Section View question

[smooze1775]

Hello all. I have a question about section views in drawings and hopefully this is the place to get an answer. I'm a lone designer in a smallish family owned forging business. To make a long story short, if the vast majority of our drawings are stand alone section view drawings, meaning there is no top or plan view of the item, do I need to label the item "Section A-A" when there is nothing to reference it to? I hope I explained it correctly. I have asked this in a different forum and all I got were answers to questions I did not ask. I skimmed through Y14.3 and did not see anything relating to this type of drawing. I did see one comment on this forum that said something along the lines that stand alone section view drawings are bad practice. The company has been drawing like this since the beginning of time. Reason I'm seeking some answers/guidance is because a customer reached out about one of our drawings for a part we are forging for them. They said the section view was not properly called out. Thanks!

 

[david339933]

How can it be called a section if there is no relevant section? You can't have Section A-A without having another view denoting what A-A section is.
I am not a drafter, so you aren't getting the Y14.3 technical crap you will get from many others.

 

[smooze1775]

That's kind of what my position is, why would I have a random text saying "Section A-A" when there's nothing to reference back to.

Also, I didn't think of this until now but we primarily do 2D drawings. So I'm not building a 3D model and then pulling a section from there.

 

[Heaviside1925]

OP,
I think you may be answering your question in your post. I agree with david33933, that it does make much sense to call out a non-referenced section, just to have a call out.

In your post you said, " The company has been drawing like this since the beginning of time ". Have you asked the owners about this? If their response is, that's just how we do it, then that doesn't leave you much room to do anything else but if their response is for you to change your drawing to make the customer happy, then I would ask the customer for an example of what they think the drawing format should be. As long as this is not a code issue or a result of your company agreeing contractually to use the customers drafting standards " The company has been drawing like this since the beginning of time " may be the best guidance you can use.

I have worked with many vendors who supply drawings in what I would consider "non-standard" format and as long as it's not a contractual or code issue and the drawing is communicating what needs to be communicated then 99% of the time, it was not an issue.

 

[david339933]

How do you know what the entire forging looks like without an overall view. Seems a bit confusing to have just a section view.

 

[DekDee]

I agree totally with Davids comments - especially the last one.
A little story and I hope it is relevant to this discussion.
My Thai wife is a self taught designer.
She has designed both of our houses and also our Childrens Water Park (and supervised the construction).
I am an ex-welder who has progressed into Quality management.
I have worked with drawings and isometrics my whole career.
She has come to me many times with sketches of what she wants me to build and I look at it and do not have a clue what she actually wants.
She has drawn the "view" that is in her head.
Maybe I am not on the same wavelength as her but I cannot envisage what she is seeing.
Point I am trying to make is the more views you have of something the better the understanding of what that something actually is.

 

[smooze1775]

@Heaviside1925, I don't have access to the owners on that level. Most people, it seems, don't really care too much about the drawings themselves as long as the relevant information is there. Most of the dwgs stay in house. I have made a mental note that going forward I will have section callouts when relevant. This particular project is kind of a one-off project because we are doing the process from forge to rough machine to finish machine. We don't normally do finish machining as most of our customers either do that themselves or send the forgings elsewhere for finish machining.

@david339933, most of the forgings themselves are simple shapes. Like yesterday I drew a 16x16x20 rectangular box with a 3" dia. hole bored through it. We don't need 10 sheets of different views for something simple like that. That's why there's only 1 designer here, lol. There are some forgings that require projected and isometric views and I utilize those views when needed.

@DekDee, I agree with the more views comment. If I feel like an added view helps I include the views, at no extra cost, and I get a "Oh, I like the iso view, I didn't think of that." from my supervisor.

 

[EdStainless]

I have seen drawings where there is a little plane view off in the corner with no dimensions and a section line.
Then the main drawing is a section view.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[david339933]

I agree, you don't need 10 sheets, but a simple overall iso view solves a lot of confusion. A box with a hole in it can be confusing if you only see a section of it.