Simulic
English

From three views to the object – read the drawing and build it

Design & TechnologyEngineering Drawing & DesignAges 15–16

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The task gives the front, top and side views of an object made of unit cubes, arranged in first-angle projection with hidden edges dashed. Build the object layer by layer and watch its isometric drawing, or pick the right isometric drawing out of four; Check shows which views match and marks every difference in red on the task. Six built-in objects of rising difficulty plus random tasks; in 3D you build directly inside the three projection planes.

Lesson: Reading orthographic views; isometric drawing; building an object from three views

What it shows

Reading a drawing is the reverse of drawing views: from the front, top and side views you must imagine the object. Here the object is built from equal cubes, and its three views follow first-angle projection: the top view sits below the front view and the view from the left sits to its right. Visible edges are thick continuous lines and hidden edges are dashed. The views are computed exactly from the cubes, so any object with the same three views counts as correct, which shows that three views do not always fix a single object.

How to use

Pick a Task object and set Mode to Build layer by layer. Choose a layer with the buttons 1–3 and tap the grid to add or remove cubes while the isometric drawing updates. Press Check: matching views get a tick, red cells are extra, orange cells are missing and red segments are wrong lines. Switch Mode to Choose the right object (A–D) for a quicker task, or press New task for a random one.

Parameters you can change

  • Task object Stepped block (easy), L-shaped block, Block with a slot, T-shaped support (overhang), Stepped corner (hard), Block with a through hole (hard), Random task
  • Mode Build layer by layer, Choose the right object (A–D)
  • Show hidden edges in the task (dashed)
  • Hint: show differences while editing

Questions to explore

  1. What does a dashed line in the left side view tell you about the part of the object behind?
  2. Can you build two different objects that have exactly the same three views?
  3. Which view shows how many layers high the object is, and which shows how many rows deep?

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