1. When starting your drawing always begin by generating a prism. To learn how to do this click here.
   
   
   
2. Modify your prism to the proportions you want your object to be. Do this by chopping off parts of your prism until you have the proportions you want.
   
   
   
3. It will be faster to make good guesses than get too concerned about measurements. For example this box is three times higher than it is wide and two times longer than it is wide.
   
   
   
4. The first lines you draw may not be the ones you want to end up seeing. Nevertheless you need these lines to help you generate the shapes you want. These are called construction lines and they are best done lightly in pencil. Don’t rub them out, simply go over the correct lines in a fine felt tipped pen.
   
   

   Construction lines in pencil	Final shape in Fineliner

   
   
5. If you want to modify a face of a prism then generally speaking the first lines you draw on that face will be in the same orientation as the lines that define the outline of that face.
   
   
   
6. Rounded corners are just like cylinders except you are only using a part of the cylinder. Remember to put the tracking rule in the slot opposite to the face you are working from.
   
   
   
7. To draw an interior you need to remove the roof and the walls closest to the viewer. Start with the floor-plan and then project lines up from the corners.These will show the walls. Check for proportions before adding any detail.
   
   
   
8. Give everything you do the “look test”. Step one: look at what you have drawn. Step two: ask yourself ‘does it look right’. If it doesn’t look right then it probably isn’t. If it looks right then it is right.
   
   
   
9. If you want to segment a shape equally, for cupboards in a kitchen for example, firstly set the proportions of the cupboard closest to you. Then draw the diagonal on this shape. The angle of this diagonal will be the same on all the other shapes Using a set square with the tracking rule draw the diagonal for the next shape so that it is the same angle. The intersection of this new diagonal and the top edge indicates the width of the next cupboard. You’ll see that the cupboards become smaller as they go into the distance. This passes the look test.
   
   
   
10. To make a chamfer draw a diagonal truncating a corner off one of the faces (with the tracking rule out of the slots) and project the new corners to the other side of the prism. Complete the chamfer with the second diagonal.
    
    
    This method of drawing on one face and then projecting to the other is ideal for some other shapes:
    
    
    
11. Sometimes you will need to project from one surface onto a surface that you can’t see. Don’t forget to show only the lines that you can see. The lines that we can’t see but are helpful for generating shapes are called ‘construction’ lines.
    
    
    
12. To draw the following shape the projections were done across two surfaces.
    
    
    
13. 13. To find the centre of a surface simply draw the diagonals (with the tracking rule out of the slots).
    
    
    
14. Use the centre on the top surface to draw a square based pyramid.
    
    
    
15. To show another object connected to a prism start by drawing the surface that is in contact. Note that with protruding objects you can see three corners
    
    
    
16. To draw an indentation rather than a protrusion, begin with the same shape and draw the inside corner (in this case the bottom left corner). Note that for indented shapes you will normally only see one corner. The length of this corner indicates how deep the indentation is.
    
    
    
17. As you design your object include variations of additions, truncations and indentations.
    
    

Do you have any handy ways of using the 3D board that we can add to this list. Send in your suggestions to admin@3dboards.com.au