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VCE Product Design and Technologies (Year 11) · Design Skills · 11m read

Drawing for Design — Sketching, Working Drawings and CAD

Designers think with their hands. Drawings let you explore ideas, explain them to others and give makers the exact information they need.

Learning objective: Communicate design ideas through sketches, annotated drawings, orthogonal working drawings and computer-aided design.

By the end of this lesson you can:

  • I can sketch ideas quickly in 2D and 3D.
  • I can annotate drawings to explain decisions.
  • I can read and produce simple orthogonal drawings.

Drawing is a design language. Sketches are like casual conversation; working drawings are like a legal contract — precise and unambiguous.

Types of drawings

IDEATION SKETCHES — quick, freehand, many options; thumbnails and exploded views.
PRESENTATION DRAWINGS — rendered with colour and tone to show the final look.
ANNOTATIONS — notes about materials, joins, sizes and how the idea meets the brief.
ORTHOGONAL (WORKING) DRAWINGS — front, top and side views drawn to scale with dimensions in millimetres; used for making.
PICTORIAL — isometric and perspective views show 3D form.
CAD — computer-aided design for accurate models, renders, and files for laser cutting or 3D printing.

SCALE: 1:1 = full size; 1:2 = half size; 2:1 = twice full size.

Worked example (Medium)

A box is 240 mm long. How long is it on a 1:2 scale drawing, and on a 1:5 drawing?

  1. 1:2. Divide by 2. 240 \div 2 = 120 \text{ mm}
  2. 1:5. Divide by 5. 240 \div 5 = 48 \text{ mm}

Answer: 120 mm at 1:2; 48 mm at 1:5.

Common mistakes

  • Spending hours on one perfect sketch early Ideation needs quantity first. Fix: Draw many quick thumbnails, then develop the best.
  • Dimensioning in centimetres Industry convention is millimetres. Fix: Use mm and state the scale.

Practice questions

  1. Which drawing gives makers exact dimensions in several views?

    1. Thumbnail sketch
    2. Orthogonal working drawing
    3. Mood board
    4. Rendered presentation drawing

    (1 marks)

  2. At a scale of 1:4, a 360 mm shelf is drawn as:

    1. 36 mm
    2. 90 mm
    3. 1440 mm
    4. 72 mm

    (1 marks)

  3. Give two advantages of CAD over hand drawing for producing a product.

    (2 marks)

Summary

  • Sketch many ideas quickly; refine the best.
  • Annotate to explain decisions.
  • Orthogonal drawings: dimensions in mm, to scale.
  • CAD links design to digital manufacture.

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