WHAT ARE THE
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OF DRAWING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS?
Representing 3 dimensions on a flat piece of paper is a very important skill
for designers, enabling them to communicate their ideas to other people.
PARALINE
DRAWING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
OBLIQUE, ISOMETRIC and PLANOMETRIC
These drawing production systems do NOT have lines converging toward a
vanishing point on the horizon line as in a PERSPECTIVE drawing. Objects do not appear as we see them in real life - they do not appear to
become smaller as they recede (foreshortening). This can make the drawn
objects seem to be distorted.
Receding lines are parallel to each other and do not converge, hence the
term 'paraline' - 'para' from 'parallel'.
An advantage of lines receding parallel to each other is that they can be
easily drawn using an appropriate set square placed on a T-square.
In an OBLIQUE drawing the sides usually recede at 45 degrees. Another side is drawn face on like an elevation of a multi-view drawing.
Multi-view drawing 
In an ISOMETRIC drawing both sides recede at 30 degrees.
In a PLANOMETRIC drawing both sides usually recede at 45 degrees. However, sometimes one side recedes at 30 degrees and the other side
recedes at 60 degrees (see above drawings).
One advantage of PARALINE drawings is that measurements can be taken
from a drawing as they are the actual measurements (although you need
to know what the scale is in a scaled drawing). An exception is the
OBLIQUE drawing which often is drawn with the sides receding only half
the actual measurement. To use the actual measurement would make it
appear elongated - a disadvantage (see above drawings).
To see examples of OBLIQUE drawing, click here
To see examples of ISOMETRIC drawing, click here
To see examples of PLANOMETRIC drawing, click here (IMPORTANT: The new webpage will show you a toy train
drawn in Isometric and Dimetric. 'Dimetric' is a term used
here to describe what we refer to as 'Planometric'. Sometimes
you may also see a Planometric drawing referred to as an
Axonometric drawing - different parts of the world use
different terms)
