Visual Plane
every picture states the point it is correct from
Concept

Parallel projection — where it appears

2 essays name this object, across one field. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
elevationx 1.000y 1.000z 0.000cavalierx 1.000y 1.000z 1.000cabinetx 1.000y 1.000z 0.500isometricx 0.816y 0.816z 0.816dimetricx 0.943y 0.943z 0.471axis scales measured from the drawingall 5 preserve midpoints

Parallel projection is not primitive perspective

Isometric and oblique drawing are not what people used before they worked perspective out. They are a different answer to a different question, and the difference is one measurable quantity — a parallel projection preserves the ratio in which a point divides a segment, and a perspective projection destroys it by 7% of the segment's drawn length at a comfortable depth, rising to 13% over the range the slider covers.

parallel · parallel isometric — the limit2.5 m6 m20 m200 msame box, same drawn sizethe eye recedes

The eye taken to infinity

A parallel projection is a photograph from infinitely far away with the lens lengthened to match. That is not an analogy — it is the limit, it can be watched happening, and it explains why a long lens flattens a scene and why an isometric drawing has no viewing distance to state.

parallel · limit

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

IsometricOrthographicPicture planeAffine mapAxonometricDepth compressionMidpointOblique projectionOrthographic limitProjective limitStation pointTelephoto compression

All concepts