Engineering Graphics

I would like to talk much about graphics. I have seen many people who are afraid of graphics. I never was. :-)  So it would wise of me to share with you what exactly I did for graphics.

I would suggest please join a good class (yes, of course an intelligent suggestion). Graphics is one such subject which requires just the understanding of the concept and nothing else. All you ought to know is how this will look from right side, left side, front side, from bottom and from up. This is easy if you get a good tutor who can hone up your natural ability of viewing and imagining objects in 3 dimensions. Yes, imagination is the most important part. I would not deter to say that if you study graphics all by yourself it will take a good long time.

Either you must have a good teacher in college or you must have joined a good private class OR you are super talented personality. Once you get the basic concepts of how the views are created, by your mere imagination you can understand the situation and conquer any problem that is thrown at you. Besides this, beware while joining classes, because this is a subject where I have seen even private tutors who are unable to complete the syllabus. Some of them are authors of few books too.

Remember, graphics is a subject which is to be enjoyed like a game. When played well and practiced regularly after your lectures, it will always score best in the end. If you are good in remembering the contents of the syllabus (which is shortest as compared to any other engineering subject) in minute detail you will score high.

Key points-

1. You must have a good teacher for graphics. Except, as I said, for super talented personalities (about whom we shouldn’t be talking here)
2. You must get it understood clearly.
3. You must revise whatever that teacher taught everyday. And keep yourself updated. This will help in getting a good score.
4. Don’t feel ashamed in getting any problem cleared from the teachers right at that moment. Because in graphics if you miss even a single thing, you won’t understand anything further. For example, if you don’t know how to project a slant line on LHS view or RHS view, how the hell can you know to project a slant plane rectangle?
5. You have to remember only the right projections that are to be done with respect to particular situation remembering the particular position.
6. If the teacher is good, please don’t ever bunk the classes.
7. Use the geometrical instrument called as ‘drafter’ for drawing and don’t waste time in using scales, rulers, protracter compasses, etc. this instrument is awesome and don’t under-estimate it’s power, which is a common mistake (I did it, almost till the end). Learn to use it, fix it, align it.
8. There are variety of French curves available in market. Go for the flexible one’s. Don’t keep using that ‘chinddhi’ plastic paper French curve. The flexible French curves let you adjust the curve in a better manner.
9. And please keep practicing and enjoying the problems in graphics. It is not necessary that you have to practice with all the geometrical instruments at hand. You can just do it rough, using approximate measures on rough paper without any instrument.
10. After doing all this and referring the same class notes before exam, you don’t have any need of studying for graphics any more. You can easily score a 100. (Concepts and practice are two success pillars of graphics)

Now lets come to a crisis situation. You have few days in hand and you don’t know a single line about graphics.

1.       Get to know the line.

2.       Understand how the question papers are set. (Usually the question papers are set according to the units, with the 1^st unit featuring Lines and their projection, 2^nd planes and their projection and so on ). You can actually predict what type of question can come in the exam. Everything is same, just the words are different, a flagpole becomes a building and a building becomes a tree.

3.       Here in graphics you can’t jump to any other unit directly. Prefer studying them one after the other, in sequence.

4.       Whatever you learn, do it perfectly. Finally it will be OK if you do, around 3 4 units perfectly. (for passing). Though I would like to tell, it is a scoring subject and not a tough one, if understood clearly.

5.       You must be able to finish the 3 4 units in 2, 3 or 4 days according to your understanding capacity.

Nothing else can protect you from the wrath of graphics. In graphics,

‘It is not the subject that will murder you, it is but the mind that will betray you.’