Draw Manga. Tom Carpenter

(PLAN) VIEW

      FRONT ELEVATION

      SECTION (CUTAWAY) VIEW

      SIDE ELEVATION

      Isometric & perspective drawings. Making three-dimensional drawings is a great way to see how your project will look without actually building it, and to help you interpret your two-dimensional drawings.

      An isometric drawing is an easy-to-create, three-dimensional view that combines your two-dimensional view drawings into one drawing. The dimensions used to make an isometric drawing are derived directly from your two-dimensional drawings, so everything remains “in scale” and measurable off the isometric drawing. Isometric drawings are dimensionally correct, but not visually correct since they have no foreshortening which would give them the illusion of depth. The foremost point of an isometric drawing is usually one front corner of your project. This edge or line is drawn vertically and to the same height as it appears on your front view drawing. The front/top and front/bottom edge lines are drawn to the left of the corner line and drawn at 30° angles. The length of the front/top and bottom edge lines are the same as they appear on your multi-view drawing. The right side is drawn to the right of the corner line and drawn at 30° also. The drawing is completed by projecting the outside upper corner lines to each other at 30° angles to fill in the top.

      CONSTRUCTING 2-D DRAWINGS

      Concept sketches typically are made to help you visualize different ideas and treatments for your project. While not normally part of the final design package, they can be made easily with the same drafting tools used to construct final scaled project drawings.

      Make vertical lines with a triangle guide resting against a straightedge that is secured to the worksurface, parallel to the horizontal lines of the drawing. A mechanical pencil makes a true, accurate line. The front view elevation is being created in the photo to the right. Most mechanical drawings start with a front view.

      Draw detail drawings to illustrate and plan the more complicated joints and profiles in your woodworking project.

      Draw multiple views to give the complete picture. Try to fit all the useful views onto a single page to create a total “snapshot” of the project. Here, top, front, side, back and bottom views are added around the front view drawing.

      An isometric drawing is a three-dimensional sketch with all planes drawn to the same scale. Isometrics are very handy for calculating part sizes, but they are less effective at conveying the actual “look” of the project than perspective drawings (below).

      Perspective drawings are made by extending the horizontal lines from the verticals and out toward “vanishing points” to give the drawing a sense of depth. They do the best job of portraying the actual appearance of the project.

      A perspective drawing is a three-dimensional view foreshortened in such a way as to imitate the way your brain sees objects and give the illusion of depth. In other words, the drawn object looks the way you would see it in reality.

      A perspective drawing is created using vanishing points. A vanishing point is a point far off in the distance where two parallel lines converge as your eyes would see them. Just imagine a long hallway: As you look down it, all the lines converge at one point. That’s the vanishing point. You could make accurately proportioned “technical” perspective drawings using your drafting tools, but the process is extremely complex. So much so that your end results are not worth the effort required to produce the drawing. Your library should have drafting technique books that explain how to produce a technical perspective view drawing if this is what you want to learn. Instead, you’re probably better off making perspective sketches. They are much easier to draw, but not proportionally accurate.

      Use two-point perspective, which means there are two vanishing points, when making your perspective sketches. A two-point perspective has one vanishing point to the left and one vanishing point to the right. All of the vertical lines in the drawing are drawn 90° to the ground plane, and all of the horizontal lines are drawn from the vertical lines outward to the vanishing points. With a little practice, you’ll find making these sketches pretty easy.

      Modify finished plan drawings to suit your need, using a calculator and an architect’s scale. You’ll find it helpful to redraw the project, noting which parts need to be modified.

      Cutting lists and shopping lists. Once you’ve completed your plan drawings, you’ll have a much easier time coming up with cutting lists and shopping lists. These last two items will round out your project plan so you have all the information you need to start building.

      A cutting list is simply a roster of all the project parts you’ll need. It should include the name of each part, the quantity you’ll need, the dimensions (thickness x width x length), and the material the part will be made from. Use the cutting list as a guide when cutting parts, but always check the dimensions against the actual workpieces you’ve already cut in case you made any errors.

      A shopping list can be surprisingly difficult to make for woodworking projects. This is because most woodworking lumber is sold in random widths and lengths. Even if you calculate your shopping list in board feet (See here) you won’t ever find the exact combination of boards you need to make your parts without any waste. Still, knowing how many board feet of each material you’ll need lets you make a reasonably good cost estimate. When working with sheet goods, draw a cutting diagram to calculate how many sheets you’ll need and help you determine how to minimize waste.

       Computer generated drawings

      CAD drawings, short for computer aided design, are a powerful tool you can use for making woodworking plans. For me, this is the best and only way I create my working and perspective drawings these days. I sold my drafting table more than 10 years ago! Many CAD software programs are available for use on personal computers. Unfortunately, good CAD software programs needed to create 3-D drawings with perspective views are still rather expensive. You can get inexpensive software that will do only 2-D drawings though, which may be the way to go. With these programs it’s easy to draw in scale and change scale at any time. Most of the programs have dimensioning tools too, which makes it easy to add dimension lines and values to your drawings.

      CAD drawings are fast to create, accurate and easy to revise. The more sophisticated and expensive programs that allow you to make 3-D perspective views also allow you to rotate the view and see your project from any viewpoint. The really sophisticated