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bmozley1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 1, 2011
Question

Upper and lower case

  • June 1, 2011
  • 16 replies
  • 11683 views
Pro E users,



Per standard ASME Y14.5-1994, paragraph 1.1.5. states that capital
letters are still required on engineering drawings. Do most people use
upper case text on engineering drawings?



Brad

WF3 - W7










16 replies

P
ptc-1412741-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 2, 2011
We abide by ASME Y14.5 for all our drawings, so we do use upper case letters on all our drawing notes. Even at former places of employment where they didn't follow ASME Y14.5, we still used upper case letters.

Doug Pogatetz
Mechanical Design Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corporation

J
JeffHoracek1-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 3, 2011
All caps. The only time I've seen lower case is when some young kid makes a drawing and they aren't aware of the standard. We make them change it to all caps.


Regards,
Jeff Horacek
Sr. Designer
Advanced Engineering and Discovery
[cid:image003.jpg@01CC21C5.1BEF6710]
STERIS Corporation
5960 Hesile Rd.
Mentor, OH 44060
P (440)392-7721
F (440)392-8954


M
MikeBrattoli12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
June 3, 2011
Definitely all capital letters!

I still have a copy of an industry drawing standards book from 1985 (don't ask :)). Section 8.4 stated that "all lettering shall be single stroke upper case with the only exception being name plates, connector pins, etc...). Inclined or vertical lettering may be used but only one or the other can be used on a single drawing". The book is based on good old MIL-STD-100 which is the base document for all drawing standards including Y14.5.

Some of our interns have occasionally used lower case. Like Jeff said, we make them fix it

Mike Brattoli
Moen Incorporated
Global Brand Development
Engineering Systems Administrator
    M
    mheath1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 3, 2011
    Definitely uppercase. It has been upper case since I started drafting back in the 60's. Ooops showing my age. We've had some of our European counterparts that couldn't understand why we use uppercase, but they were assimilated rather quickly.

    P
    ptc-5936191-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 3, 2011
    We use upper case almost exclusively but (there's always a but) lower
    case is used when recognizing hole callouts (5 holes marked "a" for
    example). The only other place is where the graphics required is
    actually lower case.

    As far as interns and "young kids" are concerned, we educate!
    D
    dgallup1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 3, 2011

    ALL CAPS. The only exceptions are units where it would be incorrect to capitalize. For example kN or MPa.

    In Reply to Brad Mozley:


    Pro E users,



    Per standard ASME Y14.5-1994, paragraph 1.1.5. states that capital
    letters are still required on engineering drawings. Do most people use
    upper case text on engineering drawings?



    Brad

    WF3 - W7










    E
    eslotty1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 3, 2011
    One reason the uppercase lettering standard was established was to
    compensate for legibility and consistency..... I'm wary of doing things
    only because "it's always been that way".... With nearly all documents
    being generated electronically, text heights can be reduced and lower
    case letters can be used with no loss of quality. A variable width font
    using upper and lower case characters can save space on drawings with a
    lot of notes. Such blocks of notes can also be cut'n'pasted into
    non-drawing documents without changing the character cases... (I do
    understand that that can be automated). OCR's are good enough to
    interpret cases....



    AND DRAWINGS DON'T HAVE TO SHOUT ALL THE TIME.



    To the future!!



    Have a great weekend.



    GE Healthcare Technologies

    Clinical Systems

    Monitoring Solutions

    Eric R. Slotty

    Mechanical Designer

    8200 W. Tower Avenue

    Milwaukee, WI 53223
    C
    canderson10-Marble
    10-Marble
    February 2, 2023

    I disagree.   Consistency and Professionalism is what we need regarding engineering drawings.  This entire "SHOUTING" because items are in all uppercase is from this new generation that seems to be too SENSITIVE!   The real reason NOTES on drawing are defined by ANSI standard as ALL UPPERCASE is to eliminate confusion.   I, I,    Did I just type uppercase "eye" (I) Lower Case "el" (I) or the pipe symbol .  All cap notes on Engineering Drawings look much more professional.  Maybe we should allow LOL, BRB and other abbreviation's.   Of course don't get started on inclusiveness because we omitted  ( I ) ( O) (Z) sometime (Q) from revision sequences.  SMH

    J
    JXochimitl3-Newcomer
    3-Newcomer
    February 2, 2023

    Agreed! To assist in eliminating confusion, we here at TGS do not use a sans serif font. We also do not use an apostrophe to identify a plural noun. SMH. 😉

    B
    BobFrindt1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 3, 2011



    In Reply to Brad Mozley:


    UPPER CASE. As some othershave stated almost always. A very few exceptions. Although, (since it's Friday) I have read thatall upper case is more dificult to read. But the fact remains, ALL UPPER CASEFOLLOWS THE STANDARDS.





    D
    dgschaefer21-Topaz II
    21-Topaz II
    June 3, 2011
    When I see a drawing with lower case, I tend to question it's quality.
    I assume it was done by an inexperienced engineer / draftsman so I
    scrutinize more closely.



    That said, I use lower case on a couple of occasions, simply because I
    think it looks better and communicates more clearly. One is in
    specifying quantities, I use (2x) rather than (2X). Probably
    technically not right, but I prefer it (and I suppose some real old
    timers scrutinize my drawings more closely as a result. :-D). The
    second is when calling out units, usually for me that's millimeters. So
    I'll indicate 2.5mm rather than 2.5MM.



    Doug Schaefer
    B
    23-Emerald III
    BenLoosli23-Emerald III
    23-Emerald III
    June 3, 2011
    The actual standard for lettering is ASME Y14.2M, Line Conventions and Lettering.
    Yes, it is required if you say that your drawing meets ASME Y14.5 and Y14.2 specs.
    The only place I don't is in the company name/address block.
    Abbreviations are also an exception to the upper case rule, but lower case is the proper format according to the standard.
    Millimeter is mm, not MM. Other abbreviated engineering terms use lower case letters, too.

    Thank you,

    Ben H. Loosli
    USEC, INC.
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