Engineering Drawing
Do the terms isometric projection, orthographic first angle or third angle projection, section plan, detail plan, etc ring a bell inside you..?? Chances are that you have undergone a course called "Engineering Drawing," much as we did in our second semester. Now, one reason that I chose Computer Science instead of Biology in higher secondary was due to my exceptional drawing skills. A frog that I drew in Class X once looked like a cross between a chameleon and rat, much to the chagrin of my Biology teacher. So, when drawing came back to haunt me in the guise of ED, I was naturally very apprehensive.
The first fact that one learns in the ED class is the variety of pencils that are available in the market. The English alphabets H and B are joined with numbers in several combinations to give an astounding number of types of pencils that remind you of bus routes in Chennai. (2H, 2B, 2HB, 4B, etc..) We were specifically instructed to carry a lot of these varieties that are useful to draw different kinds of lines. The most powerful weapon in the hands of an ED student is the famous T-square. I use the word weapon because it can be used in many attacking and defensive postures during fights. Most of us struck an agreement with students of other mech-stream departments to borrow the T-square from them as we had this course only for one semester.
The venue of drawing classes was the Hangar. On rainy days, it would be too dark in there. However, it would be a pleasant experience to carry the T-square on our shoulders all the way inside the Hangar much like Bhim carrying his "Gatha" in Mahabharatha. The process of setting up the chart sheet on the table/ board with clips and pins is laborious. Then we have to draw outline boxes and divide the drawing area into as many parts as required. Typically two or three projections of the same object need to be drawn. My erasers and pencil sharpeners had a very active life during those days. Some ME students were our tutors and guides in the whole process. Some of them were really helpful during the troubled times.
A small consolation in the course was that we had a combined class with Electronics department, which meant that the class used to be more colourful, if you know what I mean. Anbu Smiles was the expert in ED from our class, as far as my knowledge goes. He used to be very helpful to students. Only that his understanding of the term "students" was limited to girls from Electronics department. Just kidding. Of course, he helped a lot of us.
Some homework used to be given but invariably many of us would land up at the hostel on the last day to complete it. Sometimes we also utilised the services of mech-stream boys to finish the work using convincing arguements such as "this will be good practise for you", "dei &@#$!, do it for me, OK??", "machaan, I'll take you to canteen for this.." etc.
Today, if I have gained the confidence to look at many architectural blueprints and say arbit stuff like, "Oh, this elevation view does not bring out the subtle nuances in the beauty of this building" or "I need the isometric projection before I can give my final answer to your question whether this building will survive two earthquakes," it is mainly because of the time I have spent in Engineering Drawing classes..!! Long live ED..!!
(Posted on 13-Aug-2003)
The first fact that one learns in the ED class is the variety of pencils that are available in the market. The English alphabets H and B are joined with numbers in several combinations to give an astounding number of types of pencils that remind you of bus routes in Chennai. (2H, 2B, 2HB, 4B, etc..) We were specifically instructed to carry a lot of these varieties that are useful to draw different kinds of lines. The most powerful weapon in the hands of an ED student is the famous T-square. I use the word weapon because it can be used in many attacking and defensive postures during fights. Most of us struck an agreement with students of other mech-stream departments to borrow the T-square from them as we had this course only for one semester.
The venue of drawing classes was the Hangar. On rainy days, it would be too dark in there. However, it would be a pleasant experience to carry the T-square on our shoulders all the way inside the Hangar much like Bhim carrying his "Gatha" in Mahabharatha. The process of setting up the chart sheet on the table/ board with clips and pins is laborious. Then we have to draw outline boxes and divide the drawing area into as many parts as required. Typically two or three projections of the same object need to be drawn. My erasers and pencil sharpeners had a very active life during those days. Some ME students were our tutors and guides in the whole process. Some of them were really helpful during the troubled times.
A small consolation in the course was that we had a combined class with Electronics department, which meant that the class used to be more colourful, if you know what I mean. Anbu Smiles was the expert in ED from our class, as far as my knowledge goes. He used to be very helpful to students. Only that his understanding of the term "students" was limited to girls from Electronics department. Just kidding. Of course, he helped a lot of us.
Some homework used to be given but invariably many of us would land up at the hostel on the last day to complete it. Sometimes we also utilised the services of mech-stream boys to finish the work using convincing arguements such as "this will be good practise for you", "dei &@#$!, do it for me, OK??", "machaan, I'll take you to canteen for this.." etc.
Today, if I have gained the confidence to look at many architectural blueprints and say arbit stuff like, "Oh, this elevation view does not bring out the subtle nuances in the beauty of this building" or "I need the isometric projection before I can give my final answer to your question whether this building will survive two earthquakes," it is mainly because of the time I have spent in Engineering Drawing classes..!! Long live ED..!!
(Posted on 13-Aug-2003)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home