Designing - Eduqas2D and 3D drawing techniques

Isometric drawings and perspective drawings are commonly used in technical drawing to show an item in 3D on a 2D page.

Perspective

Perspective drawings show an object in 3D getting smaller in the distance.

Single-point perspective - This shows an object from the front in a realistic way as it gets smaller going into the distance. The front view goes back towards a vanishing point, which is a point on the horizon line that all lines meet at.

Two-point perspective - This shows an object from the side with two vanishing points. It gives the most realistic view of a product as it shows the item edge on, as we would see it. It is often used to produce realistic drawings of an object.

Single-point perspective is often used by interior designers to show a view into a room, whereas two-point perspective is often used by architects to show realistic building ideas.

Isometric

Isometric drawings, sometimes called isometric projections, are a good way of showing measurements and how components fit together. Unlike perspective drawings, they don’t get smaller as the lines go into the distance.

There are three main rules to isometric drawing:

• horizontal edges are drawn at 30 degrees
• vertical edges are drawn as vertical lines
• parallel edges appear as parallel lines

Isometric drawings are used to show a graphical representation of a 3D object. They are used by architects and engineers to communicate their ideas to the client and manufacturer, showing the product or design to scale.

Example

Below are two cubes drawn in isometric:

= 30 ÷ 60

= 0.5

This means the second cube has been drawn to half scale, also written as 1:2.