One of the best ways to communicate your design ideas is through graphical representation such as pictures or drawings. This is especially important for engineering information. Someone calculated that in engineering, 92% of the design process is graphically based. Another 8% are distributed between:
- mathematics,
- written, and
- verbal communications.
Graphics Communication is a language, without which efficient communication between engineers, designers or product developers is impossible. Very important concept in graphics communications is drawing – a graphical representation of objects and structures which is done using freehand, mechanical, or computer methods. Technical drawing is used to represent complex technical ideas with adequate precision for the product to be mass-produced and the parts to be easily interchanged.
In this section we will consider the main rules, principles, and standards of technical drawing preparation. Since Canada officially adopted International System of Units (SI) based on metric system, the main attention in the following sections will be given to metric measurements, for which the standards are established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). However, some examples will include imperial (English) system as well because it is also widely used in Canada due to close relations between Canadian and American markets.