Elevation

An elevation is an orthographic drawing: lines that are parallel in reality stay parallel on paper, and nothing shrinks with distance. That makes it a measured drawing, so heights, window sizes and proportions can be read directly at scale. Each face of a building usually gets its own elevation, named by orientation (north elevation) or by street. Elevations fix the composition of the facade: openings, materials, floor lines, roof edges and how the building meets the ground.

How it shows up in a project

• Elevations are used in planning submissions, where authorities check height, materials and the relation to neighboring buildings.
• Because there is no perspective, an elevation can make depth hard to read. Shadows cast at a consistent angle are the traditional fix.
• A rendered elevation with real materials, sky and some planting is easier for non-specialists to understand than a line drawing.
• Elevations are read together with the floor plan and section, which cover what an elevation cannot show.
• Keep the scale bar or dimensions visible when the drawing will be measured from.

In Rendair

Elevation to Render takes a line elevation and returns a rendered version with materials, light and context, while keeping the drawing's composition. You can run the same elevation with different materials, or keep a drawn look with the Architectural Drawing style for a presentation sheet.