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Nov 17, 2015 13:16
8 yrs ago
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French term

l’axe de hauteur

French to English Tech/Engineering Construction / Civil Engineering UK English
This is an instruction on how to install a shop sign. The document has just described the main shop sign over the door to the shop and now describes a second sign as:
"une plaque 30x30cm posée à 1,30m à l’axe de hauteur".

My provisional translation is: "a 30 cm × 30 cm plate fixed vertically at 1.30 m". However, as the plate is square, it doesn't actually make sense to specify that it should be fixed vertically. As the text seems to omit the all important information about what the plate is supposed to be fixed to, perhaps that is what I am missing here about "l’axe de hauteur" and it simply means that it is fixed to the upright beside the door or to the side of the window. It seems to me to be an odd way of describing that.
Proposed translations (English)
5 placed at a height of 1.30m
5 +1 placed at a level with 1.30 m coordinate on the depth axis/z-axis
4 -1 centred
1 1.3 m above the horizontal centre-line

Discussion

B D Finch (asker) Nov 26, 2015:
Still awaiting feedback I am still waiting for feedback on this from the Client, so will update and grade when I get it.
Jennifer Levey Nov 17, 2015:
@Asker It would seem ridiculous ... unless it was intended for wheelchair users.

Or maybe it's a toy-shop, with the sign levelled at kids.
Or a pet-food shop, targeting scholarly quadrupeds.
Jennifer Levey Nov 17, 2015:
@Daryo The biggest "red herring" here is, sad to say, the source text.
Daryo Nov 17, 2015:
when you operate a telescope to point it more or less upward/downward (pour changer la hauteur i.e. to move the aiming point up or down) you rotate the telescope around a horizontal rotation axis. The horizontal rotation axis is the one that controls the vertical position of the aiming point.

Putting a sign on a wall is a completely different situation; there is no rotation of any kind involved and the "axis" must be the axis as used in technical drawings of non-moving parts.

This telescope business is a total red herring. A horizontal rotation axis is called "de hauteur" not because "hauteur" is one of the dimensions of the horizontal plane but because it controls the vertical position of the aiming point (les changements en hauteur du point de visée) IOW even there "de hauteur" refers to an up/down movement.

see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_axonométrique for axis in technical drawings.
B D Finch (asker) Nov 17, 2015:
@Elizabeth & Daryo I find Elizabeth's reference is very useful confirmation that the "axe de hauteur" is horizontal. It would seem ridiculous to place a 30 cm x 30 cm shop sign so that the top of it was just 1.3 m from floor level, unless it was intended for wheelchair users. Looking at the answers and comments so far makes me think that the ST is badly drafted and, possibly, missing some information, so, I shall ask the Client about it.
Elizabeth Tamblin Nov 17, 2015:
Obviously, but I just thought it was interesting that in this context axe horizontal is synonymous with axe de hauteur.
Daryo Nov 17, 2015:
aiming a telescope has very little to do with positioning a plate on a wall or a door
Elizabeth Tamblin Nov 17, 2015:
On the wiki page linked below, I found the following phrase:

"...Elle comporte un axe vertical, ou encore axe d'azimut, et un axe horizontal, également appelé axe de hauteur..."

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monture_azimutale

I don't know if that definition applies in all contexts.

Proposed translations

45 mins
French term (edited): posée à 1,30m à l’axe de hauteur
Selected

placed at a height of 1.30m

the context should give an indication where is the level 0, i.e. from where this height of 1.30 m is counted.

the bottom of this plate should be 1.30m above the "level 0"

l’axe de hauteur = vertical axis


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2015-11-17 14:49:39 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"a 30 cm × 30 cm plate fixed at 1.30 m along the vertical axis"
Peer comment(s):
neutral Jennifer Levey : Why do you say it refers to the "bottom of this plate"? Why not the top?
11 mins
"l'axe de hauteur" is the vertical (CL5) there will also be some technical drawings available at the time of installing this plate to find out if it's bottom middle or top / try to install a plate by measuring to the middle or the top = counter-intuitive
Something went wrong...
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I think that is all that is meant and one wouldn't mention a "vertical axis" in English. It must be fixed to the wall, as otherwise it would hit people in the face and I think it's fairly safe to assume that it means the height is measured to the bottom of the sign, though it ought to say so."
-1
55 mins

centred

I reckon the "axe de hauteur" refers (somewhat confusingly) to a horizontal line through the vertical mid-point of the plate/plaque. IOW, it indicates which point/line on the plate is 130 cm above the reference (probably floor-level).
Without this indication, the installer won't know wheter to measure 130 cm to the top edge of the plate, the bottom edge - or somewhere else. 'a l'axe de hauteur' tells him to measure to a horzontal line through the centre of the plate.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Daryo : "axe de hauteur" refers (somewhat confusingly) to a horizontal line? not in a year of Sundays - the center of the plate [a point] can not be an axis [a ligne] - basic geometry
22 mins
Something went wrong...
3 hrs
French term (edited): à 1,30 m à l’axe de hauteur

1.3 m above the horizontal centre-line

The source text does seem slightly confusing!

My suggested interpretation would require us to assume that the second 'à' really ought to have been a 'de' — but I have occasionally seen 'à' used like this with dimensions (just as we in EN might say "2 miles to the nearest town" instead of 'from')

Of course it doesn't seem to specify what POINT on the additional square sign should be at this or that height!

Also, it does seem rather odd to me that such a small sign would be fitted quite so far above the main sign — it might look a bit lost! Unless of course it was meant to be BELOW the centre-line — that might make more sense, as it would bring it down to somewhere probably roughly around head height.

Unless of course the 1.3 m is the HORIZONTAL distance from some previously defined (or not!) left-hand origin — in which case, the square sign would be fitted 1.3 m in from the end, centred on the horizontal centre-line of the main sign. Could THAT make more sense?
Peer comment(s):
neutral Daryo : 1.30 m above the horizontal reference plane - drawings are 2D, real objects are 3D //one way or another, it's not enough precise to be 100% sure where to put this plate!
49 mins
In practice, a shopfront can be considered as 2D for the purposes of positioning a sign. But I agree, the lack of precision is woeful
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

placed at a level with 1.30 m coordinate on the depth axis/z-axis

Tri-dimensional geometry

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2015-11-17 17:47:39 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Change-the-scale-of...
Peer comment(s):
agree Daryo : "depth" as a name for the vertical axis would make sense for a swimming pool or some hole in the ground, but I doubt that anyone is going to put a shop sign there. // US usage? that's OK then for US
2 hrs
In the US, the z-axis is called the depth axis, as explained above.
Something went wrong...
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