A Drafting Table

I started out using my parents old nitrocellulose T-Square and triangles when I was 11. I still used a T-Square for my summer at RISD, but once I started grad school, it was parallel rules from then on, except you needed the T-Square for constructing perspectives.

In the tribute page to a picnic shelter my dad did on NewHavenModern.org, I contributed a bunch of materials included pictures of both my parents at their drafting boards as well as a couple drawings. Having a tetrahedron for a roof, he was decidedly not drawing a square building in this case with that T-Square. I’ve contemplated making a model of it in SketchUp, but I don’t know when I’ll have the time to spare.

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@RTCool, That’s a beautiful tribute! Thanks for sharing.

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Well, not square in the shape sense but it is square in the linear sense. There are no curves, everything is straight. Easy enough to draw using a drawing board and an adjustable “square”.

It’s a fun structure but, being English myself, how is it English I wonder? I don’t see many buildings like that where I live!

BTW, for someone who works in design, you have a fantastic name!

You might be looking for something like this: D-DIN Font Free by datto » Font Squirrel
DIN 17 and DIN 1451 were the standards behind most of the lettering stencils

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Oh, hahaha, it’s a person’s name. The benefactor’s name was apparently Henry Fowler English judging by a drawing for the bronze plaque that was subsequently stolen last I knew.

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Classic SU image - timeless style. Executed to perfection, as usual.

Inspiring work as always. It has inspired me to ask 2 how-to questions:

I assume you didn’t draw the “drawing” on the table. Is it an image of a drawing pasted in there?

How did you create the plastic edge on the t-square? Is it a texture?

Thanks for your thoughts and Happy Hollidys all!

Thanks Glenn.

The drawing on the table is an image imported as an image. The plastic edges on the T-square are just painted with a transparent color.

This is called “Hand Cad”, isn’t it ? :wink:

No. It’s “Manually Aided Design and Drafting” (MAD)

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Before I used SketchUp I would carefully draw things on large 8x4 plywood boards at 1:1 scale. We jokingly called it “BAD”. Board Assisted Design.

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As always your work is amazing. I would however lose the t-square and install a parallel bar
I know there’s one in every crowd. :slight_smile: