Architectural Graphics 101 – Reflected Ceiling Plans: I’ve decided to start publishing a few articles regarding architectural graphics and the techniques I’ve used to make my own ideas appear beautiful once a month. There may be some discussion of sophisticated computing concepts, but I’d want to keep to the finer elements. When one of my workers requested me to go over some cabinet shop designs with them and explain precisely what they should be looking at, I got the idea for this series. I had the same talk with practically everyone I work with about why we do things the way we do them while sitting in front of the drawings. If they do, it is probable that others will have similar concerns.
As a result, the Architectural Graphics 101 book series was created. In fact, I purposefully selected a topic that isn’t very engaging so that I wouldn’t set myself too high a standard with the first instalment of this series. If you like this series, I’ll upload the following instalment every other week.
So now it’s time to get started….
Dashed Doors RCP: A Primer for Architectural Artists
You’re looking at a “reflected ceiling design,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Looking down from the ceiling, as though a mirror on the floor was reflecting the arrangement back up. This may seem unusual, but it is done this way so that both the ceiling and floor plans point in the same direction. The plan is considered to be mirrored if it depicts the ceiling as if you were laying on the floor and gazing up. This manner, you can see the floor plan and the ceiling plan from the same angle (looking down), but from two separate perspectives.
It’s OK, yet it still sounds perplexing… But, for the purpose of argument, assume that everyone is aware of what is going on.
A ceiling plan with mirrors is utilised in most workplaces to demonstrate where items like lights and plugs should go. Instead of including all of this information in the floor plan, which would be confusing, we create a separate drawing for this reason.
Rendering the Dashed Doors RCP (Architectural Graphics 101)
The doors in the mirrored ceiling design seen above will be the topic of the first entry in Architectural Graphics 101. After finishing college, I spent the most of my time working on business projects. We used to draw on vellum with pencils back then.
The door or its hinges were not shown in these diagrams. Why? I really don’t know what to say… We didn’t since that wasn’t how things worked.
Since then, I’ve worked almost entirely on house projects, and I’ve stopped using pencil and vellum. And we draw in the apertures and doors that swing open and close. Shocking This went against everything I’d taught, and I was certain we’d get in trouble for doing the right thing. In the year 2000, I approached my new employer and said, “Why?”
He said that it was done to prevent doors from blocking light switches when they were opened. Because it made sense to me. I now include the doors and door swings (indicated in dashes) in my mirrored ceiling plans.
Bob Borson, an architect from Dallas, Texas, teaches “Architectural Graphics 101: Dashed Doors and Light Switches.”
Even if you don’t display your door and door swing in your RCP. You shouldn’t have to worry about light switches being installed mistakenly behind the door swing. The bizarre things often take you off guard.
