Most architecture offices and design firms now use drafting software more frequently than conventional drawing media. There are many reasons why this is so. Drafting software can help make drawings more accurate, and when errors are made during drafting, they are far easier to correct. Use of common tools and shared prototype drawings and symbols libraries can help give a unified stylistic appearance to drawings created by several different people. Layers can eliminate the need to copy walls and other elements from one drawing to another. Semi-automatic dimensioning can make working drawings easier to construct. Tying of non-graphical information to graphic symbols can help link drawing files to programs for cost estimation, bills of materials, or structural or lighting analysis. Many common drawing chores can even be automated with the right kind of drafting system. And finally, sharing and transmission of information in drawings is often easier and more reliable using electronic media.
- To continue to familiarize the student with 2D drafting systems and to the concepts on which they are based.
- To learn how to organize drawing activities and drawing information in various ways to facilitate easy manipulation of drawing contents.
- To learn the fundamentals of drawing working drawings.
- To learn to produce accurate, scaled drawings on paper media.
- To continue producing graphics for incorporation into later assignments.
Produce a set of two 11x17 plotted plans, both of which should be plotted from a single AutoCAD drawing file. One plot should be a "presentation" drawing, showing a plan of the site and first floor of the building, with landscaping features, building context, walls, furniture, etc. The other plot should be a "construction" drawing, showing the interior and exterior walls of the building, as well as dimensions. The AutoCAD drawing used to produce these plots should include all of this information, drawn on appropriate layers.
Your plans should be drawn at full scale in AutoCAD; they can be scaled to a convenient size when you get ready to plot and create a viewport in "paper space." (This will be described in class.) Your drawing should show enough of a site that it gives your floor plan some context. Projects should be small enough to be completed in the time allowed. A small house or a simple apartment building of 4 or so identical or mirrored units is sufficient. For a more impressive project, you can create additional 2D views (plans of additional floors, elevations, sections, details, or other drawings desired) in addition to your floor plans.
Your drawing should include a few symbols made by other people, which will be incorporated into a symbol library. The symbol library will be available from the \Arch411\ directory of the L: network drives of the machines in room 2115. It should be available by class time on Thursday, May 20. You can also use Rapid Filer or FTP to transfer the file 99SYMLIB.DWG from the ~sven/Public/arch411/ directory. You may make additional symbols as needed. In addition, your work will need to include instantiations of the door and window symbols included in the symbol library. These symbols have additional attributes associated with them, which allow information about manufacturer, model number, etc. to be extracted from the drawing and used in other applications (like a spreadsheet). Time in the spring semester does not permit going into this process in detail, but you should see how attributes work in case you encounter them elsewhere.
Your plans should make use of different layers for different kinds of information. For instance, the site should be on its own layer; the walls should be on a second layer, the furniture should be on a third layer, and the dimensions should be on a fourth layer. For the "presentation" drawing, you can freeze the layer with dimensions, but thaw the others. For the "construction" drawing, you can thaw the dimensioning layer, but freeze the site and furniture layers. If you wish, you can use additional layers (e.g. for plumbing fixtures, doors and windows, etc.) to organize the drawing further, as long as the layers are used appropriately and deliberately. If your design has additional floors, walls, furniture, and dimensions for these additional floors should similarly each go on separate layers of the drawing. Nothing should be drawn on layer "0", except perhaps for construction lines that you must turn off while plotting. AIA guidelines for layer names will be described, in case the student wants to follow that convention.
Your drawing should include an XRef of the title block provided for the class. The title block will be 10x16 inches (big enough to fit on an 11x17 paper with 1/2" margins). It will be stored in the file TITLEBLK.DWG on the \Arch411\ directory of the L: network drives of the machines in room 2115, or the ~sven/Public/arch411/ directory on IFS. You should place the Xref in paper space in your drawing, and fill in the appropriate information.
Based on some of the standard drafting tools you used in the completion of the assignment, you will be expected to comment verbally in class on whether you find the tools useful or time-consuming, compared to making drawings by hand. In particular, be prepared to comment on whether you think 2D, object based drawing systems can be used in the design process, and if so, where. Also be ready to reflect on your use of symbols in the drafting assignment. Did you wind up using the symbols you thought you would? What unexpected discoveries did you make concerning strategic use of symbols?
The two plots are due at the start of class Thursday, May 27.
A simple but neatly drawn floor plan with symbols, site context, and dimensions, presented on 2 plots at an appropriate scale, would suffice to earn you 14 of 20 points on this project. Up to 6 additional points on the assignment will be awarded for more elaborate plans, supplementary drawings, or demonstrated mastery of CAD drafting techniques. Drawing neatness, good use of object snaps, rotated grids, strategic use of additional symbols, etc. are examples of things which demonstrate an awareness of how CAD systems operate and how these characteristics can be used to your advantage.
object-based drawing
symbol libraries
instantiation vs. repetition
geometric transformations
layers
interaction of layers, blocks, and colors
user-defined coordinate systems
semi-automatic dimensioning
"paper space" vs. "model space"
external references