Types of drawings for building design

Many different types of drawing can be used during the process of designing and constructing
buildings. Some of the more commonly-used types of drawing are listed below, with links to
articles providing further information.

Contents
 1 As-built drawings and record drawings
 2 Assembly drawings
 3 Block plan
 4 Component drawings
 5 Concept drawings/sketches
 6 Construction drawings/working drawings
 7 Design drawings
 8 Detail drawings
 9 Electrical drawing
 10 Elevations
 11 Floor plans
 12 Engineering drawing
 13 Location drawings/general arrangement drawings
 14 Installation drawings
 15 Location plan
 16 Perspective
 17 Scale drawing
 18 Section drawings
 19 Shop drawings
 20 Site plans
 21 Technical drawings
 22 Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

As-built drawings and record drawings

On building projects, it is common for changes to be made during construction because of
circumstances that emerge on site. As a result, it is common for as-built drawings to be prepared,
either during the construction process or when construction is complete, to reflect what has
actually been built.

The contractor will generally mark up changes to the ‘final construction issue’ drawings on-site
using red ink, and these can then be used by the consultant team to create record drawings
showing the completed project.
For more information see: As-built drawings and record drawings.

Assembly drawings

Assembly drawings can be used to represent items that consist of more than one component.
They show how the components fit together and may include, orthogonal plans, sections and
elevations, or three-dimensional views, showing the assembled components, or an exploded view
showing the relationship between the components and how they fit together.

For more information see: Assembly drawing and Exploded view.

Block plan
Block plans usually show the siting of a project in relation to Ordnance Survey Maps.
Conventions are used to depict boundaries, roads and other details. Depending on the size of the
project, recommended scales are:
  1 : 2500
 1 : 1250
 1 : 500

For more information, see Block plan.

Component drawings
Generally, components are ‘self-contained’ and sourced from a single supplier, typically the
complete unit provided by that supplier rather than its constituent parts. Component drawings
provide detailed information about the individual units. They may be drawn at large scales such
as; 1:10, 1:5, 1:2, 1:1, and so on. They may include information such as component dimensions,
construction, tolerances, and so on.
For more information see: Component drawing.

Concept drawings/sketches

Concept drawings or sketches are drawings, often freehand, that are used as a quick and simple
way of exploring initial ideas for designs. They are not intended to be accurate or definitive,
merely a way of investigating and communicating design principles and aesthetic concepts.

For more information see: Concept drawing.

Construction drawings/working drawings

Working drawings or construction drawings provide dimensioned, graphical information that can
be used; by a contractor to construct the works, or by suppliers to fabricate components of the
works or to assemble or install components. Along with specifications and bills of quantities or
schedules of work, they form a part of the 'production information', that is prepared by designers
and passed to the construction team to enable a project to be constructed.

For more information see: Construction drawing and working drawing

Design drawings
Design drawings are used to develop and communicate ideas about a developing design. In the
early stages they might simply demonstrate to the client the ability of a particular design team to
undertake the design. They may then be used to develop and communicate the brief, investigate
potential sites and assess options, develop the approved idea into a coherent and co-ordinated
design, and so on.
For more information see: Design drawings.

Detail drawings
Detail drawings provide a detailed description of the geometric form of a part of an object such
as a building, bridge, tunnel, machine, plant, and so on. They tend to be large-scale drawings that
show in detail parts that may be included in less detail on general arrangement drawings.

For more information see: Detail drawing.

Electrical drawing

An electrical drawing, also known as a wiring diagram, is a type of technical drawing that
provides visual representation and information relating to an electrical system or circuit. They
are used to convey the engineering design to the electricians or other workers who will use them
to help install the electrical system.

For more information, see Electrical drawing.

Elevations
The term ‘elevation’ refers to an orthographic projection of the exterior (or sometimes the
interior) faces of a building, that is a two-dimensional drawing of the building’s façades. As
buildings are rarely simple rectangular shapes in plan, an elevation drawing is a first angle
projection that shows all parts of the building as seen from a particular direction with the
perspective flattened. Generally, elevations are produced for four directional views, for example,
north, south, east, west.

For more information see: Elevations.

Floor plans
Floor plans are a form of orthographic projection that can be used to show the layout of rooms
within buildings, as seen from above. They may be prepared as part of the design process, or to
provide instructions for construction, often associated with other drawings, schedules, and
specifications.
For more information see: Floor plan.

Engineering drawing
An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing used to define the requirements for
engineering products or components. Typically, the purpose of an engineering drawing is to
clearly and accurately capture all geometric features of a product or component so that a
manufacturer or engineer can produce the required item.

For more information see: Engineering drawing.

Location drawings/general arrangement

drawings
General arrangement drawings (GA’s, sometimes referred to as location drawings) present the
overall composition of an object such as a building. Depending on the complexity of the
building, this is likely to require a number of different projections, such as plans, sections and
elevations, and may be spread across several different drawings.

For more information see: General arrangement drawing.

Installation drawings
Installation drawings present the information needed by trades to install part of the works. This
may be particularly important for complex installations such as plant rooms, data centres,
ventilation systems, underfloor heating, and so on.

For more information see: Installation drawing.

Location plan
A location plan is a supporting document that may be required by a planning authority as part of
a planning application. A location plan provides an illustration of the proposed development in
its surrounding context.
For more information, see Location plan.

Perspective
Perspective drawing is a technique for depicting three-dimensional volumes and spatial
relationships based on the eye level and vanishing point (or points) of the viewer. It can give a
realistic impression of what a volume or space will look like in reality.

Constructing perspective drawings of buildings is extremely complicated, but has been much
simplified recently by the development of computer aided design (CAD), building information
modelling (BIM) and other forms of computer generated imagery (CGI).

To find out more about perspective, see: The origins of perspective.

Scale drawing
Scale drawing is a generic term used to describe any drawing that illustrates items at less than (or
more than) their actual size. This is generally necessary where the items is so large or small that
it is not useful or convenient to draw it at its actual size.
For more information see: Scale drawing.

Section drawings

A section drawing shows a view of a structure as though it had been sliced in half or cut along
another imaginary plane. This can be useful as it gives a view through the spaces and
surrounding structures (typically across a vertical plane) that can reveal the relationships between
the different parts of the buildings that might not be apparent on plan drawings.

For more information see: Section drawings.

Shop drawings
Shop drawings might be prepared by contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, manufacturers or
fabricators. They generally relate to pre-fabricated components, showing how they should be
manufactured or installed. They take design intent drawings and specifications prepared by the
project design team and develop them to show in detail how the component will actually be
manufactured, fabricated, assembled or installed.

For more information see: Shop drawing

Site plans
A site plan is a large-scale drawing that shows the full extent of the site for an existing or
proposed development. Site plans, along with location plans, may be necessary for planning
applications. In most cases, site plans will be drawn up following a series of desk studies and site
investigations.

For more information see: Site plan.

Technical drawings
The term ‘technical drawing’ has a very broad meaning, referring to any drawing that conveys
the way that something functions or how it is constructed. Technical drawings are intended to
convey one specific meaning, as opposed to artistic drawings which are expressive and may be
interpreted in a number of ways. Most drawings prepared during the design and construction of
buildings might be considered to be technical drawings.

For more information see: Technical drawing.