The last step in the process of design of a machine is the making of the assembled or general drawing. This should be built up piece by piece from the detail drawings, thereby serving as a last check on the parts going together. This drawing may be a cross section or an outside view. In any case it is not wise to try to show too much of the inside construction by dotted lines, for if this be attempted, the drawing soon loses its character of clearness, and becomes practically useless. A general drawing should clearly hint at, but not specify, detailed design. It is just as valuable a part of the design as the detail drawing, but it cannot be made to answer for both with any degree of success. A good general drawing has plenty of views, and an abundance of cross sections, but few dotted lines.

The general drawing of the machine under consideration is left for the student to work up from the complete details shown. It would look something like the preliminary layout of Fig. 10, if the same were carefully carried out to finished form. A plain out-side view would probably be more satisfactory in this case than a cross section, as the latter would show little more of value than the former. The functions which the general drawing may serve are many and varied. Its principal usefulness is, perhaps, in showing to the workman how the various parts go together, enabling him to sort out readily the finished detail parts and assemble them, finally producing the complete structure. Otherwise the making of a machine, even with the parts all at hand, would be like the putting together of the many parts of an intricate puzzle, and much time would be wasted in trying to make the several parts fit, with per-haps never complete success in giving each its absolutely correct location.

The general drawing also gives valuable information as to the total space occupied by the completed machine, enabling its location in a crowded manufacturing plant to be planned for, its connection to the main driving element arranged, and its convenience of operation studied.

In some classes of work it is a convenient practice to letter each part on the general drawing, and to note the same letters on the specification or order sheet, thus enabling the whole machine to be ordered from the general drawings. This is a very excellent service performed by the general drawing in certain lines of work, but for such a purpose the drawing is quite inapplicable in others.

Merely as a basis for judgment of design, the general drawing fulfils an important function in any class of work, for it approaches the nearest possible to the actual appearance that the machine will have when finished. A good general drawing is, for critical purposes, of as much value to the expert eye of the mechanical engineer as the elaborate and colored sketch of the architect is to the house builder or landscape designer.

From the above it is readily understood that the general drawing, although a mere putting together of parts in illustration, is yet of great assistance in producing finished and exact machine design.