Drawing Plans, Nomenclature, and Postings…

by Pappy September 26th, 2007, Posted in: Woodworking


Two posts back I mentioned I was looking into CAD or other drafting programs for drawing out project plans. I still am, and in fact, the one I’m leaning towards is Google’s free SketchUp software. However, the learning curve on most of these applications can be steep, and I didn’t want to postpone my next project while I wade through hours of tutorial videos and trial and error attempts. So, for this next project I’ve reverted back to my old stand-by favorite, Microsoft Image Composer. It’s simple, easy to use, and I can create my own methodologies for drawing plans to scale. For example, on the potato box project, my smallest unit of measurement is 1/16 of an inch, so I created a grid with 16 by 16 pixel squares, which equates to each square representing 1 inch. Drawing out the two dimensional workpieces over this grid then becomes a simple task. For now it works. I’d love to hear your preferred methods for drawing out plans.

I’ve gotten a few e-mails asking why I write out dimensional notation the way I do instead of using standard nomenclature. For example:

24 inches by 12 inches by 5/8 inch

instead of:

24″ x 12″ x 5/8″

The reason for this is for compatibility with text-to-speech. You may have noticed the “Listen Now” button at the top of each post. This is a great service provided by Odiogo.com that dynamically converts textual RSS feeds into well spoken, synthetic speech audio files. This enables any blog to be turned into a decent quality podcast without the author having to so much as look at a microphone. I’ve found some small anomalies with the way their interpreter translates dimensional nomenclature, however, so I’ve started writing it out in a manner that’s both readable as well as can be pronounced by the Odiogo engine. Project plan diagrams will still continue to use more standard nomenclature.

The last administrative note I’ll make is concerned with Wordpress, the software used to publish this site. They released a major new version yesterday and I’ve already upgraded. There are a few small edits I’m making to make the site compatible with new features, so you may experience minor interruptions or display anomalies. Hopefully most of it will be non-invasive and you won’t even notice.