Explore engineering drawing, graphic design and computer graphics with this free online technical drawing course.

This free online course teaches you technical and graphic drawing for all modes of engineering. We begin with a brief overview of the course and its fundamentals and brief you on the equipment required to participate in course examples that involve constructions and graphic drawing. We then lay out the basics of engineering drawing, beginning with drawing sheet layouts and dimensions. We discuss the specified ‘dimensioning’ units that are used as standard practice and analyze the correct formats of ‘dimensioning’ objects and constructions. We then evaluate its techniques that use angles and discuss the special issues that it raises. The course compares different features of dimensions and their different acceptable levels of tolerance with regards to the construction of designed products.

We then examine the fundamentals of geometric constructions, which forms the foundation of all technical drawing and thus of all engineering. We teach you how to illustrate shapes such as arcs and circles and how to draw constructions effectively and accurately. We demonstrate the methods used to bisect a line at a perpendicular angle and how to bisect and trisect angles without the use of measurements. We then show you how to segment a line into equal parts without measurements and how to construct multiple shapes including polygons. The course then breaks down how to create a circle where the circumference runs through three different points and how to draw tangents. We then compare the multitude of tangent constructions from the common tangent to the interior and exterior tangents of multiple circle variations. These constructions and techniques are used in all engineering sectors for meticulous technical designs. They represent fundamental knowledge that allow for more complex future designs. 

The course then addresses conic sections and the wide variety of techniques and formats used to create accurate constructions. Conic sections, also called ‘conics’, are classified as any curve produced by the intersection of a plane and a right circular cone. Depending on the angle of the plane relative to the cone, the intersection can either produce a circle, an ellipse, a hyperbola or a parabola. This module will cover all four of these intersection variants and the different methods used to construct their four shapes: the ‘focus-directrix’, ‘concentric circle’, ‘oblong’ and ‘arcs’ methods, which are used in different forms to construct the four shapes of the intersections. The lesser-known ‘rectangular’ method is also covered but is not as effective in constructing all four shapes. This section reinforces tangents but presents variants of the original techniques. We examine the tangent constructions that lead to new special curves: spirals, cycloids and helixes. This diploma course suits engineering or technological enthusiasts who want to hone their technical drawing skills, which form the basis of a career building objects both in the physical and digital worlds.