Descriptive Geometry: From its Past to its Future

Abstract

Descriptive Geometry y y: From its Past to its Future Ab bs stract t. Descriptive geometry is the science that Gaspard Monge systematized in 1794 and that was widely developed in Europe, up until the first decades of the twentieth century. The main purpose of this science is the certain and accurate representation of three-dimensional shapes on the twodimensional support of the drawing, while its chief application is the study of geometric shapes and their characteristics, in graphic and visual form. We can therefore understand how descriptive geometry has been, on the one hand, the object of theoretical studies, and, on the other, an essential tool for designers, engineers and architects. Nevertheless, at the end of the last century, the availability of electronic machines capable of representing threedimensional shapes has produced an epochal change, because designers have adopted the new digital techniques almost exclusively. The purpose of this paper is to show how it is possible to give new life to the ancient science of representation and, at the same time, to endow CAD with the dignity of the history that precedes it. IntroductionDescriptive geometry is the science that Gaspard Monge systematized in 1794 and that was widely developed in Europe up until the first decades of the twentieth century. The main purpose of this science is the representation, certain and accurate, of shapes of three dimensions on the two-dimensional support of the drawing; while its chief application is the study of the geometric shapes and their characteristics, in a graphic and visual form. We can therefore understand how descriptive geometry has been, on the one hand, the object of theoretical studies, and, on the other, an essential tool for designers, engineers and architects.Nevertheless, at the end of the last century, the availability of electronic machines, capable of representing three-dimensional shapes, has produced an epochal change, because the designers have adopted the new digital techniques almost exclusively. Furthermore, mathematicians seem to have lost all interest in descriptive geometry, while its teaching in universities has almost disappeared, replaced by a training in the use of CAD software, which mainly has a technical character.The purpose of this paper is to show how it is possible to give new life to the ancient science of representation and, at the same time, to endow CAD with the dignity of the history that precedes it.This result may be achieved by verifying and validating some fundamental ideas:the idea that descriptive geometry is set within a historical process much wider than the Enlightenment period, a process which goes from Vitruvius to the present day, and that it therefore includes both the compass as well as modern digital technologies; the idea that, to the graphic representation methods (perspective, the method of Monge, axonometry, topographic mapping) can today be added the digital methods that are implemented in computer applications (mathematical representation, numerical or polygon...

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