Technical illustration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technical Illustration is the use of illustration to effectively convey necessary information to understand or complete the operation of a procedure. Technical illustrations can be drawings, diagrams, charts, and even photographs. Technical illustration can range from very simple diagrams to thousands of illustrated pages that document an aerospace project. At one time, technical illustration was easily recognized as artwork relating to mechanical devices, cartography, architecture and anatomical/botanical structures.
Illustrations used to be hand-drawn but in 1962 computer engineers created a method to draw both straight and curved lines using computers. This resulted in rapid advances in both computers and software and this allowed people to create even very complex technical illustrations on a computer.
Technical illustration uses several basic mechanical drawing configurations; these are: orthographic projections (oblique, planometric, isometric, dimetric, and trimetric), and many types of perspective projections (with one, two, or three vanishing points). Technical illustration, created with a computer, can also use 3D and solidbody projections.
Today, technical illustration has three categories. The first category is technical illustration used by engineers/scientists to communicate with their peers. This use of technical illustration has its own complex terminology and specialized symbols; examples are the fields of atomic energy, aerospace and military/defense. These areas can be further broken down into disciplines of mechanical, electrical, architectural engineering and many more.
The second category is technical illustration used by engineers to communicate with people who are highly skilled in a field, but who are not engineers. Examples of this type of technical illustration are illustrations found in user/operator documentation. These illustrations can be very complex and have jargon and symbols not understood by the general public, such as illustrations that are part of instructional materials for operating CNC machinery.
The third category is technical illustration that informs the general public, for example illustrated instructions found in the manuals for automobiles and consumer electronics. This type of technical illustration contains simple terminology and symbols that can be understood by the lay person and is sometimes called creative technical illustration/graphics.
