groundplan

Noun

groundplan (plural groundplans)

1. A diagram showing the physical layout of a set, especially the placement of structures on the stage, as opposed to items on the walls or suspended from the ceiling.
   • In some cases, coordination between the lighting and scene designer may result in a preliminary scenic groundplan that indicates not only all of the scenic and masking information, but temporary lighting positions as well.2013, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, →ISBN
   • You must learn to be ingenious in arranging groundplans. Always avoid the dull and trite—what may be called the no-room: that bare, three-walled room without architectural jogs for relief; that room with a routine selection and placement of furniture; that room with doors placed in balanced...2015, Francis Hodge, Michael McLain, Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style, →ISBN, page 78
2. A diagram, usually to scale, showing the layout of the ground level of a building or other physical structure; floorplan.
   • Here the destruction is even more complete, and it was very difficult to trace the original groundplan.2005, Peter Willey, The Eagle's Nest: Ismaili Castles in Iran and Syria, →ISBN, page 138
   • An example of the groundplan arrangement of boreholes in a multi-row curtain is pictured in Fig. 3.99.2012, J. Verfel, Rock Grouting and Diaphragm Wall Construction, →ISBN, page 191
3. A framework or pattern showing the form of something, without all the details.
   • A certain groundplan of Human Nature and Life began to fashion itself in me ; wondrous enough, now when I look back on it ; for my whole Universe, physical and spiritual, was as yet a Machine ! However, such a conscious, recognised groundplan, the truest I had, was beginning to be there, and by...1836, Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
   • Remarkedly enough, the frame or the groundplan as the innate program appears to be one of the central themes of cypbernetics and of the recently emerging compuational paradigm.1992, Constantin Virgil Negoita, Cybernetics and Applied Systems, →ISBN, page 56
4. (evolutionary theory) A hypothetical anatomical form from which members of a clade are adaptations.
   • A somewhat detailed, and largely innovative reconstruction of the groundplan of hexapod integumental structure has been worked out by Kukalova-Peck (1991, 1994, 1997, this volume).1997, Richard A. Fortey, Richard H. Thomas, Arthropod Relationships, →ISBN, page 283
   • This figure emphasizes the dislocation of the pigment bands and presents the so-called nymphalid groundplan: the set of pattern elements out of which butterflies build their wing patterns (Nijhout 1991). The groundplan thus consists of eight parallel series of pattern elements: one for each band of...2000, Günter P. Wagner, The Character Concept in Evolutionary Biology, →ISBN, page 513