Blobs on drawings

MEW 313 arrived today. I was somewhat startled to find that on one article the drawings use blobs rather than an arrow.

Maybe its a new idea, maybe its an old idea, I really don't know. As far as I can see they simply confuse the issue.

cheers

Bill

Certainly not a new idea, remember working to architects drawings that were done like that 35odd years ago, and that was from a drawing board rather than just clicking an "arrow" option in your CAD package today. I quite like it actually.

Edited By JasonB on 12/04/2022 07:01:38

Different industries (mechanical, civil, electrical, etc) had different standards for dimensions on drawings. Especially back in the hand drawn on a board days. The mechanical engineering standard that I was taught always used arrow heads. The architectural department used a small oblique slash. (always thought they were too lazy to draw a neat arrow head and were a bit "arty".

I suppose it's the matter of applying the the regime in the blobs/oblique dash/arrows. Obviously the end of terminal lines is some indication of the importance of the dimension.

Or maybe I'm just confused!!

cheers

Bill

Back of a fag packet I used just a slash, proper drawing, arrow heads. Do they use a double dot (Like the double arrow) to indicate that the drawing did not show the full length of the component ?

Has been around all my 50 odd years in the DO. Ther are many options for the dimension line end connection to the leader, filled arrow, open arrow, slash, dot et al. The one chosen is set by company standard and industry choice, architects very often use the slash, while engineers use the closed arrow. Take you choice but stick to one, although in some circumstances a different form may be used on a drawing where the normal one used is too large for close dimension lines.

I have always seen the dots like that in Jason's post on electrical wiring as where wires join. I tend to put what I call a stick arrow a line with a v shape on the end either on the inside of a pair of lines or on the outside if not enough room

I was taught to use arrows when I first started manual drafting in the 70's but after a few years in the engineering drawing office the change was made to use a slash as it saved time and was easier when nesting small dimensions. Then in the 90's we went to CAD and it all changed again. Been retired for a few years know but still use the slash on hand drawings and the arrows on CAD drawings.

Personally I prefer no marker at all, although I used to use arrowheads, but the effort involved in editing every blob into an arrowhead makes it impractical for the tiny and questionable benefit.

Neil

But with your editor hat on, do MEW or ME have a preferred standard for drawings? I suppose it's hard enough to get any sort of drawing out of authors without putting them off by imposing rules!

Dave