Planning your engineering drawing



Before starting your engineering drawing you should plan how you are going to make best use of the space. It is important to think about the number of views your drawing will have and how much space you will use of the paper.

Try to make maximum use of the available space. If a view has lots of detail, try and make that view as large as possible. If necessary, draw that view on a separate sheet.

If you intend to add dimensions to the drawing, remember to leave enough space around the drawing for them to be added later.

Choosing the best type of paper

As mentioned above, sketching skills tend to improve if you use large pieces of paper. Learning to sketch on A2 paper is a very good way of gaining confidence in your skill.

But most people find A2 an inconvenient size for project work. If you can, try to do sketches for your project on A3. Buy a pad of layout paper. This type of paper is useful because it is slightly opaque.

When drawing final ideas you can quickly sketch your basic idea getting proportions correct and then use another sheet of layout paper placed above to trace the original sketch without mistakes and guide lines.

If you are working with inks on film, plan the order in which you are drawing the lines. For example you don't want to have to place your ruler on wet ink