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Drafting is graphical representation of structures, machines or any other design concepts

that communicates the engineering intent of a technical design to an individual who makes
the product.

Importance of Good Drafting Skills:

 Drawings are the fundamental ways of communication in engineering. It can also be
termed as the language of engineers. A good engineer must be capable of producing
a neat and clean drawing as well as ability to read it.
 Good knowledge of CAD and engineering drawing is often the first thing an
employer looks for before making any job offer.

Various Drawings Related to Civil Engineering:

Building Sector:

 Plan: A plan drawing is a scaled diagram of a room or building when viewed from its
top. Floor plans are useful as they help us to design furniture layout, wiring systems,
and many more. They are also a valuable tool for real estate agents and leasing
companies as it helps them sell or rent out a space.

 Elevation: The term elevation can be referred to a type of 2D drawing that shows the
exterior faces of a building. Generally, elevations are produced for four
directional views which are North, South, East and West.

 Sectional View: A section drawing gives a view of a structure as if it has been sliced
into halves or cut by an imaginary plane. This can be useful as it gives a view through
the spaces and surrounding structures (typically across a vertical plane) that can
reveal the relationships between the different parts of the buildings that might not be
apparent on plan drawings.

 Structural Detailing: These are the drawings that show the structural components of
a building i.e. reinforcement details, dimension of structural members like beam &
column, foundation details.

 Layout Plan: A layout plan consist all the data required for layout purpose just
before construction.

 Site Plan: A site plan is a large-scale drawing that shows the full extent of the site for
an existing or proposed development. Site plans, along with location plans, may be
necessary for planning applications.
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Road Sector:

 Topographical Plan: It’s a drawing of the existing road that shows the entire cross
sectional elements of the road with all the permanent objects present along the
project road. It consists road center line, edge line, shoulder, toe, existing CD
structures, side roads, trees, electric poles, KM stones, position of benchmarks , road
side habitations etc.

 Longitudinal Section/Profile: It’s a graphical representation which plots elevations

against distance along the road center. It helps us to determine the gradient of the
road.

 Cross section: A cross section is a sectional view of a road at right angles to road
center line. It plots elevation against the distance right angle to the center line.

 Plan & Profile sheets: These are good For Construction drawings produced after the
design of a road. It consists of both the Plan & longitudinal section for a specific
length. It shows all the proposed/designed data needs to be delivered for
construction.

 Typical Cross Section (TCS): It’s a cross section that shows the details of road
formation & the pavement configuration designed based on its traffic & soil data.

 Road furniture layout: It shows the location and type of road furniture needs to be
installed to improve safety.

 Utility shifting plan: Utilities like trees, electric pole, telephone pole etc. need to be
shifted or removed before road construction starts. Utility shifting plan shows the
location of such objects & their description.

 As built Drawings: After construction, a contractor is required to produce an as built

drawing which shows all the details of that specific road after construction. This
drawing will be kept in safe by the authority for future reference.

Bridge Sector:

 Index map: It’s a map that shows the location of a bridge site in relation to a larger
area and it typically points out all the special features at the bridge location about
which information is desired.

 Site Plan: A site plan is a large-scale drawing that shows the full extent of the site for
an existing or proposed bridge project. It includes all the permanent features of the
site like river bank, water way, approach road, existing structure , protection work ,
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habitation near bridge site, high flood level, benchmark details. It also shows
proposed bridge alignment which needs to be approved by the authority for further
work.
 River Bed Profile: It is a longitudinal section plotted with the levels of the river bed
against distance. It is the longitudinal section of the river bed and used to calculate
the bed slope of the river.

 Cross Section of River: It is a graphical representation plotted with elevation of the

river section against distance across the river bed. The section is taken at a right
angle to the flow line of water. It is used to calculate the discharge of water.

 Catchment Area Plan: These are the Topo sheets obtained from Survey of India in
which the catchment area of bridge section is drawn as per stream lines.

 General arrangement Drawing (GAD): GAD is an enlarged view of a structure that

contains the overall layout of each element on a boarder sense. It does not show
structural detailing of any element, rather it shows the dimensions. It is used for initial
approval as well as for cost estimation.

 Structural Drawings: These are the drawings that show the structural detailing of
each & every components of a bridge separately.

Engineering Drawing Format & Contents:

 The layout of an engineering drawing may vary depending upon the type of drawing
and client’s requirement. But the overall content of an engineering drawing remains
the same more or less. Following are the main components of an engineering
drawing:

1. The Drawing Itself: A drawing is the most important part of the engineering
drawing. The drawing describes the shape and size of different engineering
elements.

2. Title block: The title block gives information about the part or assembly
represented in the drawing. It is mandatory for every drawing. Each area of
the title block contains specific information, such as :
 Project name
 Drawing title
 Drawing no.
 Client Details
 Agency name
 Name of the designer
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 Name of the checking authority

 Scale factor
 Date

3. Key map: A map drawn in bare outline to simplify the use of a full map. It
gives us information needed for the map to make sense.

4. Legends: Drawings often use symbols or colors to represent things, and the
legend explains what all these symbols or colors mean.

5. Notes: Drawing notes provide information that clarifies a particular

requirement or specifies new information necessary to understand the
drawing.

6. Revision History Block: The revision history block gives information about
the changes made to the drawing up to date and the zone in which it
occurred.

7. Border & zones: Zone provides a grid for identifying different locations on
the drawing.

8. North Indicator: It indicates the north direction in the drawing. It is only

applicable for aerial view drawings.

Paper Size:

Sheet Size as per

Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS)

DIMENSIONS
PAPER CODE
IN MM
A0 1189 X 841

A1 841 X 594

A2 589 X 420

A3 420 X 297

A4 297 X 210
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Scale factor:

 In Engineer’s language, scale means the proportion or ratio between the dimensions
adopted for the drawing and the corresponding dimensions of the actual object.
 Example:
The actual dimensions of a room is 10m x 8m.This can not be adopted on the
drawing because the drawing sheet sizes are much smaller. For this reason the
dimensions of the object should be reduced in suitable proportion in order to adopt
conveniently on the drawing sheet. If the room is represented by a rectangle of 10cm
x 8cm size on the drawing sheet that means the actual size is reduced by 100 times.

 Representing scales:
The proportion between the drawing and the object can be represented by two ways
as follows:
a) Scale: 1cm = 1m or 1cm =100cm or 1:100
b) Representative Fraction (RF): RF = 1/100 (less than one) i.e. the ratio between
the size of drawing and the object.
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 There are three types of scales depending upon the proportion it indicates as:

a. Reducing scale: When the dimensions on the drawing are smaller than the actual
dimensions of the object. It is represented by the scale and RF as
Scale: 1cm = 100cm or 1:100 and by RF =1/100 (less than one)

b. Full scale: Sometimes the actual dimensions of the object will be adopted on the
drawing then in that case it is represented by the scale and RF as
Scale: 1cm = 1cm or 1:1 and by RF = 1/1 (equal to one)

c. Enlarging scale: In some cases when the objects are very small like inside parts of
a wrist watch, the dimensions adopted on the drawing will be bigger than the
actual dimensions of the objects then in that case it is represented by scale and
RF as
Scale: 10cm = 1cm or 10:1 and by RF = 10/1 (greater than one)

 Note: The scale or RF of a drawing is given usually below the drawing. If the scale
adopted is common for all drawings on that particular sheet, then it is given
commonly for all figures under the title of sheet.
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Units of measurement:
In engineering the most commonly used unit system for measurement are Imperial
system & Metric system.

Length:
 Imperial system:
The basic units for length or distance measurements in the Imperial system are inch,
foot, yard, and mile. Other units of length include the rod, furlong, and chain.

1 feet = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet
1 rod = 5.5 yards = 16.5 feet
1 chain = 4 rods = 66 feet = 100 links
1 furlong = 10 chains = 40 rods = 660 feet
1 mile = 8 furlongs = 80 chains = 320 rods = 1760 yards = 5280 feet

 Metric system:
The basic unit of length in the SI system is the meter. Subdivisions of the meter are
the millimeter, centimeter, and the decimeter, while multiples of meters include the
decameter, hectometer, and kilometer.

1 meter = 1000 millimeter

1 meter = 100 centimeter
1 meter = 10 decimeter
1 decameter = 10 meter
1 hectometer = 100 meter
1 kilometer = 1000 meter

 Conversion:
1 meter = 39.37 inches
1 meter = 39.37 /12 = 3.2808 feet
1 feet = 12/39.37 = 0.3048 meter
1 mile = 1609.4 meter = 1.6094 kilometer
1 inch = 254 millimeter = 2.54 centimeter

Area:
 Imperial system:
In the English system, areas are typically given in square feet or square yards. For
larger area measurements, the acre or square mile may be used.

1 square foot = 144 square inches

1 square yard = 9 square feet
1 square rod = 27225 square feet
1 square chain = 4356 square feet
1 square furlong = 435600 square feet
1 acre = 4840 square yard = 43560 square feet
1 square mile = 640 acre
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 Metric system:
Areas in the metric system are given is square meters while larger measurements are
given in hectares.

1 square meter = 1000000 square millimeter = 10000 square centimeter

1 hectare = 10000 square meter
1 square kilometer = 1000000 square meter = 100 hectare

 Conversion:
1 square meter = 1.1960 square yards = 10.7639 square feet
1 hectare = 2.4710 acres
1 square kilometer = 247.104 square acres
1 acre = 4046.86 square meter
1 square mile = 2.59 square kilometer

Volume:

 Imperial system:
Volumes in this unit system are typically given in cubic feet or cubic yards. For larger
volumes, such as the quantity of water in a reservoir, the acre-feet unit is used. It is
equivalent to the area of an acre having a depth of 1 feet.

1 cubic feet = 1728 cubic inches

1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet
1 acre feet = 43560 cubic feet

 Metric system:
Volumes in the metric system are given in cubic meters.
1 cubic meter = 1000000000 cubic millimeter = 1000000 cubic centimeter

 Conversion:
1 cubic meter = 1.3079 cubic yard = 35.3145 cubic feet

Angular Measurement:
 In geometry, any horizontal or vertical angle is measured in degrees. These angles
may be given in decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, and seconds.
1 degree = 60 minute = 3600 second

 The radian is another unit of measure for angles. By definition, a full circle has 2
radians or 360 degrees.

2π radians = 360 degrees

1 radian = 360 / 2π radians = 57.2958 degrees
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Coordinate system:
 In order to get the best out of AutoCAD it is wise to have a good understanding of
the coordinates system and how they work. Everything that we draw in AutoCAD will
be exact and precise and will be placed there accurately based on the X, Y coordinate
system.
 The absolute origin or Zero point in the drawing is where the X and Y axes cross each
other. Every entity that is drawn is located in relation to this origin.

 Basically there are two types of Coordinate system:

 Cartesian Coordinate System:

 The Cartesian coordinate system is generally the standard system used in most
CAD programs. A specific point in a drawing is located by exact distances from
both the X and Y axes.
 For example: A point in a drawing could be 60, 45 (note the comma separates
the two numbers).See example Image below.

 Absolute Input Method: using this method, coordinate points are entered in
direct relation to the Origin 0, 0. To do this in AutoCAD just enter in the exact
point e.g. 60, 45.

 Relative Input Method: Using this method, coordinate points are entered in
relation to the previous point entered (not the origin). For example if our first
point is 20,45, then to enter the next point 'relative' to this we would use the
'@' symbol - e.g. @50,50 would then enter the second point 50 units
horizontally along the x axis and 50 units vertically along the Y axis to give this
second point relative to the last point (20,45). See image below.
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 Polar Coordinates System:

 The Polar coordinates system uses one distance and one angle to define a
point in a drawing. For example a point in a drawing could be 50 < 45, so 50
units long and at an angle of 45 degrees (note the < sign is used for the
angle). See example image below.