Technical Drawing and Best Tools to Do It
Technical drawing is an important aspect of help authoring. You can’t imagine architecture, civil engineering, medical engineering, or shipbuilding without it. It has a long history, too. Leonardo DaVinci is considered one of the most famous technical illustrators. We know about his numerous inventions thanks to his talent for technical drawing!
Let’s find out what kinds of technical drawings exist and what are the best tools to do it.
Types of Technical Drawing
Technical drawing is a visual representation of objects. These can be plans, schemes, projections, 3D models, etc. Technical writers who create them need to follow certain standards called ISO 128. This document includes general principles of how to do technical drawing. This is an international standard.
Now, let’s see how technical drawings can be classified. The first classification is by the method of drawing.
Methods of Drawing
- Manual
- CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Manual technical drawing was widespread before CAD systems were developed. Typically, a drawing board is used for it with a sliding straightedge. This allows drawing parallel lines easily, as well and all kinds of angles and shapes — the straightedge helps holding tools like set squares and triangles.
Now, technical drawing is mostly done using CAD systems. So, this whole process has been automated and improved. Using a CAD system, you can deliver precise technical drawings much faster.
Number of Dimensions
Technical drawings can be done in:
- 2D
- 3D
Special CAD’s exit for each type.
2D CAD’s emulate a classic technical drawing process. Their greatest advantage is that you can easily fix your drawing if you find a mistake, while in the manual approach, you would have to re-do the whole thing from scratch.
3D CAD’s are more complex in nature. Unlike 2D systems, this software allows assembling individual parts into the final product.
3D CAD Systems
If you would like to attempt technical drawing in 3D, you need to be able to work with tools to do so. Here’s a list of Computer Aided Design software to consider:
AutoCAD
This is a well-known tool used by engineers and architects all over the world to create 2D and 3D technical drawings of high precision.
- AutoCAD has industry-specific toolsets
- In the newer versions of this tool workflows can be set up on web and mobile, too
- It allows reviewing drawing history
- Supports cloud storage connectivity
- Can be customized (add-ons, API’s)
A great tool to try.
FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a tool for 3D modeling that can help engineers create 2D and 3D drawings. You can do product design, engineering, and architecture. Some notable features:
- This is an open-source tool
- It has version history
- Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
- Formats it supports: STEP, IGES, STL, SVG, DXF, OBJ, IFC, DAE
Bentley
One more example of modern software for 3D modeling for projects of any complexity.
- It allows integration with enterprise systems
- Intuitive interface (might be a good starting point for newbies)
- You can enforce project or industry standards and the tool will check whether current data complies
CATIA
This is a platform that combines Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing, Computer Aided Engineering, Product Lifecycle Management and more to provide designers, engineers, architects with the ability to model any product and follow their projects from concept to manufacturing.
Technical drawing is something a find rarely mentioned in the tech comm discourse. However, I think this is a very important part of technical writing.
