Do you review drawings? what does a good set of drawings look like to you?

[Paul Munford]

one great thing architects could get into the habit of would be to always post electronic versions of their drawings online, and to always give the url to said drawings as part of their markup / review of subcontractor drawings

This is pretty easy to do these days via Project Centre, Aconex, BIW, 4Projects, Buzzsaw or even something like Autodesk Cloud documents, Google drive or Drop box... What a great idea.

[cadtag]

This is pretty easy to do these days via Project Centre, Aconex, BIW, 4Projects, Buzzsaw or even something like Autodesk Cloud documents, Google drive or Drop box... What a great idea.

copyrights, contracts, all the fun stuff that gets lawyers involved and excited

[cmcgowan]

Simply, a drawing should have at the very least,:
A plan
A section
An Elevation
Some appropriate details
Should be laid-out so that it is clear and concise
General notes should be on the top rigth hand side
Key plans, if required should, be below that
One North arrow on the top right hand corner
Only the standard and required scales for the project
Use of standard details to be encouraged
Use of standard section and detail marks a must
Text to be tied to teh drawing scale so that it is not different around the drawing.
It should not have multiple north arrows
It should not have sections taken from sections and then re-taken
It should not have details taken from a plan and called a section and then a section taken from that
It should not have a detail taken from a plan and then blown up again and called something else.

These are the very basic requirements, is that too much to ask?

[MBROWN.160848]

I just wish that someone would make markups on drawings that can actually write legibly. Chicken scratch is the norm wher I work, which reduces productivity when I have to call someone and have them translate what they wrote down.

[Wanderer]

I just wish that someone would make markups on drawings that can actually write legibly. Chicken scratch is the norm wher I work, which reduces productivity when I have to call someone and have them translate what they wrote down.

Good point. I'm constantly pestering the admins to translate whatever their bosses have marked up on the plans.

[Gael]

I was taught to draft by bridge drafters. The rule was all text is left justified unless its a dimension and then its middle justified. More importantly, leaders are always pulled either from the begining of the first line or the end of the last line. I know this isn't a norm in drafting but it sure helps with a neater drawing. I also hate seeing different dim and text size on pages because of viewport settings. Another pet peave is crossing dimension lines. I know it can be unavoidable but then break the appropiate dim lines.

[cadtag]

I was taught to draft by bridge drafters. The rule was all text is left justified unless its a dimension and then its middle justified. More importantly, leaders are always pulled either from the begining of the first line or the end of the last line. I know this isn't a norm in drafting but it sure helps with a neater drawing. I also hate seeing different dim and text size on pages because of viewport settings. Another pet peave is crossing dimension lines. I know it can be unavoidable but then break the appropiate dim lines.

I was taught by old-skool architects and civil engineers. they would agree completely with both, and require it. Ragged-left/right justified might be easier for the software devs to do, but it is terrible for readability. (When was the last time you saw a newspaper with ragged left columns?)

[jaberwok]

I was taught to draft by bridge drafters. The rule was all text is left justified unless its a dimension and then its middle justified. More importantly, leaders are always pulled either from the begining of the first line or the end of the last line. I know this isn't a norm in drafting but it sure helps with a neater drawing. I also hate seeing different dim and text size on pages because of viewport settings. Another pet peave is crossing dimension lines. I know it can be unavoidable but then break the appropiate dim lines.

I agree with all of that but it seems that only board-taught drafters try to comply. Software developers certainly don't help.

[dkoch]

I just wish that someone would make markups on drawings that can actually write legibly. Chicken scratch is the norm wher I work, which reduces productivity when I have to call someone and have them translate what they wrote down.

The best is when the original author cannot read what she/he wrote.

[BOORDA]

I come from the manufacturing world, but I definitely feel your pain.

A good drawing consists of consistency. Text that is scaled the same, similar views dimensioned in a similar manner. This also includes consistency between multiple drawings.
A company should have a good set of drawing standards that was put together in a team environment and not cobbled together by one person who thinks their way is best.

Here is a short list of things that I believe make up a good drawing.

• Legible Text, no silly or super thin fonts.
• Legible Markups, I hate chicken scratch as well.
• Uniform Text Size, not to small, not to large, and not scaled differently throughout the drawing.
• Non-Crowded Views, if there is too much going on in one view then break it up into more views.
• Non-Crowded Drawing Sheets, if there is too many views crammed onto one sheet, I won't approve it.
• Conveys Design Intent, a good drawing is concise and lets the fabricator/builder know how to build the product with very few questions.