NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Plans (drawings)

Plans are a set of two-dimensional diagrams or drawings used to describe a place or object, or to communicate building or fabrication instructions. Usually plans are drawn or printed on paper, but they can take the form of a digital file. Plans are often for technical purposes such as architecture, engineering, or planning. Their purpose in these disciplines is to accurately and unambiguously capture all the geometric features of a site, building, product or component. Plans can also be for presentation or orientation purposes, and as such are often less detailed versions of the former. The end goal of plans is either to portray an existing place or object, or to convey enough information to allow a builder or manufacturer to realize a design. A plan is a procedure for achieving a goal. ... A technical is a fighting vehicle. ... Section of the dome of Florence Cathedral. ... Engineering is the design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements, from the smallest towns to the worlds largest cities. ...

The term plan may casually be used to refer to a single view, sheet, or drawing in a set of plans. More accurately, plan refers to an orthographic projection looking down on the object, such as in a plan view, floor plan or bird's-eye view. Example of orthographic drawing from a US Patent (1913), showing two views of the same object. ... Archaeological plan In an archaeological excavation, a plan is a drawn record of features (and artefacts) in the horizontal plane. ... Floor plan (floorplan, floor-plan) in its original meaning is an architecture term, a diagram of a room, a building, or a level (floor) of a building as if seen from the above (i. ... Rio de Janeiro birds-eye view. ...

The process of producing plans, and the skill of producing them, is often referred to as technical drawing. Technical drawing, also known as drafting, is the practice of creating accurate representations of objects for technical, architectural and engineering needs. ...

Format

Plans are often prepared in a set. The set includes all the information required for the purpose of the set, and may exclude views or projections which are unneccessary. A set of plans can be on standard office-sized paper or on large sheets. It can be stapled, folded or rolled as required. A set of plans can also take the form of a digital file in a proprietary format such as DWG or an exchange file format such as DXF or PDF. DWG (pronounced drawing) is the default extension used by Autodesk for its AutoCAD drawing files in MS-DOS and Windows. ... ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

Plans are often referred to as "blueprints" or "bluelines". However, the terms are rapidly becoming an anachronism, since most copies of plans that were formerly made using a chemical-printing process that yielded graphics on blue-colored paper or, alternatively, of blue-lines on white paper, have been superseded by more modern reproduction processes that yield black or multicolour lines on white paper. Modern blueprint of the French galleon La Belle. ... Whiteprint is the commercial terminology to describe document reproduction using the diazo chemical process. ... Look up Anachronism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Scale

Plans are usually scale drawings, meaning that the plans are drawn at specific ratio relative to the actual size of the place or object. Various scales may be used for different drawings in a set. For example, a floor plan may be drawn at 1:50 (or 1/4"=1'-0") whereas a detailed view may be drawn at 1:25 (or 1/2"=1'-0"). Site plans are often drawn at 1:200 or 1:100. A ratio is a quantity that denotes the proportional amount or magnitude of one quantity relative to another. ...

An architects scale is a specialized ruler. ... An engineers scale is a ruler, a tool for measuring distances. ...

Views and Projections

Because plans represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimentional plane, the use of views or projections is crucial to the legibility of plans. Each projection is achieved by assuming a vantage point from which to see the place or object, and a type of projection. These projection types are: Graphical projection in the visual sciences is an imaging procedure the protocols of which preclude the necessity of mathematical calculation. ...

Example of orthographic drawing from a US Patent (1913), showing two views of the same object. ... Archaeological plan In an archaeological excavation, a plan is a drawn record of features (and artefacts) in the horizontal plane. ... Principal faÃ§ade of the PanthÃ©on, Paris, by Jacques-Germain Soufflot An elevation is an orthographic projection of a 3-dimensional object from the position of a horizontal plane beside an object. ... A 3-D view of a beverage-can stove with a cross section in yellow. ... Example of a dimetric axonometric drawing from a US Patent (1874). ... An isometric drawing of a cube. ... Example of a dimetric axonometric drawing from a US Patent (1874) Dimetric projection is a form of axonometric projection, in which its direction of viewing is such that two of the three axes of space appear equally foreshortened, of which the attendant scale and angles of presentation are determined according... Trimetric projection is a form of axonometric projection, where the direction of viewing is such that all of the three axes of space appear unequally foreshortened. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Perspective projection is a type of drawing that graphically approximates on a planar (two-dimensional) surface (e. ...

Contents

Format

Scale

Views and Projections

See Also