Engineering drawing

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The Importance of Drawing

in the Mechanical Design Process

Computer & Graphics Vol.14, No. 2, pp. 263-274, 1990
Pergamon Press plc.

David G. Ullman E-mailUllman

Stephen Wood

David Craig

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon 97331

ABSTRACT

This paper is a study on the importance of drawing (both formal drafting and informal sketching) during the process of mechanical design. Five hypotheses, focused on the types of drawings, their necessity in mechanical problem solving, and their relation to the external representation medium, are presented and supported. Support is through referenced studies in other domains and the results of protocol studies performed on five mechanical designers. Videotapes of all the marks-on-paper made by designers in representative sections of the design process were studied in detail for their type and purpose. The resulting data is supportive of the hypotheses. These results also give requirements for future computer aided design tools and graphics education, and goals for further studies.

I. INTRODUCTION

The goal of this paper is to study the importance of drawing (both formal drafting and informal sketching) in the process of mechanical design. This goal can be extended to state that we intend to show the necessity of drawing during all the developmental stages of a mechanical design. Through the information presented here, the requirements for future computer aided design tools, graphics education, and further studies will be developed.

All mechanical engineers are taught drafting. Thus, most engineers are skilled at making and interpreting these formal mechanical drawings. These drawings are representations of a final design (the end product of the design process) and they are intended to archive the completed design and communicate it to other designers and manufacturing personnel. Additionally, engineers are notorious for not

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