Good drafting practice

I agree that the graphical representation on many of today's maps lack the most basic cartographic skills.?ÿ Back in the days before CAD was everywhere, as a freshman engineering student I was required to take a drafting class.?ÿ Not sure if that is required these days.

I find it interesting that in the civil world we dimension every segment of a line while in the mechanical world, where I got my start drafting, you always left on segment unidimensioned to show where the slop should go.

Posted by: @john-putnam

you always left on segment unidimensioned to show where the slop should go.

A favorite trick of architects.

Slop??ÿ What slop??ÿ Slop is what you feed hogs.

I also agree. Running CAD is a separate skill from preparing a readable map. Too often people get the former down passably, and stop developing.?ÿ?ÿ

Any of you who can read electronic schematics have experienced the same thing.?ÿ Remember the Popular Electronics magazine??ÿ Their schematics were always a "work of art" rather than showing the signal flow.

@john-putnam

If the intention is to grant a potentially lesser or greater right to the undimensioned lot owner that works.

Nate has a good point about the incremental and total distances.?ÿ If you follow that practice, you may wish to include some version of this note I obtained on Beer Leg:

"The sum of incremental distances may not agree with the total due to rounding."

It can save you from the wrath of the overzealous plat checker.

Ken

?ÿ

Ken, I add them up, and check JUST FOR THE PLAT CHECKER! And, modify something, so as to quash that.?ÿ

I like your way better!

Thanks!

Nate

@ken-salzmann

We are talking distances the length of a gnat's penis here.?ÿ I fall in the camp that believes the incremental should equal the total.?ÿ To state otherwise leaves one to wonder where the extra/missing 0.01 was located.?ÿ Internal angles around a tract should end up with a number that totals precisely to a number evenly divisible by 90.?ÿ Having an extra 4 arcseconds is pure sloppiness.

Natester do you place the bearing on top of the line and distance below? Bearing and distance on same line above or below? Distance on top bearing below? distance and bearing on same line above or below? And how much data is in your curve tables? ?????ÿ

Indeed, good drafting effectively conveys information in a clear and unambiguous manner.?ÿ CAD, computers, and digital files are AMAZING (erase, copy/paste, calculations, cogo, lots of other fast tools) but sometimes fall short on effectively conveying information in a clear and unambiguous manner.?ÿ (And as Bruce pointed out recently, there can also be copy paste errors and false information, https://surveyorconnect.com/community/surveying-geomatics/plotter-annotation/?swcfpc=1#post-540741)

?ÿ

Drafting used to be a real art and was not constrained by technology limitations.?ÿ If you wanted to rotate text, you just positioned your hands (or hand tools) at that angle.?ÿ If you needed leader lines or breaks in lines, or other modifications, it was as simple as moving a pen across paper (or lifting the pen up in that area).?ÿ The consequences were of course high, any mistake may discard many hours of work and duplicates were not easy or fast.?ÿ

?ÿ

The wonders of modern computers and CAD are truly marvelous but sometimes I think that we accepted too much mediocrity and too many limitations with the advances.?ÿ I suppose that a good craftsman never blames his tools.?ÿ

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Here is a recent article about an amazing drafter, http://www.associationpublications.com/flipbooks/plso/2020/SeptOct/22/index.html and the addendum, https://plso.org/Sept_OctTOS-Bonus-Material

(might be double posting)

Indeed, good drafting effectively conveys information in a clear and unambiguous manner.?ÿ CAD, computers, and digital files are AMAZING (erase, copy/paste, calculations, cogo, lots of other fast tools) but sometimes fall short on effectively conveying information in a clear and unambiguous manner.?ÿ (And as Bruce pointed out recently, there can also be copy paste errors and false information, https://surveyorconnect.com/community/surveying-geomatics/plotter-annotation/?swcfpc=1#post-540741)

?ÿ

Drafting used to be a real art and was not constrained by technology limitations.?ÿ If you wanted to rotate text, you just positioned your hands (or hand tools) at that angle.?ÿ If you needed leader lines or breaks in lines, or other modifications, it was as simple as moving a pen across paper (or lifting the pen up in that area).?ÿ The consequences were of course high, any mistake may discard many hours of work and duplicates were not easy or fast.?ÿ

?ÿ

The wonders of modern computers and CAD are truly marvelous but sometimes I think that we accepted too much mediocrity and too many limitations with the advances.?ÿ I suppose that a good craftsman never blames his tools.?ÿ

?ÿ

Here is a recent article about an amazing drafter, http://www.associationpublications.com/flipbooks/plso/2020/SeptOct/22/index.html?ÿ and the addendum, https://plso.org/Sept_OctTOS-Bonus-Material

@flga-2 pretty well all kinds of things.

Curve gets

Delta

Radius

Length

Chord brg

Chord dist

Idiot proof is good.

Pm me. I'll send ya a recent plat!

Thx

N

I would like to see examples of what the members here consider good work, of course old hand dimensioned drawings would be interesting but what would be more informative are modern, cad generated drawings that stand out for clarity and aesthetics.?ÿ

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Especially from recording states I have never understood why there is so much talking about good surveying and bad and never the plats in question, post them up gentlemen.?ÿ

Posted by: @party-chef

I would like to see examples of what the members here consider good work, of course old hand dimensioned drawings would be interesting but what would be more informative are modern, cad generated drawings that stand out for clarity and aesthetics.?ÿ

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There's actually a national competition for outstanding examples of drafting and platting.

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https://www.nsps.us.com/page/MapPlat

As a reviewer of survey plats in multiple counties the number one thing consider is if the wording of the description agrees perfectly with what is shown on the plat.?ÿ For example, if the first call begins at the northwest corner of the section, is that corner shown, identified with the same words as in the description and the symbol in the legend in agreement with the one shown.?ÿ I can't tell you how many times I have found differences between the two sources of information that should be identical.?ÿ Another common problem is finding a missing call in the description in tracts with many sides.

My favorite drawings are all one linetype, all one line weight, and all one font, with all text at the same height.

@john-putnam Architects must be taught the same way. Probably ninety percent of the house plans i get where the garage is set at an angle other than ninety degrees with respect to the main body of the house are missing at least one dimension where the garage and house meet.?ÿ Quite often they also forget to give the angle. It makes it difficult for me to find their mistakes or mine.

The most recent case turned out to be a defection angle of 11 degrees 3 minutes and 5 seconds. Coincidentally that was the same as the difference in the bearings of the left and right lot lines but I had to guess and then verify by pulling the pdf into CAD to check the angle and line lengths.

My experience is that drafting styles are as varied and eclectic as the surveyors that make them.?ÿ It is strange because it is graphic communication and art at the same time.?ÿ I guess I judge a plat by the fact I can "follow the footsteps" and find the corners called out.?ÿ Form and function in full effect.?ÿ

There are some beautiful ALTA plats, drawn by very skilled draftspeople, and nare one corner to be found.?ÿ But I guess you could make the argument that if they cared about the drafting, then they cared about the fieldwork.?ÿ

Should the focus be on a uniform title block with a pretty logo and drawn by or checker boxes, or, on ancillary evidence to the line (line trees, ditch ties) when the trencher has its way with the R/W corners?

I'm flashing back to Kent here and the "North Arrows of the Day"...

Just make it so I can read the damn Bearing and Distance and find the corner in 120 years, after the clerk has shrunk the drawing into the cloud or whatever!