Teaching and Learning Technical Drafting in the 21st Century by Mary Grace S. Mostrales, LPT

1. Technical Drafting in the 21st
Century
By: Mary Grace Sanchez-Mostrales
Graphical plans for building construction or mechanical elements have existed for thousands of years.
Drawing and design has been around since the earliest recorded history of man. From cave wall drawings and
drawings found on animal skins to the development of Chinese rice paper and Egyptian papyrus, engineering
and drafting has been fairly tied. For the most part of its history, drafting has been an art form perfected by
skilled designers which is essential to a culture’s foundation.
Technical drawings are made up of graphic communication. It is a form of communication using visual
elements. These elements include symbols like the glyphs and icons and images like drawings or photos. In
recent years, the technical drawing has evolved. There are a variety of tools established to create technical
drawings such as easier drawing board, ink pens, writing templates, and much more. Technical drawing is
fundamental in engineering. To make the drawings easier to understand, people use familiar symbols,
perspectives, units of measurement, notation systems, visual styles, and page layout. Together, such
conventions constitute a visual language and help to ensure that the drawing is unambiguous and relatively easy
to understand. Many of the symbols and principles of technical drawing are codified in an international standard
called ISO 128.
The industrial revolution brought about advancements in machinery and automated tooling emerged at
an incredible rate. This advancement created an increased need for even more precise mechanical drawings.
Designers need to more accurately portray the working mechanical elements of increasingly complex systems of
machinery. The need for precision in communication and preparation of a functional document distinguishes
technical drawing from other forms of visual arts. Nothing had more impact on the ability to transform visual-
spatial perceptions and the evolution of graphical plans for construction of machinery and architecture than the
computer and the Internet.
Now that we are in the 21st
century, we must move forward together with technological innovations and
advancements of the modern age. Computer aided design (CAD) was first created in 1963 using Sketchpad, a
computer program created by Ivan Sutherland. Today, there are several computer programs used to draft
technical drawings such as AutoCAD or Microstation. These computer programs have replaced the paper
drawing discipline. When Internet technologies were adopted in the engineering design industry in the 1990’s,
work in engineering design was restructured. Collaboration is the trend of today in order to benefit both higher
education and industry. However, when we move forward into the 21st century with more technological
innovations, we must ensure that we take with us the art of freehand sketching as a valuable tool for the
visualization process.
Despite the high-tech advancements, La Verne Abe Harris, Ph. D. of Purdue University and Frederick
Meyers of The Ohio State University stated in their journal the importance of the foundational skill of freehand
sketching. In the academic institutions, the learners must focus on training their minds to improve their visual
skills and on applying graphical solutions to engineering problems. Hand sketching is a significant skill in
engineering design graphics and good design is only second to the skill of communicating the design precisely. It
is therefore imperative to begin training in school starting from the basic course of learning the symbols and
principles of technical drawing and mastering the art of free hand sketching.