I have always thought lofting belonged to the boat building world, I just adopted the term. From my understanding a shape is laid out on a floor, full size and structure laid in on top the shape is transferred to the timber above via plumb and level. Lofting could also have some aspects of taking measurements from the full size layout and pull those lengths off and carry them to a timber not positioned over the drawing, one would just us it to gain a length. Is lofting connected to a section of a building.... the loft, a place not used for much, say an upper level room? Etymology of [url=lofthttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=loft][url=lofthttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=loft][url=lofthttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=loft]lofthttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=loft[/url][/url][/url]