Sometime between the years 12,000 B.C. and 10,000 B.C., man had reached the stage of drawing pictures on the walls
of his cave.
Chaldea:
Perhaps the earliest known drawing in existence is the plan view design of a fortress drawn by the Chaldean engineer
Girdea and engraved upon a stone tablet.
Egypt:
Ancient Egyptian stonemasons made plans for the pyramids and other buildings on papyrus, slab of limestone and
sometimes wood.
Geometry of the Greeks:
The ancient Greeks played a very important role in the Thales, the discovery of the circle theorem, 600 B.C.;
Pythagoras, the Pythagorian theorem of a right triangle, 525 B.C.; Enclid, 300 B.C.; and Archimedes, 250 B.C.
The Architecture of the Parthenon:
The architects of this temple were Ictinus and Callicrates. These men had made a type of perspective by the use of
foreshortening and converging parallel lines in their drawings.
The Architecture of Vitruvius Pollio:
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman architect first century B.C. His ten-volume treatise, De Architecture. This treatise was
a detailed analysis of the form, function and proportion of the
rediscovered in the fifteenth century and was immediately recognized as the architectural bible until the nineteenth
century. Compasses and defined elevation and perspective.
During the time of Christ, the techniques of drawing advanced rather slowly and basically on an individual basis until the
fifteenth century.
The Renaissance:
Renaissance (1300-1500). The classic civilizations were rediscovered, studied and imitated.
The Non-Mathematical Approach to Drawing
Giotto and Duccio:
Both of them made great advancements toward the clarity of perspective drawing with the use of symmetry, converging
lines and foreshortening.
Masaccio:
He is remembered for his improving of the aerial perspective technique.
The Mathematical Approach to Drawing.
Brunelleschi:
He was well known for his demonstration of the theoretical principles governing the laws of perspective drawing.
Alberti:
Alberti wrote a treatise, della Pittura and defined, in mathematical terms, the principles of perspective in painting.
Francesca:
Was most noted for his mastery of space and volume, his delicate color sense, and his unemotional protrayal of figures.
Two important theoretical works on perspective and the mathematical figures.
Da Vinci:
Leonardo’s drawings and sketches were very easily understood because of his excellent use of perspective, and for this
reason he taught others his methods for several years.
Durer:
Durer (1471-1528) was credited with the first basic knowledge of orthographic projection and scientifically formulated
in 1795 in a book written by Gaspard Monge.
Desarques:
Was a French mathematician, whose interest in graphics stemmed from problems he faces as a military engineer.
Desarques is regarded as one of the founders of modern projective geometry.
Monge:
Gaspard Monge (1746-1818) is considered the "father of descriptive geometry." Young Monge used the graphical
method in solving design problems related to fortifications and battlements while a military student in Mezieres, France.
He was scolded by his headmaster for not solving a problem by the usual, long, tedious mathematical process
traditionally used for problems of this type. After studying at the military school, Monge taught mathematics and physics
at the Polytechnic School in France. It was during that period Monge developed the principles of projection that are
today the basis of our engineering drawing. These principles of projection were recognized to be of such military
importance that Monge was compelled to keep his secret until 1795 following which they became an important part of
engineering and technical education in France, Germany and later in the United States. His work, Descriptive geometry,
was the first consciously formulated exposition of the science of orthographic projection and descriptive geometry.
Sylvestre Lacriux discovered the principles of projection independently about the same time as Monge. Jean Pierre
Hackette added new material to Monge’s descriptive geometry and published a book on this subject in 1822.
Zoeller:
The year 1807 marked the beginning of engineering drawing classes in this country, when Christian Zoeller was
appointed as instructor of drawing at the United States Military Academy.
Crozet:
Monge’s principles of descriptive geometry were brought to the United States in 1816 from France by Claude Crozet, a
professor at the U.S. Military Academy. He had no textbook on the subject, and descriptive geometry could not by
taught orally. It was here at this time, that Crozet, by the aid of a carpenter and a painter, introduced the blackboard and
the chalk. In 1821, Crozet published the first text on the subject of descriptive geometry in the English language.
The first half of the 19th century might well be called a formative period in the development of engineering drawing.
Alteneder’s Drafting Instruments:
the establishment in 1850 of the pioneer American factory for the manufacture of drawing instruments by the Alteneder
family—Theo.
Blueprint Process:
In 1876 the blueprint process was introduced in this country at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Up to this time
"draughtmanship" was more or less an art expressing itself in fine lines, shading both by lines and by washes, ornate
borders, fancy lettering and the use of colors. These techniques became unnecessary after the introduction of
blueprinting. The art of "draughting" was completely lost and the technology of "drafting" was discovered. This was the
beginning of modern engineering and technical drawing.
The Golden Age of Drafting:
The first half of the 20th century could be characterized as the golden age of drafting. The modern technology of drafting
was firmly recognized, and the applications of the graphic technology was found in engineering, design, manufacturing,
production, architecture, etc. Engineering, technical and vocational training in the area of drafting was greatly increased.
Drafting Standards:
In all of the drawing books there has been a tendency to standardize the characters of the graphic language and to give
industry, engineering, and science a uniform, effective graphic representation. The American National standards Institute
(ANSI), along with the American Society for Engineering Education, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, has been at work since 1926 to establish standards for drafting and to bring
such standards into agreement.
Computer Graphics:
1950- First computer-driven display attached to MIT’s Whirlwind I computer to generate simple pictures.
Late 1950’s MIT’s TX-0and TX-2- interactive computing became feasible and interest in computer graphics began to
increase rapidly.
1962- Ivan E. Sutherland’s PhD thesis "Sketchpad: A Man-machine graphical communication system" proved that
interactive computer graphics was a viable, useful, and exciting field of research.
Mid-1960’s- Large computer graphics research projects were begun at MIT, GM, Bell Telephone labs, and Lockheed
Aircraft. D. T. Ross of MIT developed an advanced compiler language for graphics programming. S. A. Coons, also at
MIT, and J. C. Ferguson at Boeing, began work in sculptured surfaces. GM developed their DAC-1 system and other
companies, such as Douglas, Lockheed, and McDonnell, also made significant developments.
1970’s- research began to produce intereactive computer graphics systems. Developments in the mathematics of
parametric geometry was developed by Coons (bicubic patches) and Bezier (special surfaces). Wireframe and
polygonal modeling schemes began to develop.
About 1980- Apple and IBM PC’s popularized the use of bitmap graphics. This resulted in an explosion of easy-to-use
and inexpensive graphics-based applications.
1981- VersaCad, a PC-based CAD system.
1982-
1983- AutoCAD developed by Autodesk .
Mid 1980’s- proliferation of CAD software.