Section (Fortification Drawing)

The term "section" carries the burden of two very similar, but quite distinct, meanings in fortification drawing. In its first sense a section was a cut view of a fortification feature projected on a vertical plane that was perpendicular to the general direction of a feature's lines and showed the interior or structural details of the feature. Taken in this sense, a section's purpose was to show the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the feature along with the details of its form and how the various elements of the feature fit together.

In its second sense a section was a cut view of a feature taken on a vertical plane that was not perpendicular to the direction of a feature's lines. In this sense a section's purpose was to represent features of a work that could not be well represented in a single drawing along a single perpendicular plane. A section might be broken into two or more perpendicular planes or the feature could be represented as though cut on a line running at a diagonal angle to the general lines of the feature.

January, 2003