How to Take Care of Drafting Tools

By Sarah Haynes ; Updated September 15, 2017

Things Needed
 Gentle cleaner
 Cleaning cloth
 Rubber bands
 Drafting tube
 Organizer tray
 File folder
 Card stock
 Plastic pouches
 Art bin storage box
Drafting tools are often delicate and have many intricate and small pieces that need to
be well maintained to continue working properly. Organizing and storing these items has
a great deal to do with keeping them in pristine shape and working correctly. With a little
patience and developing a routine, your tools will be well taken care of and working for a
long time.

Lay out all the drafting tools that you use and separate them into piles of like items.
Place all pencils together, markers, erasers, rulers, stencils, paper and miscellaneous.

Using the cleaner, spray the cloth and wipe down supplies that have residue on them.
Pencils, markers, stencils and rulers often retain oils on them from fingers.

Take the erasers and rub out any black marks. Do this by rubbing the eraser against a
clean piece of paper until the black smudge has disappeared. For kneaded erasers,
these can simply be stretched and remodeled into a ball, similar to bread dough, to get
the black smudge marks out.

Run your hands through your drafting brush to remove any loose debris. Then, wipe it
down with the cleaning cloth to remove any residue from the handle.
Roll up your drafting papers into a tight roll. Secure them with a rubber band at each
end. Place the roll into a drafting tube for storage.
Place the pens and markers into the long slots of the organizer tray. Place the erasers
in the smaller cube slots. Fill in with any other drafting materials, such as lead refills,
push pins, paper clips, small rulers and mounting stickers.
Take your compass and wipe it off with the cleaning cloth. If it is going to be stored in
the organizer tray, wind the compass down until it is straight (versus at an angle,
making a triangle shape). If it has its own case, then wind it to the size the case has set
for it to be stored, and place it into the box.

Make a folder to hold all your stencils. Create holding flaps in an ascending order so the
stencils can be layered and easy to see and access when needed. To make these flaps,
simply use card stock paper and cut it into 3- or 4-inch sections. Glue each section onto
a large main piece of card stock, starting towards the top for the smallest stencil and
working your way down to the bottom. Glue three of the four edges, leaving the top
edge open for the stencil to slide into.
Place this newly made stencil holder into a large plastic or mesh pouch. Put a dry
cleaning cloth in the pouch, placed over the stencils, to help keep them clean.

Place the drafting brush and rulers into the pouch. Then place the organizer tray into the
pouch. If the compass had its own storage box, then place this in the pouch. All the
major tools should now be in this portable carrying pouch with your paper in the
separate portable carrying drafting tube.

Tip
If you work in the same place every day, arrange your organizer trays on shelves or put
stackable trays near your work table.
Working with Orthographic
Projections and Basic
Isometrics
A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from
throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Cody Walker was first
published on November 25th 2008.

This is the first part in a series of tutorials about Isometrics. Isometric

projections are a system of drawing that allows an artist to quickly and
accurately draw an object without using perspective. I will go into more depth
about isometrics later in this tutorial. I'm going to begin by talking about a
system that is commonly used with isometrics.

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Orthographics
Orthographic projections are a way of describing what an object looks like
from several different views. Orthographics are also called engineering
drawings or plan views. Using a set of orthographics an Illustrator can easily
draw the three-dimensional object from any angle and in perspective,
isometric or any number of other drawing systems. 3D modelers often use
orthographics to accurately create an object in a 3D application.

An orthographic is one way to describe a three dimensional object in two-

dimensional space. Typically an orthographic will have the top, side and front
views of an object drawn together with some kind of scale.
An orthographic can have more then three sides drawn if the object has
unique sides that would not be described clearly by just three images.

Once you have a clear set of orthographics you can draw your object in
whatever method and from whatever view is required for your project. If you
are planning to draw a set of orthographics from a
physical object begin by measuring. Use a ruler and a set of calipers to
measure all the surfaces of the object and make notes and a sketch. Once
you are finished gathering data you can use your notes to create a set of
orthographics in Illustrator. And that brings us to the world of isometrics.
Isometric projections are from the family of axonometric projection systems.
Isometric comes from Greek for equal measure. This is because isometrics
don't use a vanishing point system, instead lines fall onto a 30 degree grid.

Often the first impression of an isometric is that it looks off. This is more
noticeable when an isometric cube is sitting next to a perspective cube. If you
are going to be working in isometric there is a certain amount of distortion that
comes with the territory. This is one of the factors that give isometrics their
specific look. The huge upside to drawing in isometric especially using
illustrator is that once you have created an object it will look exactly the same
anywhere you place it.

There are no vanishing points and no horizon lines. An object will be the same
anywhere on your page. This is very important because you only ever have to
drawn an object once. For example you could have an assembly drawing with
one hundred screws in it. But you would only have to draw one screw and
then copy it as many times as needed. This is a very powerful tool for
speeding up workflow.

There are many other systems that don't require vanishing points or horizon
lines and give you similar benefits. But isometrics are the only one of these
systems to make the jump from the technical
illustrators toolbox to a useful skill for all graphic artists. The use of isometrics
in early videogames has spawned a whole subculture of isometric pixel artists.
And as the info-graphics style becomes very popular in magazines and
newspapers you see isometrics being used more and more by artist with no
technical illustration background.
1. How to Draw Isometrics
Ok, now we can get into how to actually draw in isometric. The best way to
start working in isometric is to make an isometric grid in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 1
Start by opening your preferences (Command K) and adjusting your keyboard
increments to 1in.

Step 2
Using your line tool option and click somewhere on your page. A dialogue box
will pop up. Make a 30 inch line on a 30 degree angle.
Step 3
Move your line over to the left side of your page. Now while holding Alt. tap
the Right Arrow key once. Because we set the increments to 1 inch the line
was copied 1 inch to the left. Repeat until you have crossed the page.
Step 4
You could repeat Step 3 from right to left with a 150 degree line. Or you can
select all the lines and double click on the Mirror Tool and mirror a copy of the
lines horizontally.
Step 5
Now you have an isometric grid. Select > All (Command A) and hit Command
5or View > Guides > Make Guides to turn your grid lines into guides. Save this
file as an iso grid template to use anytime you want to work in isometric.
Step 6
Now we can start building objects on the isometric grid - first off a cube. Start
by making a small four cornered shape with your Pen Tool.
Step 7
Using your Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and line up your four corners
with a square on the grid.
Step 8
Using your Pen Tool and the same method as described above, create the left
and right sides of the cube. Quickly block out a four-cornered shape then
move the corners into place with the Direct Selection Tool. When building
shapes on an isometric grid it is a good idea to start thinking of your objects in
planes: top, left side, right side. This will make more complicated objects
easier to visualize.
Step 9
Select all three parts and group (Command G). You now have an isometric
cube. You can start making copies of the cube and quickly begin building
larger shapes. You can scale the cube up or down and
build with it.

2. How to Incorporate Orthographics

Now that you know the fundamentals of building a cube on an isometric grid
we can incorporate the orthographics discussed earlier.

Step 1
Make a simple orthographic, with a scale that will work with your grid.
Step 2
Build the left side first. Using the Pen Tool, rough out the shape by counting
grid squares. Then line up the points with the Direct Selection Tool.
Step 3
Build the front of the shape. Count out grid squares, rough out the shape with
the Pen Tool, and clean up with the Direct Selection Tool.
Step 4
Complete the top. By this point I'm sure you've come across parts of the
shape that don't just sit on their respective plane. This is where being able to
actually read the orthographics and interpret them is essential. Or else you'll
just end up with a set of orthographics distorted onto three different planes.
Conclusion
Using the same orthographics draw the object from several different angles
and orientations. Get very comfortable building basic shapes on an
orthographic grid, as it will come in very useful once you start working on
more complex objects.
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