DRAFTING/ TECHNICAL DRAWING

Outsourcing of Detailing and Drafting Services
Assembly drawings, or mechanical
assembly drawings, are “drawings detailing an engineering perspective
view on a mechanism or physical, real-world-built object that is
comprised of more than one part.” Assembly drawings are very useful for
engineers who are dealing with complex mechanical devices. Creating
assembly drawings have become improved with the recent improvements in
2D CAD drafting and detailing software. It is very vital that designs
are visualized accurately and precisely so that the manufacturing stage
will become successful and safer and the maintenance stage will become
easier.
2D drafting and detailing is “an important aspect of any CAD tool.”
The speed of creating 2D CAD drawings is a matter of great importance
especially for projects that have 2D drawing end-results (aside from the
fact that 2D CAD drawings are far easier to handle than paper design
models). Detailing is an important part of any project, and it must be
handled by professionals. Detailing and drafting services are very
important in a potpourri of industries, and it is very important that
drawings are easily understood by people who will use them. An
improperly made drawing results to an increase in unnecessary overhead
expenses.
If you are in a company that needs 2D drawings for your projects, it
is better if you outsource your works to a company that is very
competent in the expertise that you need. In that way, you can work
harder for your specialty because other professionals are there to take
care of your other needs. The technologies that they use are frequently
being updated to improve the quality of their works. The resources it
takes to manage your employees are lessened. This shows that
outsourcing is a profitable economical solution. An outsourcing company
that has demonstrated years of experience and has produced output of
the finest quality in a timely manner is the best option for a client
that values reliability, high quality, and time. Such outsourcing
company has the capability to produce designs efficiently and without
errors. A carefully planned and analyzed design prevents unnecessary
costs to the people who will use it. As a conclusion, entrusting your
detailing and drafting projects to professionals who have the
capabilities to do them competently reduces your cost and improves your
productivity despite tough economic conditions.
Technical Drawing or Drafting
What is Technical Drawing?
Many references provide a lot of definitions for technical drawing. A
technical drawing or drafting is the “academic discipline of creating
standardized technical drawings by architects, interior designers,
drafters, design engineers, and related professionals.” It is an
“integral communication of technical or engineering drawings and is the
industrial arts sub-discipline that underlies all involved technical
endeavors.¹” It is a “means of clearly and concisely
communicating all of the information necessary to transform an idea or a
concept into reality.²” It is a “drawing plan, rendered to scale, used to communicate direction and specifics to a group of people creating something.³”
It is a “formal and precise way of communicating information about the
shape, size, features and precision of physical objects,” a “universal
language of engineering used in the design process for solving
problems, quickly and accurately visualizing objects, and conducting
analysis,” and “a graphical representation of objects and structures.”
It is also the “expression of bodies by lines.⁴” It is a “skill, a vocation.⁵”
A good technical drawing is “one that properly and conveniently
communicates all of the information needed to transform a design into a
product that meets or exceeds customer expectations.²“
Technical drawings have many uses in many kinds of applications
specially where there is a need for designs and conversion processes,
such as those found in manufacturing, engineering, architecture, and
construction. Because technical drawings have many uses, there is a need
to regulate practices that are involved in creating these drawings.
Drafters use standards of practice, of which the most widely used are
practices of the US Department of Defense (DOD), the US Military (MIL),
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).² Drafters use many
geometric figures and symbols to specify the scope and details of a
product because it is very important that technical drawings be
accurate.³ Drafters create technical drawings using freehand, mechanical, or computer methods.⁴ Processes that are involved in drafting are sometimes time-consuming.¹
One thing that determines the ultimate quality of a product is the
quality of its technical drawing. We know if a technical drawing is a
good one when developers for a design should no longer need to consult
designers or drafters of the drawing because all information that these
developers need are already included in the drawing.² In essence, technical drawing is about linear projection.⁵
A Quick Summary of the History of Technical Drawing
Technical drawings are things that are not new. Even during the times
of early Greek civilization, technical drawings existed. These
drawings were scratched on the floor to guide workers while they were
building. As time went on, people learned to use mechanical devices on
drafting tables to draft. Nowadays, drafters or designers use computers
to aid them in their design works.³ Computers lessened the
effort needed by designers to accomplish their tasks. Before the
widespread use of drafting software, drafters were required to have an
extensive knowledge on the principles of descriptive geometry and to
use tools such as t-square, compass, and drafting table. Now,
descriptive geometry is no longer used very often because computers do
much of the computations. With the use of computers and knowledge in
linear algebra, data, such as coordinates of points and their
projection on planes, are computed more easily, and designers can now
bypass some rules or principles on how to draw correctly.⁵
Methods of Technical Drawing

The three methods in technical drawing are the following:¹

• Sketching
• Manual or by instrument
• Computer-aided design (CAD)

A sketch is a “quickly executed freehand drawing that is not intended
as a finished work.” It is a “quick way to record an idea for later
use.” Sketches serve as abstractions or summaries of complex patterns or
design solutions. Because their purpose is to summarize, sketching
results to an enhanced design process. In a way, these sketches aid in
the design collaboration.¹
In manual drawing, it is very important to have an accurate drafting
table and to give much attention to the positioning of drafting tools.
Drafters use a wide array of mechanical instruments and tools, such as
compasses and French curves. Drafters of manual drawings are skilled in
geometry, trigonometry, and spatial comprehension. They have mastered
the mechanics of drawing lines, arcs, and circles, and they are
expected to be precise and accurate in giving technical details. One
procedure in manual drafting involves using a drafting table with a
paper over it, and sliding a T-square across the side of the table over
the surface of the paper. Drafters run pencils or technical pens along
the edge of the T-square to create parallel lines. Sometimes, the
T-square is used to hold other smaller drawing tools, such as squares
and triangles. With the use of these smaller drawing tools, drafters
could draw lines from different angles. When tasks become repetitive
already, drafters use templates, and these templates were made for some
specific tasks. Templates are commercially available, but sometimes,
drafters prefer to create their own.¹
Manual drawings must be redrawn from scratch when there is a need to
modify them. This difficulty was removed by the use of CAD systems. A
CAD system is either 2D or 3D. A 2D CAD system is “merely an electronic
drawing board.” 2D CAD systems are capable of producing drawings of
large projects such as plans for a building or an aircraft, but they do
not have the capability to allow designers to test whether components
and parts will fit together. These kinds of projects require designers
to use 3D CAD software for the modeling, assembling, and checking of
components before the actual release of technical drawings to
manufacturers.¹
CAD systems, such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Pro/ENGINEER, automate
and accelerate the mechanics of drafting tasks. These systems support
symbols for common components that are found in many disciplines, such
as electrical, electronic, pneumatic, and fluidic. CAD designers follow
standards such as those provided by BS and ISO, but, sometimes, it is
up to designers to create drawings.