STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS 2
Chapter 11: Architectural Drawing Types
An architect uses eight basic drawing types within the drawing set to most completely describe the design of a building.
PLAN
View of the horizontal planes of the building, showing their re-lationship to each other. A plan is a horizontal section, typically depicting the building as though cut approximately 3’-0” (915) from its loor.
SECTION
View of a vertical cut through the building’s components. A section acts as a vertical plan and often contains elevational information, such as doors and windows. This information is shown with a lighter line weight than the section cuts.
Architectural Drawing Types 121
ELEVATION
View of the vertical planes of the building, showing their relationship to each other. An elevation is viewed perpendicularly from a selected plane.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL REPRESENTATIONS
Perspectives (not scaled), axonometrics, and isometrics describe the building or space in a way that conventional plans, elevations, and sections cannot. Perspectives are particularly effective in producing a view that would actually be experienced by being in the space designed.
READING THE DRAWING SET Drawing Symbols
Symbols and reference markers are necessary for navigating the drawing set. They tell whoever is looking at a drawing where to go to ind out more information about certain elements.
building section
wall or detail section
detail section (nondirectional)
Architectural Drawing Types 123
Floor Plans
Overall building plans are usually drawn at a scale that enables one to see the whole plan. Most elements of the overall plan are keyed to other drawings in the set, as in the case of larger-scale plans, details, sections, and elevations. Some information may be keyed and cross-referenced among multiple drawings. Keys shown on the plan below reappear on the drawings to follow.
First Floor Plan
PATIO
PATIO
BATH
BED ROOM
BED ROOM BENCH
DRIVEWAY
CARPORT
KITCHEN
LIVING
POOL
Building Elevations
Building elevations depict the exterior conditions of the building, describing materials and impor-tant vertical dimensions. In instances where a drawing is too large to it on a standard sheet, it must be broken apart and continued on the same sheet or another sheet, requiring the use of match lines for alignment.
POOL
POOL
PRECAST CONC.
PANELS PRECAST CONC.
PANELS
East Elevation
FIRST FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR
T.O. ROOF
T.O. ROOF West Elevation
Architectural Drawing Types 125 POOL
FIRST FLOOR
T.O. ROOF MATCH MATCH LINELINE
MATCH LINE MATCH LINEMATCH LINEMATCH LINE
CHANNEL GLASS
MATCH LINEMATCH LINE
North Elevation (Partial)
North Elevation (Partial)
PRECAST CONC.
PANELS PRECAST CONC.
PANELS
EXTERIOR BUILDING ELEVATIONS
Reflected Ceiling Plans Relected ceiling plans (RCPs) may be thought of as upside-down loor plans, for they are literally a plan of the ceiling. They are used to describe light ixture placement and types, ceiling heights and ma-terials, and anything else found on the ceiling plane. RCPs employ standard keys and symbols as well as some speciic to the ceil-ing plan.
Light ixtures often bear tags that refer to their descriptions in the lighting speciications.
2 x 4 luorescent
2 x 2 recessed
Doors and most windows do not appear on an RCP, but their headers do.
Site information is not present on an RCP (un-less it happens overhead).
Elevation markers call out the height and material of the ceiling planes.
Architectural Drawing Types 127
Interior Elevations
Interior elevations are drawn at a larger scale than the overall building plans, allowing for more details, notes, and dimensions to be represented. Keyed from the building plan, interior eleva-tions are, in turn, keyed to other, larger-scale views, such as section and plan details of cabinetry construction and wall sections.
Details
Details are drawn at scales such as 1 1/2” = 1’-0”, 3”= 1’-0”, 6”= 1’-0”, and sometimes even at full scale, and are keyed from and to numerous other drawings.
PLYWOOD PANELS CHANNEL GLASS WALL
BOOKSHELVES
CURTAIN ON TRACK
SLIDING DOOR ON SSTL TRACK HARDWOOD SHELVING/ROOM DIVIDER UNITS
Bedroom
Bedroom Shelving PLYWOOD
PANELS SLIDING DOOR ON SSTL TRACK
HARDWOOD SHELVING/ROOM DIVIDER UNITS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL DRAWINGS Paraline Drawings
Paraline drawings are projected pictorial representations of the three-dimensional qualities of an object. These drawings can be classiied as orthographic projections, with a rotated plan view and a tilted side view. They are also commonly referred to as axonometric or axiometric drawings.
Unlike in perspective drawings, the projection lines in a paraline drawing remain parallel instead of converging to a point on the horizon.
back
plan
front
side side
Unfolded Object
Oblique
In an oblique drawing, one face (either plan or elevation) is drawn directly on the picture plane. Projected lines are drawn at a 30- or 45-degree angle to the picture plane. The length of the projecting lines is determined as shown in the diagrams opposite.
Dimetric
A dimetric drawing is similar to an oblique drawing, except that the object is rotated so that only one corner touches the picture plane.
Isometric
An isometric drawing is a special type of dimetric drawing, where all axes of the object are simultaneously rotated away from the
picture plane and kept at the same angle (30 degrees) of projection. All legs are equally distorted in length and maintain an exact 1:1:1 proportion.
Trimetric
A trimetric drawing is similar to a dimetric draw-ing, except that the plan of the object is rotated so that the two exposed sides are not at equal angles to the picture plane.
Architectural Drawing Types 129
A A
A
15° 15°
A A
A
30° 45°
30º Oblique
15º Dimetric
A A
45° 30°
45º Oblique A
Isometric (30º Dimetric)
A
30° A 60°
Trimetric A
30°
A
A
30°
30°
A
A 45° 30°
45º Dimetric 45°
A
A
Two-Point Common Method Perspective Station Point (SP): Locates the ixed position of the viewer.
Picture Plane (PP): Flat, two-dimensional surface that records the projected perspective image and aligns perpendicular to the viewer’s center of vision. The picture plane is the only true-size plane in the perspective ield: Objects behind the picture plane project to its surface smaller than true scale, whereas those between the viewer and the picture plane project to its surface larger than true scale.
Measuring Line (ML): Located on the picture plane, the measuring line is the only true-scale line in a perspective drawing. Most commonly, this is a vertical line from which can be projected the key vertical dimensions of the object.
Horizon Line (HL): Lies at the intersection of the picture plane and a horizontal plane through the eye of the viewer.
Vanishing Point: Point at which parallel lines appear to meet in perspective. The left (vpL) and right (vpR) vanishing points for an object are determined by the points at which a set of lines originating from the station point and parallel to the object lines intersect the picture plane.
Ground Line (GL): Lies at the intersection of the picture plane and the ground plane.
elevation
PP
plan
SP
HL
GL vpL
ML
vpR
Architectural Drawing Types 131 Basic Geometry and Drawing Projections 131
One-Point Common Method Perspective
One-point perspectives use a single vanishing point, and all edges and planes that are perpendic-ular to the picture plane vanish toward this point. To locate this point (C), draw a vertical line from the station point to the horizon line. Building edges that are parallel to the picture plane appear as parallel lines in perspective, with no vanishing point.
PP
SP
Picture Frame
HL C GL
Projections occurring in front of the picture frame will appear distorted. As the station point moves closer to the picture plane, the ield of vision decreases.
As the station point moves farther from the picture plane, the ield of vision increases.