Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my Graphics Two Manual Drafting class for the eighth week, I told them that they only had one plate to make, which would be worth thirty points (the total of all the weekly plates they have had to make so far).

This was the one where two of the orthogonal projections are given, and they have to come up with the third missing projection (whether the top or the right side angle) and the isometric view.

I had a sample of how their plate should look like on the board. I also reminded them to use the best-fit scale to make proper use of the space and to be mindful of the one-centimeter internal margin of their paper.

I wrote that they had to come up with and list down two scales, the first for the isometric drawing and the second for the orthogonal projections.

For the first time, some of them had to come up with a scale where the drawing was sized down, instead of enlarged.

Next, the dimensions only had to be made on the left side of the front view, and the bottom of the front and the right side view. None had to be made for the isometric drawing, which would be redundant.

Another difference from the previous plates is that now, instead of coming up with one design for the earlier class and another for the later class, each class was divided to have two different assignments per class, depending on the first letter of their family names. So like most of the previous weeks, I still had to come up with at least two designs per class, but the students only had to deal with one of them.

Of course there were still those who complained, maybe jokingly, about only having to make one plate, and I responded just as jokingly that if they were not satisfied, they could do the second plate assigned to the half of the class as well.

There were those who said that a slanted figure could be made from the two views I presented. I reminded them that since the start of the term, for every new concept or challenge I presented, the first week was solely for block drawing, diagonal lines not showing up until the second week.

Next, one student (the same one who drew an isometric figure in his plate when that was what was written on the board, instead of providing the orthogonal projections) told me some time after the class started that he thought they were supposed to just copy the sample plate I had drawn on the board. I asked him if we have ever done that, a “copy” exercise. He didn’t answer anymore. That would have meant no thinking involved, not something I’m known for.

Session 841 was scaled down. Class dismissed.