Hi xongsmith
Well then: What I get here is that all of the drawing is fiction, but not only that, secretive codes...symbols! that have coded meanings only for card-carrying members of the Busily Esteemed Engineering Society (BEES). Nothing about this is actually at all commonplace, as posited in the OP.
Correct -- it uses the technical language of engineering and not the common language of non-engineers.
Engineers understand what is included and what is excluded in the diagram, while your objections are basically that you don't know what is included and excluded, you don't know the language.
Why not just put a board over 2 cinder blocks? There's your commonplace example.
Which in engineering technical language would be represented by the triangle and roller diagram. Your example is specific, the engineering one is generalized, so that it can be applied to more instances than just a board over cinderblocks.
Enjoy.
Edited by RAZD, : .