Auto-CAD Drawings

During the couple of years since my brother put an Auto-CAD program designed for Civil Engineering technology onto my PC I have taught myself how to draw with it. I have already used it to present customers with exact profiles of mill works found in older Victorian style homes, such as this cornice below that went on top of a double-hung window.

The hardest part about this type of molding is trying to dimension all the various radii without crossing over the outline, taking away the clarity of it. I had not seen this type of molding in any modern houses. It has a classical cyma recta offset by a cove and minescule reveal. What I appreciated the most when working with it at this client's house was the rabbeted seat that allowed a near perfect fit over 3/4" casing and the wall, given the walls are done well.

I drew this Doric order base working from a library book. It took repeated tries at deciphering old colonial handwriting, syntax and grammar, detailing how Greek Revivalism was applied from observed formulas at the time. This photo is of the drawing with construction lines frozen for clarity.

I sold the plaster recreation and restoration of a large ornate cornice that was missing over a pilaster in the courtroom of the Historic Federal Building, in Pueblo, Colorado in 2006. This I did from a previous illustration drawn from exact measurements of a wooden substrate that a previous carpenter had installed. The owner was prepared to apply some prefabricated appliques with no real knowledge that this substrate was off dimensionally by as much as 1/2".

The drawing below was generated to present to the client for spacing of panel moldings assembled in tall rectangular frames, After a bit of consultation it was decided that the recurring motif of triples in the windows would be the way to go, also reinforcing the vertical lines of the space. Whilst painting the split oval arch upon scaffolds I took the opportunity to take a survey of the bands and ogee dimensions and added them onto the layout for aesthetic appeal and documentary interest.

layoutThe panel mold frames as installed. (For more information on this project visit my other blog:

http://www.pouredintoamould.blogspot.com )

Above is an idea for a shower stall floor that I came up with under the influence of ancient Roman floor mosaics. I imagine that aside from molding and casting these to manage repeatable accuracy one easy way of cutting them could be done with a trammel jig fastened to a water-cooled diamond saw.

The above is a layout drawing for the exterior stair I remodelled, photographs of which are documented on another entry.

Above, a top view plan for framing of porch decking at my own home. This does not show where the new walls will be (since part of the house is inside the normal setback from the property line).

Above, a top view plan estimating trenching for my new electrical service entrance and driveway re-location to the east side of the house. Since my septic tank is aligned in an odd way I also triangulated its exact location too. Never know when one may have the equipment to dig, so I thought it would be handy to have the drawing ready regardless.