Drafting Techniques, Continued
Drawing aids
Some of the most common drawing aids are protractors, triangles, templates,
and french curves.
Papers
Most drawings today are made directly on tracing papers, cloth, films, or
vellum. Drawings on tracing papers are not actually tracings but original
drawings. Should drawings require extensive revision, you may place the
drawing under a sheet of tracing paper and make the revisions on this second-
sheet.
When using translucent drawing or drafting mediums, place a sheet of white
paper or illustration board underneath the drafting paper. The white color of
the board improves visibility of your lines and the additional support under
the drawing allows you to exert more pressure on the pencil lead to produce
dense, black lines without excessive scoring of the paper.
Ink drawing
Drawing or tracing pencil drawings with ink takes precision and caution.
You must distinguish between fine variations in line thickness and also
acquire skill in drawing lines of desired widths. Controlling the thickness of
the various lines you use for inked drawings requires a trained eye. You
must also control the pressure of your hand on the pen as you press against
the paper to prevent undesirable scoring of the paper surface.
Most Navy shops use technical reservoir pens. Technical pens come in a
variety of line thicknesses. The pens are color coded on the cap or barrel to
indicate the thickness of the line the nib produces. Before drawing a line on
the drawing, test the line width on a scrap sheet of paper. Keep a soft cloth
or tissue nearby to keep clean the pen nib of fiber and debris as you work.
In inking technical drawings, you will usually use three line thicknesses. In
general, thick lines define the outline of the object, medium weight lines
detail the object, and fine lines indicate leader lines, dimension lines, and
centerlines.
Continued on next page
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