Another drawing issue - hidden lines

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
May 28, 2014
10 replies
6154 views

So another issue from my contractor has been brought to my attention again... Good for another interesting debate I hope...

He created all his drawings showing NO hidden lines. When I originally asked him about this he said that was the standard way of doing it.

Personally, I have not been trained on any standards, but have never done a drawing without using hidden lines. Does the new standard actually say not to use hidden lines? Seems VERY confusing to me to look at drawings without them.

Tony

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2D Drawing

D

DonSenchuk

12-Amethyst

While I'm not sure about it being a standard that one must follow, I've always felt that omitting the hidden lines leads to prints that are more clear. If one needs to show a feature's location, create a view without hidden lines to make absolutely sure it's clear where these features are located. If a view just isn't feasible, create a section or break-out section. As a part becomes more and more complex keeping hidden lines makes the views more and more muddled.

J

japrenticeuk

1-Visitor

Of course the only absolute rule is there are no absolute rules but..

Hidden lines are generally deprecated in orthographic drawings. If internal
detail exists and needs to be shown then this is best done with one or more
section views. Hidden lines are often ambiguous and cluttering. As you know
the location of a section-plane the "internal features" are precisely
defined in the section view.

Half sections, broken out views etc. often help to avoid proliferation of
views.

Most standards have rules about sectioning of webs, shafts, fasteners etc.

John Prentice

P

ptc-141274

1-Visitor

Not sure on the standard, but the practice at our site has been NO hidden lines. I agree that the prints are more clear.

Doug Pogatetz

Mechanical Design Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Rolling Meadows, Illinois 60008-1098

D

davehaigh

13-Aquamarine

I ran across this when I worked at one company. They had a hard and fast rule about not showing hidden lines.

Anymore, I default to not showing them. I only show them where they are necessary for clarity.

David Haigh

M

mpeterson

1-Visitor

Tony,

I don't know what national standards are, but in general I would say by default hidden lines should be shown. That said, this is a communications document, so in some instances and maybe many instances, having hidden lines can make for a difficult drawing to read. If not shown I would add a note saying so and then where ever needed create section views to show the geometry or dimension what is hidden. Many, many years ago I was under the impression that it is not a good practice to dimension to hidden lines.

I will add that if there is a standard or standard practice at a company than set the new view default in the drawing dtl file to that standard practice (model_display_for_new_views) and NEVER set that default to follow environment so that every time you open a drawing it changes depending on if you are in shaded, hidden line, no hidden, etc. I have never understood why that is an option or would be desired. Must be for making pictorials and note detail drawings. JS

Regards,
Mark Peterson
Design Engineer
Varel International
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S

sshannon

1-Visitor

This is from my "old" drafting and design text book, circa 1982, where I learned the skills of detailing prints for industry. (Unlike most of todays degreed students...but that is a whole other discussion)

"Hidden lines should be omitted when they are not required for the clarity of the drawing."

Regards, Steve

Steve Shannon
Tooling Engineer
trans-matic
300 East 48th St.
Holland, MI 49423
phone (616) 820-2427
fax (616) 820-2488
www.transmatic.com

M

mathew.palazola

1-Visitor

Complete agreement... hidden lines just clutter up a view... so unless they are needed to show something particularly important in that view... don't bother

D

dgallup

1-Visitor

Agree completely. Only show hidden lines when necessary and then only those necessary. One hard and fast rule, never dimension to a hidden line.

In Reply to Mathew Palazola:

Complete agreement... hidden lines just clutter up a view... so unless they are needed to show something particularly important in that view... don't bother

T

TerryJohnson

1-Visitor

hope this helps..

ASME Y14.3

-- describe shape as in Sheetmetal parts