Construction and engineering / 04
Shop drawing services
Fabrication and submittal packages for steel fabricators, tile subcontractors and masonry subs. Two working rules govern every sheet, and both are stated openly because they are the reason the packages get approved.
Two working rules
Everything else on this page follows from these.
- Geometry is never reconstructed
- Details are cropped and enlarged from the engineer’s own contract sheets. They are not redrawn from scratch to look tidier. A redrawn detail is a second document that can disagree with the first, and when it does, the fabricator is the one who pays for it.
- No structural design by this submittal
- Every package carries that position explicitly. Shop drawings translate a design into fabrication information. They do not create, modify or take responsibility for the design. Stating the boundary in the package means nobody has to guess where it sits.
Disciplines covered
- Structural steel and miscellaneous metals
- Piece and fastener schedules, keynote and material tag systems, fabrication tickets with sign off blocks, connection and clip angle details, erection information.
- Ceramic tile
- Tile layout submittals covering tile types and sizes, profiles and trims, thresholds, industry standard assemblies and waterproofing interfaces.
- Masonry
- Layout and detailing packages for block and veneer work, including reinforcing and lintel information taken from the structural documents.
Schedules and title block practice
- Piece and fastener schedules carried on the sheets, so the shop is not cross referencing three documents to cut one member.
- Keynote and material tag systems used consistently across the package rather than per sheet.
- Title blocks filled in properly, with a real revision history rather than an empty revision table.
- Fabrication tickets with sign off blocks, so the shop has a record of what was released and when.
- No fabrication dimension is ever left as verify in field. A dimension the shop cannot cut to is not a dimension, it is a hold, and it gets raised as a question instead of being passed down the line.
Submittal and revision handling
- 01
Issue
The package goes out complete, with the title block, revision table and sheet index filled in.
- 02
Review comments
Comments are taken item by item against the sheet and the detail they apply to, not summarised.
- 03
Revision
Changes are made, clouded and given a revision mark and a dated revision table entry. A cloud without a revision entry is not traceable.
- 04
Resubmittal
The resubmitted package shows what changed and where, so the reviewer is not re reading a package they have already approved.
The QA gates run before any package is issued
- Cross reference sweep. Every detail callout, section mark and keynote is checked to land on a sheet that exists in the package.
- Spelling sweep. Sheets go to a fabricator and to an engineer, and typographical errors in a schedule cost credibility you do not get back.
- Density check. Every sheet is checked for legibility at the size it will actually be printed, not at the size it was drawn.
- Visual render check. The package is reviewed as a printed set, page by page, because errors that are invisible on screen are obvious on paper.
Questions fabricators and subs actually ask
What happens on a rejection or a resubmittal?
Comments are addressed item by item and the resubmittal shows what changed, clouded and recorded in the revision table. Revision rounds are expected on a submittal package and are handled as part of the work rather than treated as an exception.
How are revision clouds applied?
To the changed area, with a revision mark, and with a matching dated entry in the title block revision table. A cloud that is not recorded in the table cannot be traced later.
Will you ever leave a fabrication dimension as verify in field?
No. If a dimension cannot be established from the contract documents, that is a question for the engineer or a field measurement the erector has to take before fabrication, and it is raised as such. Passing an unresolved dimension into a fabrication ticket moves the risk onto the shop.
Do you take responsibility for the structural design?
No, and the package says so in writing. The design responsibility stays with the engineer of record. Shop drawings translate that design into fabrication information.
Work of this kind
- Construction
State transportation department salt storage building
New York State
Structural steel clip angle fabrication package, eight sheets, taken through several client revision rounds.
Shop Drawings
- Construction
State park shower house
Hudson Valley, New York
Ceramic tile submittal package, twenty sheets.
Shop Drawings
Send the set. Get a fee back.
A written fee and a delivery date come back before anything is measured.