Orthographic views show an object from the front, top and side as separate flat drawings. In SPM Engineering Drawing you must read them together and draw them so they agree.
This page sits inside SPM Engineering Drawing. Use it to see how the lessons connect and where to start.
What does this cluster cover?
The cluster starts with how the three views relate, then moves to finding a missing view, showing hidden features and checking alignment.
The lessons follow that order:
- Relate the front, top and side views of an original object shows what each view adds.
- Infer a missing view from two labelled views teaches you to build the third view.
- Distinguish visible and hidden features in a worked example covers which lines are solid and which are dashed.
- Check alignment and dimensions across views gives you a final test.
How do the parts connect?
Every feature of the object appears in at least two views. The front view shares its width with the top view, and it shares its height with the side view.
That shared size is the link. Once you know which size carries across, you can infer a missing view and also find an error in a view you drew.
One small example to orient you
Take a block 60 mm wide, 40 mm high and 30 mm deep. The front view is a rectangle 60 mm by 40 mm, the top view is 60 mm by 30 mm, and the side view is 30 mm by 40 mm.
The width 60 appears twice, the height 40 appears twice and the depth 30 appears twice. If your top view is 60 mm by 40 mm, the depth has been copied from the wrong view.
Where should you start?
If the views feel like three separate pictures, begin with the first lesson. If you can draw views but lose marks on dashed lines, go to the hidden features lesson.
Test yourself with the orthographic views practice set. The lines and sizes you draw follow drawing conventions and scale, and the next step after that is pictorial representations.
For a teacher to go through your own views, see online one-to-one Engineering Drawing tuition.