Patent Application
20200108654
The present invention relates to drafting instruments and, more particularly, to a drafting instrument such as a multipurpose drawing tool.
Drafting instruments such as drawing tools have existed since the Renaissance for inscribing lines at fixed angles. Generally, these tools provide a limited number of angles and, thus, typically require a draftsman to utilize and exchange various tools frequently while preparing a drawing, such as an architectural design drawing.
Historically, creation of an architectural design drawing has employed two standard drawing tools—a 30-60-90 triangle and a 45-45-90 triangle.
These standard tools are widely used by skilled designers, such as architects, interior designers, graphic designer, fashion designer, engineer, builder, carpenter and students of these arts, to create drawings with various angles and perspectives. For example, these tools may assist the designer in drawing common angles that have become standard throughout the history of architecture and design. In addition, these tools have been traditionally used to create mechanical drawings generally rendered in one or more conventional projections (e.g., orthographic projection, oblique projection, perspective projection, and axonometric projection). Thus, draftspersons and artists alike typically use a variety of drawing tools to render angles needed to create the various perspectives. However, it is well known in the graphic design arts that these standard drafting tools (i.e., triangles) are susceptible to chipping and/or bending at the vertices that leads to less accurate drawing of lines due lack of adequate alignment with the drawing. Moreover, it is often cumbersome, even for a skilled designer, to switch between these drafting tools especially when drawing, for example 45° and 30°/60° angles.
Thus, there is a need for a drafting instrument, such as a drawing tool, which is inexpensive, portable, and simple-to-use. In addition, there is a need for a drawing tool which may be used to render angles at 15° intervals to support drawing conventional projections used by skilled designers, such as architects, interior designers, graphic designer, fashion designer, engineer, builder, carpenter and students of these arts.
The above and further advantages of the embodiments herein may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals indicate identically or is functionally similar elements, of which:
Embodiments herein are directed to a spatially efficient, multipurpose drawing tool adapted for creating architectural design drawings and, to that end, capable of drawing lines at regular 15 degree intervals without requiring mechanical reconfiguration. The multipurpose drawing tool is illustratively arranged, dimensioned and organized as four sides with a concave vertex opposite three convex vertices, one of which has an angle of 90 degrees and may be quickly manipulated to draw a line at any 15 degree interval, e.g., 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°. In an embodiment, the multipurpose drawing tool may include a glide (e.g., a bevel) on one or more of the sides as a guide for a marking tool (e.g., a pencil, pen, marker and the like) to draw the line. The multipurpose drawing tool may also include an aperture, e.g., a round hole, having a diameter sized according to a scale for drawing arcs, such as a semi-circular arc depicting a door swing in scaled architectural drawings, e.g., ¼″=1′. For example, to draw an arc depicting a 3 ft wide door swing to a ¼″=1′ scale, the aperture radius may be ¾″ (i.e., 3 times ¼″). As such, the multipurpose drawing tool provides extended capabilities beyond that found in traditional drawing tools, such as the 30-60-90 triangle and the 45-45-90 triangle, by allowing any 15 degree angular interval to be drawn using a single tool that is easily oriented and manipulated.
The multipurpose drawing tool also addresses a problem of chipped or bent tips (i.e., apexes) for angles relying on the drawing tool vertices (e.g., 15° and 75°) by cleaving a portion of each tip. When a tip of a drawing tool is chipped or bent, accuracy for angles created in a drawing diminishes because the damaged edge of the tool tip cannot be as accurately aligned to other elements depicted in the drawing. For example, the multipurpose drawing tool with a chipped tip (i.e., a broken apex or vertex) proximate the angle creating 15°/75° may not be used to accurately draw a 15°/75° line because a damaged portion near the apex (i.e., the chipped tip) along the length of at least one edge forming the 15°/75° angle of the drawing tool cannot align to the drawing to form an accurate 15°/75° angle. That is, an angle intended to be drawn to 15°/75° may be inaccurately drawn instead, for example, at 17° using a chipped triangle tool, thereby resulting in lower accuracy and deviation from the intended angle to be drawn, e.g., 15°. Note that an amount (i.e., size) of a cleaved portion of the apex is determined such that affected drawing angles retain their accuracy within a tolerance. In an embodiment, a size of the cleaved portion is less than 10% of a length of the side of the drawing tool being cleaved.
The multipurpose drawing tool may be constructed from a variety of materials including, but not limited to: acrylic, metals such as aluminum and steel, plastic, polycarbonate, polystyrene and combinations thereof. In an embodiment, the glide is constructed from steel inserted into a slot formed within one or more of the four edges, and a body of the drawing tool is constructed from acrylic. In an alternate embodiment, the glide may be embodied as a bevel on one or more of the edges.
The multipurpose drawing tool may be used to assist in the creation of orthographic, axonometric, perspective and oblique perspective drawings without the use of additional tools. Advantageously, the multipurpose drawing tool replaces existing tools, such as the 30-60-90 triangle and the 45-45-90 triangle, and thus permits faster, more efficient drawing by a skilled designer, such as an artist or draftsperson, as only one tool need be manipulated.
As used herein, terms have their generally understood definitions and meanings. In particular, with regard to the definitions of angles, an “acute” angle is one having a value greater than 0°, but less than 90°; an “obtuse” angle is one having a value greater than 90°, but less than 180° degree; and a “reflex” angle is one having a value greater than 180°, but less than 360°. An “interior” angle or an “inside” angle is an angle formed between two adjacent sides of a rectilinear figure such as a polygon, and lying wholly within the polygon. An angle is said to be an “outside” angle with respect to a polygon if it is an angle formed by two adjacent sides of the polygon, but lying wholly outside the polygon. As used herein an apex denotes a highest point in a meeting of two sides of a polygon; and an anti-apex denotes a point furthest away from a meeting of two sides of a polygon.
Two angles are said to be “complementary” if the sum of their values forms a right angle of 90°. Similarly, two angles are said to be “supplementary” if their sum is a straight angle of 180°.
In an embodiment, the multipurpose drawing tool may include a glide (e.g., a bevel) on one or more of the sides as a guide for a marking tool (e.g., a pencil, pen, marker and the like) to draw the line. The multipurpose drawing tool may also include an aperture 450, e.g., a round hole, having a diameter sized according to a scale for drawing arcs, such as a semi-circular arc depicting a door swing in scaled architectural drawings, e.g., ¼″=1′. For example, to draw an arc depicting a 3 ft wide door swing to a ¼″=1′ scale, the aperture radius may be ¾″ (i.e., 3 times ¼″). As such, the multipurpose drawing tool provides extended capabilities beyond that found in traditional drawing tools, such as the 30-60-90 triangle and the 45-45-90 triangle, by allowing any 15 degree angular interval to be drawn using a single tool that is easily oriented and manipulated.
The multipurpose drawing tool may be constructed from a variety of materials including, but not limited to: acrylic, metals such as aluminum and steel, plastic, polycarbonate, polystyrene and combinations thereof. In an embodiment, the glide is constructed from steel inserted into a slot formed within one or more of the four edges, and a body of the drawing tool is constructed from acrylic. In an alternate embodiment, the glide may be embodied as a bevel on one or more of the edges (sides) to guide a marking instrument.
Note that all dimensions and angles disclosed herein are understood to mean within a manufactured tolerance, for example 15° may range by ±0.1° or from 14.9° to 15.1°. Manufactured tolerances may range, depending on the type of material and cost of manufacturing, typically from a 0.01% to 2% of a thickness of the material.
The multipurpose drawing tool may be used to assist in the creation of orthographic, axonometric, perspective and oblique perspective drawings without the use of additional tools. Advantageously, the multipurpose drawing tool replaces existing tools, such as the 30-60-90 triangle and the 45-45-90 triangle, and thus permits faster, more efficient drawing by a skilled designer, such as an artist or draftsperson, as only one tool need be manipulated.
