How To Read An Architectural Drawing?

By Author: Kimberly Smith
Total Articles: 69
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Architectural Drawings:

Architectural drawings can be referred to as the technical drawings created by architects using different software’s for a building project. Architectural drawings are created by following some standards and certain rules which only architects can easily understand. These drawings are further used by structural engineers, HVAC engineers as well as contractors for coordination between all of them for a building a project. Architectural drawings sometimes are created prior to construction of building or house or else are created for existing building or house. These drawings are also prepared when some changes are to be incorporated in existing house or building.

Earlier architectural drawings were created by hand drawn sketches and tracing on papers but nowadays architectural drawings are created using advanced software’s like autocad, archicad etc. This technique of creating architectural drawings by using software’s is called “Computer Aided Design”.

Understanding of Architectural Scaling and Sizing:

Architectural Drawings which are created using different software ...
... are printed out in standard paper sizes. The largest standard paper size is denoted by “A0” as per the standards then comes A1, A2 and A3. Architectural drawings should be visible realistically with all available information by choosing proper paper size.

Scaling of architectural drawings is done with a major concern that the drawing should be easily read. Scaling of drawing is done for making each and every smaller part of drawing visible comfortably and clearly. Scaling is also done as it is impossible to carry out drawing with actual area thus drawings are created by taking a Reference Scale. Mostly architectural drawings are drawn with a reference scale of ¼”=1.0’. This reference scale is not fixed but varies depending upon the requirement.

Reading of Different Types of Architectural Drawings:

Architectural Drawings are divided into various types of standard views which are as follows:

Site Plan View:

The view which is obtained when we look upon the house or a building or a site from the top is called Plan View in architectural terms. The site plan views typically shows the boundaries or property lines, street paths around the building or a house, landscaping area, parking areas, garden, trees etc. Thus site plans mainly consists of external area details along with boundary lines.

Floor Plan View:

Floor plan view is considered to be the most basic and fundamental architectural drawing. It consists of boxes in a building indicating different types of room areas like living room, rest room, store room, balcony, lobby areas etc. Floor plan gives detail about thickness of wall as symbolically indicates windows, doors, bed, fixtures and other utilities.

Cross Sectional Views:

Cross sectional view is obtained if one cuts the house or a building with a vertical plane section. These views help us in discriminating between changes in floor levels, roofs, ceilings etc. and are called Sectional Views.

Elevation View:
Seeing a building or a house with a flat plane from one side is called Elevation View in architectural terms. Elevation view reflects external appearance of the building or a house. There can be different type of elevations like front elevation, north elevation, south elevation etc.

Thus by combining all above described views we can create a complete architectural model using different software.

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