Orthogonal Drawing Views

In Orthogonal drawing views, the viewer’s eyes are centered on one side of the object. In other words, the viewer’s line of sight is orthogonal (perpendicular) to aside. Look at the picture it has all possible orthogonal views of the Perspective View of a drawing shown on the top right corner of the picture. All the views are listed as under:

1. ‘Front View’ or ‘Front Side View’ or ‘Front Elevational View’. The viewpoint is centered over the front side.
2. ‘Rear View’ or ‘Rear Side View’ or ‘Rear Elevational View’. The viewpoint is centered over the rear side.
3. ‘Right Side View’ or ‘Right Elevational View’. The viewpoint is centered over the right side.
4. ‘Left Side View’ or ‘Left Elevational View’. The viewpoint is centered over the left side.
5. ‘Top View’ or ‘Top Side View’ or ‘Plan View’. The viewpoint is centered over the top side.
6. ‘Bottom View’ or “Bottom Side View’. The viewpoint is centered over the bottom side.

Orthogonal Views do not convey the depth and thus these views are relatively difficult to understand. This is the reason that the same of many surfaces appear ambiguous. Notwithstanding the failure to meet the clarity standards orthogonal views are commonly used in patent drawings. The reason behind this usage is that these views are comparatively simple to make. If one orthogonal view is considered alone, without the help of the other views, the actual shape of the object can not be determined. An object which appears to be a rectangle in an orthogonal view may have various possible actual shapes. Therefore, if the shape of the object is not conveyed clearly in an orthogonal view, all other possible orthogonal views should be used. If still the shape is not conveyed using all the possible orthogonal views then one or more perspective views should be used.