Full-scale tracings, drawn in plaster surfaces or engraved in stone walls and floors, were used frequently in Renaissance construction, in order to control the execution of ashlar masonry. In many occasions, these tracings furnished the shape of the templates used in the dressing process, either in true size or orthogonal projection.

There are seven known cases in Spain of a particular type of late Gothic vault that also exists in at least 28 Central European buildings. They are tierceron vaults with diamond-shaped liernes and partially missing diagonal ribs. The design of this type of vault is not simple; thus, its dissemination seems to require a conscious copy of the model. Because the methods of designing the rib network were different in Spain and Central Europe and were only exchanged among masons, a volumetric and constructive analysis of these vaults that identifies their design techniques could support or question the existence of a technical knowledge transfer. After reviewing the existing examples in built heritage and written sources, this work analyzes the seven Spanish cases and studies the geometrical construction of their particular form, supported by accurate data on the vaults collected via topographic techniques.

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