MAVErick D.

Timbol CE-1 A36

2014103526
TECHNICAL LETTERING &
GEOMETRICAL CONSTRUCTION
1 LETTERING DEFINITION
Lettering is an act, art or the ability of imprinting letters on to something. It is the
process of putting letters on something by inscribing, printing, painting and etc.
Lettering is a dying art that presents text, dimensions and notes that are hand written in
a standard form. Before lettering started, symbols served as letters dating back in the
Neolithic timeline that was 9,000 years ago where cavemens used rocks and blood.
There are many styles of font around the world, dating back from the 15
th
century with
the Europeans using gothic style lettering from the textualis. Textualis was the most
calligraphic form of black lettering and is now associated with Gothic styles. Johannes
Gutenberg carved a textualis typeface with a large number of ligatures and common
abbreviations but this is rarely used nowadays.

2 TECHNICAL LETTERING
As for civil engineers, lettering for them is an essential element in both drafting
and Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing. Every drawn object or design, it is necessary
to put lettered text for it used to detail the object drawn. There are also rules that apply
to the placement of lettering for each drawing. Commercial Gothic was the font that
was commonly used by engineers in lettering. The main reason why most engineers use
Commercial Gothic, because it is plain, legible and easy to use compared to other fonts.

URL of Picture: [Link]
lettering-1688
Mr. Charles W. Reinhardt, a former draftsman in Engineering News during the mid-
1900s, he produced letters that are inclined in an amount of 72 degrees that are based
on the old Gothic lettering. Reinhardts development of single-stroke letters was the
first step toward standardization of technical lettering. In 1935,the American National
Standards Institute(ANSI) suggested letter forms that are now generally considered
as standard.
The lettering is called the single stroke inclined lettering but in honor of C.W.
Reinhardt, it is now called the Reinhardt Letter. The Reinhardt letter is used for notes
on working drawings and can be made rapidly. It is of especial value on drawings made
for photo reproduction. It served as an inspiration by draftsmen and engineers.
Reinhardt is also an author of the book entitled Lettering for Engineers.

URL of Picture:
[Link]
Lettering is a freehand drawing not a writing skill. There are basically six fundamental
strokes and their strokes are similar to the normal lettering. The horizontal lines are
drawn to the right and all vertical, curved, inclined and curved strokes which are drawn
downward. Only one style of lettering should be used at any lettering, draftsmen should
not use multiple styles of lettering in drawing. Inclined lettering are commonly used by
engineers because it is easier to execute but for vertical lettering, it is more legible to
write it but it is hard to execute. Most engineers use a 2-4-4 guideline in drafting their
work. Down strokes must be in the correct angle form which is inclined at 72. Poor
lettering detracts from the appearance of a drawing and it gives nothing regardless what
the drawing on how it looks like. In doing technical lettering, there is no need to imitate
or mimic other styles of lettering, it only focuses on consistency and legibility. To avoid
from doing errors from doing technical lettering, always curve the end of the down
stroke towards the left. There are a lot of ways to do down stokes in lettering for
novices, so the important thing here is to follow the given instructions and execute well.
Lettering is very important in technical drawing because, it serves as a communication
on the drawing. A finished drawing tells how the parts will be made, what materials will
be used in manufacturing, and the tolerance or degree of error that will be permitted. A
drawing that shows only the shape and size of a machine or structure does not
completely describe the object. Lettering is typically all upper case without slant or
formatting but the creator of a drawing will often put their own personality into the
lettering. All caps on an engineering drawing is not "yelling" but is good practice and
facilitates clear communication. Complete guide lines should be drawn for whole
numbers and fractions, especially for beginners. Fractions are twice the height of the
corresponding whole numbers. Slanted lettering may be used for emphasis of a
particular point or idea. Special cases of lettering may be smaller or larger than the
standard height. Title block lettering may be larger. Section view identifiers and cutting
plane labels may also be larger. Each letter is generally created from top to bottom and
left to right. At the end of each straight leg or line of a letter, the pen or pencil is picked
up and relocated for the next line. To meet design or space requirements, letters may
be narrower and spaced closer together. In this case, they are called compressed or
condensed letters. If the letters are wider than normal, they are referred to as extended
letters. When large and small capitals are used in combination, the small capitals should
be three fifths to two thirds as high as the large capitals. On the other hand, lowercase
letter shave four horizontal guide lines, called the capital line, waist line, base line and
drop line. Strokes of letters that extend up to the cap line are called ascenders and
those that extend down to the drop line, descenders.
Today, various forms of press-on lettering and special lettering devices are available. In
addition, all computer-aided drafting systems have the capability to produce letters of
different heights and styles and to make changes as required. In whatever way the
lettering is applied to the drawing and whatever styles of lettering is used, the lettering
must meet the requirements for legibility and microfilm reproduction. It should be
remembered that good lettering is always accomplished by conscious effort, though
good muscular coordination is of great assistance.




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3 GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTION
In the general sense, construction means to build something. But in geometry it has
a special meaning. Here, construction is the act of drawing geometric shapes using only
a compass and straightedge. No measuring of lengths or angles is allowed. Geometric
construction are geometric figures that are drawn using a compass and a straightedge. A
geometric construction is construction of primitive geometric forms (points, lines and
planes etc.) that serve as the building blocks for more complicated geometric shapes.
The measurement of an angle or line are not needed in making geometric construction
and rulers are not used except for straightedge. A compass for drafting is used to draw
circles or arcs, parts of a circle. They can also be used as a measuring tool, in particular
on maps. Compasses are usually made from metal. Straightedges are used in geometric
constructions to draw lines and may be any object with a perfectly straight edge.
Drafting triangles, which are flat right triangles of plastic or metal used in technical
drawing, are another popular choice for a straightedge, although the angles of the
triangle should not be used to create the construction. Although the term ruler is used
instead of the term straightedge the Greek prescription prohibited markings that
could be used to make measurements. The compass should not be used to make marks
in making specific distances just by walking it along, so the compass had to be
considered to automatically collapse when not in the process of drawing a circle. Instead
of concentrating on paper and pencil, compass and straightedge constructions, current
books tend to emphasize the use of dynamic computer software, such as Geometers
Sketchpad. The sloppiness and inaccuracy of man-made constructions could be avoided
by the use of technology. Though there are still educators that believe that using this
technology is not true geometry, most realize the benefits that such software can have
on comprehension. The Greeks were very adept at constructing polygons, but it took
the genius of Gauss to mathematically determine which constructions were possible and
which were not. As a result, Gauss determined that a series of had constructions
unknown to the Greeks. Gauss showed that the constructible polygons were closely
related to numbers called the Fermat primes.
A mathematician, Euclid wrote the book entitled Elements ( in Greek)
wherein it is details every geometric construction techniques in making one. Making
accurate drawings is not defined by skills of an artist. Draftsmen, architects, engineers
and designers ae required to be able to construct geometrical figures. In drawing
geometrical figures, it is needed to use a medium hard pencil or HB and for the compass
points. But for constructing lines, light pencils are used and it must be handled lightly so
it cant be very visible. It turns out that all constructions possible with
a compass and straightedge can be done with a compass alone, as long as a line is
considered constructed when its two endpoints are located. The reverse is also true,
since Jacob Steiner showed that all constructions possible with straightedge
and compass can be done using only a straightedge, as long as a fixed circle and its
center (or two intersecting circles without their centers, or three nonintersecting circles)
have been drawn beforehand. Such a construction is known as a Steiner construction.
Geometrography is a quantitative measure of the simplicity of a geometric construction.
It reduces geometric constructions to five types of operations, and seeks to reduce the
total number of operations (called the "simplicity") needed to effect a geometric
construction.
A point is an exact position or location on a plane surface. It is important to
understand that a point is not a thing, but a place. We indicate the position of a point by
placing a dot with any kind of pen or pencil. A point represents a location in a space or a
drawing with no width, height, or depth. It is represented by 2 intersecting lines, a short
crossbar on a line or a small cross.



Lines are defined as a straight is the shortest distance between two points and is
commonly called as a term line. If the construction of line is not definite, the length is
a matter of convenience, and the end points are not fixed. If the end points are
significant, they must be marked by means of small mechanically drawn crossbars, so
that means that it is needed to use a very light marking material. Horizontal lines have
their own distances from the lower edge of the drawing paper, vertical lines also have
their own constant distances from the right side and left side edges of the paper.

URL of Picture: [Link]
An Angle is formed by two intersecting lines. The symbol it signifies that it is an
angle. An angle is the figure formed by two rays or line segments, called the sides of the
angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle. Angle is also used to
designate the measure of an angle or of a rotation. This measure is the ratio of the
length of a circular arc to its radius. In the case of a geometric angle, the arc is centered
at the vertex and delimited by the sides. In the case of a rotation, the arc is centered at
the center of the rotation and delimited by any other point and its image by the rotation.
There are 360 in a full circle. 1 degree is equivalent to 60 minutes. 1 minute is divided
to 60 seconds. 2 angles that are complementary are equal to 90 while 2 angles that are
Supplementary if they equal to 180.



Solid figures are three-dimensional. A prism is a figure made of two parallel faces
that are polygons of the same shape and sides that are parallelograms. A rectangular
prism is a prism with rectangular faces. A triangular prism is a prism with triangular faces.
A cube is a prism with squares for sides and faces. A pyramid is a figure with a base that
is a polygon and triangular sides. A cone is a cone has a circular base connected to a
vertex. A cylinder has two equal circular bases that are parallel. A sphere is a figure with
a curved surface in which all points on the surface are equal distance from the center.

So overall, here are the importance on Engineering/Technical Drawing:
Technical drawing allows efficient communication among engineers and can be kept as
a record of the planning process. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, a technical
drawing is a much more effective tool for engineers than a written plan. Technical
drawing is the preferred method of drafting in all engineering fields, including, but not
limited to, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and
architecture.

Purpose of studying Engineering Drawing:
To develop the ability to produce simple engineering drawing and sketches based on
current practice.
To develop the skills to read manufacturing and construction drawings used in
industry.
To develop a working knowledge of the layout of plant and equipment.
To develop skills in abstracting information from calculation sheets and schematic
diagrams to produce working drawings for manufacturers, installers and fabricators.