The first and the foremost skill for Engineers is the Skill on Engineering Drawing and Graphics. The knowledge on Engineering Drawing is needed for a complete and effective technical communication among Engineers. So Engineering drawing is considered as the language of Engineers.
Preparing the drawing or drafting uses various rules and regulations for the construction of a picture of an object. The drawing is prepared for real objects like a Building or Machine component. Unlike the drawings by the artists and illustrators who do not follow any particular rules and often give more importance to the appearance of the picture. Engineering Drawings are prepared manually or using computer.
Civil Engineering
In civil engineering and architecture, engineering drawing is used to draw the plan and elevation of building. The principle of engineering drawing can also be used to draw the appearance of a building (e.g., perspective projection) before the building is constructed.
Mechanical/Aeronautical/Automobile/Manufacturing Engineering
Engineering drawing is widely used in Mechanical, Production, Automobile, Aeronautical, Chemical, Marine and Electrical Engineering to describe an engineering machine component which has the correct shape and size along with the dimensional tolerances for the understanding of the component and its production in the workshop.
Electrical Engineering
The applications of engineering drawing in electrical, electronics and instrumentation are usually to prepare electrical machines and electrical circuit drawings, printed circuit board drawings, schematic diagrams, installation drawings, process drawings and pictorial drawings of electronic instruments.
Computer Science and Engineering
In computer science, graphics in video games and animation are generated from the computer graphics following the principles of orthographic or perspective drawing.
The author teaches Engineering Drawing and Graphics as well as Computer Programming and Computer Graphics for engineering students to establish the importance of Graphics and Programming in computer applications.
The need of any engineering component or part is identified and the engineer visualizes the component and sketches it on paper. The engineer communicates the idea of the component to the manufacturer both graphically and verbally. Nowadays Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) is becoming popular because of its simplicity and accuracy in drawing, repeatability, and fast work.
As per the latest method, the geometric model of the object with all dimensions with physical properties can be prepared with the help of the software using computers and this method is called as solid modeling. From the solid modeling, the required 2D drawings for any specified position can be obtained easily. This method is called as Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD). The computer software commonly used for drafting are AutoCAD, MINICAD, etc. PRO/E, UNIGRAPHICS, IDEAS, CATIA, SOLID WORKS, IRON CAD, MECHANICAL DESK TOP (MDT) with AUTO CAD are leading modeling (design) cum drafting software packages commonly used in engineering applications using computer system.