Lecturer 3: Lines, Letters and

Geometric Construction
CE-112 : Engineering Drawing for Civil Engineers

By: Dr. Mohammad Ashraf (engineerashraf@yahoo.com)

Office: CE: B109

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and

Technology, Peshawar

The Alphabet of Lines (I.S.O.)

1
Line Groups (I.S.O.)
 A Line Group consists of three consecutive line thicknesses; thick,
medium and thin
 Denoted by the thick line in the group
 The thickness of medium line is approximately 0.7 times the thickness of
thick line and thin line is approximately 0.5 times the thickness of thick
line.
 Common Groups are:
0.25 : 0.13 - 0.18 - 0.25
0.35 : 0.18 - 0.25 - 0.35
0.50 : 0.25 - 0.35 - 0.50
0.70 : 0.35 - 0.50 - 0.70
1.00 : 0.50 - 0.70 - 1.00
1.40 : 0.70 - 1.00 - 1.40

Lettering
 Letters are used in Dimensions, Titles and Notes
 Clear and uniform letters give more meaning to a drawing and enhance its
appearance
 Single-stroke Gothic Characters (ABC123) can be easily and quickly
drawn by hand
 Upper Case Letters (ABC123) are preferred for normal use and lower
case for conventional signs and symbols (e.g. mm)
 Vertical Characters (ABC123) are preferred to Slopping Characters
(ABC123). For sloping Character 75o inclination is recommended

2
Lettering (Cont..)
 Height of Character (2.5, 3.5, 5.0, 7.0, 10, 14, 20 mm)
 Minimum size of Character depends on the size of drawing sheets
 For A1-A4 2.5 mm for Upper Case only and 3.5 mm for Upper and
Lower Case together.
 The thickness of Single-stroke Character Lines is 0.1h (where h is
the height of character)
 The space between character shall be uniform and shall be equal to
twice the character thickness
 Very light guidelines shall be drawn before writing letters
 Soft pencils shall be used for lettering
 For speed work stencils shall be avoided

Geometric Construction
 Geometric Construction deals with problems essential in the preparation
of engineering drawings, e.g.
z To bisect a given line and arc
z To draw perpendicular to a given line
z To draw a line parallel to a given line
z To divide a given line into any number of equal parts
z To bisect an angle
z To trisect a given right angle
z To find the centre of a given arc
z To draw an arc touching a given line and/or arc
z To draw an arc passing through three given points
z To draw tangent/common tangent to circles
z To draw polygon of any number of sides with a given side length
z To draw polygon inscribed in a given circle or circumscribed by a circle

3
Geometric Construction (Cont..)
Prob-1: To bisect a given line and an arc

Prob-2: To draw a perpendicular to given Prob-1

line from a point within it

Prob-2

Geometric Construction (Cont..)

 Prob-3: To divide a line into any number of equal parts
 Prob-4: To draw a line parallel to given line passing through
a point out side it.
 Prob-5: To draw a line parallel to given line at a given
distance

Prob-3 Prob-4 Prob-5