Construction of title block,

2. Lettering exercises, 3. Linework exercises

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Figure 1-15: Types of lines

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