Overview: Elevations are a group of drawings which show the exterior of a building. Elevations show exterior shapes and finishes, and vertical relationships of building levels. Basic elevations are the front, sides and rear of the building. Each elevation is projected from the floorplan using orthographic projection techniques. Typically, the front elevation is drawn using the 1/4"=1'-0" scale. Other elevations are often drawn at a smaller scale.

Objectives: As a result of completing this assignment students will:

1. Be able to recognize a variety of roof structures.
2. Understand roof terms such as rise, run, slope, hip, ridge, and overhang and use these understandings to locate points on elevation drawings.
3. Be able to draw top views of basic hip and gable roofs over the floorplan.
4. Be able to lay out a simple roof plan over their foundation plan.
5. Understand terminology such as roof line, window and door line, floor line, grade line, frost line, and footing line.
6. Understand and be able to project at least one side and one end elevation from the floorplan.
7. Be aware of a variety of exterior window and door symbols and apply these to the front elevation.
8. Be aware of a variety of exterior finish symbols and apply two or three of these symbols to their elevations.

1. Note the first floor plan at the top of this figure.
2. Note the rough layout of a front elevation at the bottom of this figure.
3. Note how the widths of windows and doors are projected from the floor plan view to the front view.
4. Move the floor plan toward the top of the drafting board so that about 1/2 of the drawing hangs over the top of the board. Tape it down so it is aligned with the board. Roll the top part of the drawing and carefully tape it at both ends.
5. Mount 1/2 sheet of clean tracing paper along the bottom of the board.