CAD Standards - Less is more?

[Paul Munford]

Just a little over a year ago I became the CAD Manager for our company. Over the year a lot of our focus has been on the quality of our drawings. Now, a year in, we are in a position to ask the question ‘what can we do without?’


We have a lot of customers for our Drawings. From the Architect and main contractor on site, to our own manufacturing and fitting teams, everyone has different needs and requirements from our drawings.


I’d like to think that we’ve done a pretty good job of satisfying all of our customers, but have we done too much? Have we been too accommodating? Would a simpler set of drawings be just as effective? I liken it to a Jenga tower. You build it up – and then you start poking bits to see what wobbles!


Have you ever been challenged to 'simplify' your drawings? What did you take out? How did it work out in the long run? Do you have any tips?

[tedg]

Just a little over a year ago I became the CAD Manager for our company. Over the year a lot of our focus has been on the quality of our drawings. Now, a year in, we are in a position to ask the question ‘what can we do without?’


We have a lot of customers for our Drawings. From the Architect and main contractor on site, to our own manufacturing and fitting teams, everyone has different needs and requirements from our drawings.


I’d like to think that we’ve done a pretty good job of satisfying all of our customers, but have we done too much? Have we been too accommodating? Would a simpler set of drawings be just as effective? I liken it to a Jenga tower. You build it up – and then you start poking bits to see what wobbles!


Have you ever been challenged to 'simplify' your drawings? What did you take out? How did it work out in the long run? Do you have any tips?

I guess it depends on your industry and your company's customers.

From your post it sounds like you work for a manufacturing company where you supply shop drawings to the design firms and construction and assembly drawings to your shop folks and outside contractors?

Do you use the same drawings for everyone or do you create specific drawings for each type of customer?

I work for a design firm (A&E) in the States, and so I'm not in your shoes.
We do a lot of work for many different clients, Government, DOD, private sector, commercial etc.
(GSA, ACOE, US Coast Guard, etc.. etc..)

We found that sticking to National Cad Standards (NCS) works for most clients, with a little tweaking here and there.
We have libraries for each standard, but it's pretty easy to drop details in and modifiy them to match each different standard.

Hope that helps, I know it's not a direct answer to your question.

[Wanderer]

My standard (working in engineering for a healthcare facility) was basic quality control and simplicity.

I recently revamped my standards to include more processes. That was a bit of a change, but, reflects more how we work these days.

[Paul Munford]

Nice to hear from you Ted.

When I say 'Customer' I mean the person that needs the information from the drawing. For example an arrangement drawing might be used by the Architect to check that we've understood the specification/design intent - the contractor to check coordination of trades on site - our own fitting team to mark out the site and fit our furniture - and of course our own makers who have to build the thing!

We try and produce one set of drawings that will cover everyone so we don't have to reproduce our efforts. Our directors are questioning things like Hatching, annotations e.t.c - we are using the BS/ISO standard - but my directors are asking me to question EVERYTHING!

[tedg]

Nice to hear from you Ted.

When I say 'Customer' I mean the person that needs the information from the drawing. For example an arrangement drawing might be used by the Architect to check that we've understood the specification/design intent - the contractor to check coordination of trades on site - our own fitting team to mark out the site and fit our furniture - and of course our own makers who have to build the thing!

We try and produce one set of drawings that will cover everyone so we don't have to reproduce our efforts. Our directors are questioning things like Hatching, annotations e.t.c - we are using the BS/ISO standard - but my directors are asking me to question EVERYTHING!

Ahh yes, I understand.
I would imagine you need to keep everything at a minimum, just enough line work so everyone gets the info they need.

I don't know much about ISO/BS standards, but NCS talks about best use of hatch and graphic conventions, etc.
So you don't need to hatch an entire surface, just a hint of the material at a corner, etc.

I've never dealt specifically with your situation, but as a company (and in my department), we've come to a standard that doesn't go hog-wild with extra detail or hatch patterns unless they're necessary.

[Paul Munford]

It sounds like you've already been through the pain barrier! How did you find out what was necessary and what was extraneous?

[cadtag]

in the AE world, that's generally settled through 1) experience and 2) lawsuits. Liability when things can fall down and kill people is pretty much a driving consideration, at least for those firms that survive....

[Kevin.Sturmer]

Standards grow over time as people find more and more creative ways to interpret what most take as common sense/methodology

[Paul Munford]

That's true Kevin. Now it's time for a little pruning

[KCM]

I've gone through CAD standards production 4 times at 4 different companies.
2 Didn't have any written standards to begin with, each draftsman going with what they'd been taught and preferred... and arguing with each other after x had been on holiday and y had needed to work on their rubbish drawings. 1 was updating their standards, and at the final company I was proudly informed that all drawings were produced to BS308, in 2011 (12 years after BS308 was deleted for non Brits). I'm now at a company that has 2 different standards for its Onshore and Marine departments (with others not knowing which to use), preparing to try and unify them in to a single company wide standard; ding ding round 1.

These are companies in Mechanical, Geotechnical, Civil and now Structural Engineering.

There is a large amount of overlap if you consider the aim of your the CAD/Drawings standards are to achieve clear communication of data and ease of work for the users.
I always aim for
1. A common presentation style across the entire project documentation - making life easier for the end user to follow and understand the data. All symbols, text styles, blocks and details.
2. A standard drawing structure, so that anyone and pick up and work on a drawing begun by anyone else and know exactly where they are. So standard layer naming scheme and library of layers; Standard symbols, blocks and details. Everything provided.

The resources I draw on are the British Standards (8888, 13576, 1192, 61355, and friends) and the AEC convention.