Equipment Drawings and thickness of lines

AI Thread Summary
Many professionals express frustration over the uniform line thickness in equipment drawings, making it difficult to distinguish between different types of lines such as dimension lines and part outlines. This issue seems prevalent among both small and reputable vendors, raising concerns about the decline of traditional drafting skills in the CAD era. The overcrowding of drawings and the tendency to dimension hidden features further complicate readability. There is a call for better drafting practices and standards, suggesting that CAD tools can be utilized more effectively to enhance clarity. Overall, the discussion emphasizes the need for a return to fundamental drafting principles to improve the quality of technical drawings.
rollingstein
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Warning: Rant ahead

I get more and more drawings from vendors where all lines seem to be of the same thickness. Makes it awfully hard to tell if a line's a dimension line, a leader, a projection or a real part outline.

Do others share my annoyance? Is this an evil of the post-AutoCAD era? Or is this when they send me those as pdf's?

It's not just some iffy small vendor, but even reputable ones seem to send such uni-darkness line drawings.

Has the legacy of 2H, H, HB, B, 2B etc. been relegated to the trash can? Or am I unusually unlucky in encountering these moronic draftsmen?

Sigh.

/end rant
 
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Its all too easy with 3d models. No one actually teaches good drafting anymore.

Also overcrowding of the page is my main irritation. I also hate when people dimension to hidden features. With cad systems it's just so much easier to create a new view.

People need to be forced to draw something on a board. Its a vital skill to plan the drawing in your head before you ever put pencil to paper.
 
Another thing I sorely miss, was the utility in paper drawings of projection lines between views. Merely by tracing down or horizontally one could often correlate features.

CAD has added liberty about placing views and made this so hard to decipher.

Anyways, asides of ranting, any constructive solutions to these problems? Surely CAD can be used in smarter ways? Have people seen CAD drawings that were exemplary or a pleasure to work with? I'd love some as examples to smack the next vendor on the head with when he shows up with one of their typical atrocities.
 
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