Component drawings
A component may be defined as any item used in a building which emanates from a single source of supply and which arrives on site as a complete and self-contained unit, whose incorporation into the building requires only its fixing to another component or components. Thus, a window is clearly a component, as is a manhole cover, a door, a section of pre-cast concrete coping, a mirror. So, for that matter, is a brick. A brick wall would be an assembly. Two types of component should be...
The plan of work 1
The RIBA Plan of Work was illustrated in Chapter 1 as constituting the basic discipline within which the manifold activities of the architect are contained. Against each stage were noted the major aspects of work dealt with at that stage which will have a bearing on the working drawing process or which will be influenced by it. The plan of work is sometimes criticised as being doctrinarian and unrelated to the harsh facts of professional life. Certainly, in practice there are constant pressures...
Prerequisites for stage F
There is a basic minimum of information which needs to be available before embarking on stage F and this should certainly include the following final set of design drawings stage D record of statutory approvals stages D and E key detailing in draught stage E room data sheets stages C to E outline specification applicable trade literature library of standard details drawing register design team network drawing office programme These items are dealt with in detail below. Final design set stage D...
Room data sheets
The advantages of room-by-room scheduling as a medium for conveying information about internal finishes and fittings have been noted earlier. The gradual collection during stage E of such information into a source document of comparable format will clearly assist in the preparation of such schedules at stage F. Whether this is done on a copy of the floor plan or on a series of individual sheets representing each room or room type, is a decision which will be made in the light of the size and...
The assembly drawing
The juxtaposition of two or more components constitutes an assembly, and depending on the complexity of the arrangement and on how far it may be thought to be self-evident from other information contained elsewhere in the set, it will need to be drawn at an appropriate 3.7 Shelving treated as a component rather than as an assembly. An example of common sense overriding too rigid theories of classification 3.8 Component detail of concrete sill 3.9 Component drawing of different door-sets all...
telecommunications and fire protection symbols
Extracts from British Standards Nos BS 1192 1984-2000 BS 3939 1986-1991 and BS 1635 1990 are reproduced here with the permission of BSI under license number 2004DH0029. British Standards can be obtained from BSI Customer Services, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, Tel 44 0 20 8996 9001, email cservices bsi-global.com The symbols for use in these fields are covered in a number of publications, primarily BS 1192 1984-2000 Construction drawing practice Pts I and II BS3939 1986-1991 Graphical...
The drawing register
The drawing register is a key document in the proper organisation of a working drawing project and as such needs to be something rather more than the loose sheet of paper with a scribbled list of drawing numbers and titles which sometimes suffices. After all, it serves a multitude of purposes, being at various times a declaration of intent, a record of performance and, in the event of dispute on abandonment of the project after commencement of the working drawings, possibly a legal document. In...
Electrical symbols
The architect frequently becomes involved in the production of electrical layout drawings, particularly on smaller projects where no M amp E consultant is engaged, and Appendix 4 gives some of the more commonly used symbols in general practice. Two points may usefully be made about the method of showing wiring links between switch and fitting. In the first place, of course, any such representation on the drawing is purely diagrammatic no attempt need be made to indicate the precise route the...
General arrangement sections 1
These are best identified from the final design drawings. The external envelope of the building will generate the majority and the most important of these, so the approach illustrated in 5.7 is useful. Bearing in mind that the approach initially is in terms of strictly limited Table IV A typical range of CI SfB codes used on a large project elements i r 20 21 site external primary walls elements This band will normally be used for location drawings and a large number of the assembly drawings on...
The schedule
The assembly section shown in 3.20 is coded A for assembly 31 for external openings and 001 because it is the first in that series. See also the section on schedules in Chapter 1. There are two distinct types of schedule. There is the straightforward list of items, complete in itself, which adds nothing to information which may be obtained elsewhere in the drawings or the specification. What it does is present this information in a more disciplined and readily retrievable form. A list of...
CAD considerations
The addition of status coding is a useful adjunct to the issue of CAD files also, the status reference being added to the layer naming convention reference A practice might also be maintaining multiple copies of a drawing file on different computers, or in different sub-directories on the same computer some may be back-up copies in case of hard disk failure some may represent different stages in the evolution of the design. For internal purposes a practice will need to know more about a drawing...
Size of drawing office team
The right size and structure of the team is all-important, and in many ways it is a case of the smaller the better. Any increase over a team of one starts to invoke the law of diminishing returns and as the numbers increase so do the problems of control and communications. On the other hand, the diversity of work demanded by most building projects coupled with the constant and remorseless pressures of the overall programme mean that too small a team lacks the necessary flexibility of response....
Homemade systems
It is not difficult to devise your own systems to meet these requirements. Indeed, in practice many offices do, varying the method each time to suit the complexity of the job in hand. Within the primary general arrangement assembly component framework, for instance, it is possible to divide the drawings on a small project into, say, brickwork series B , windows series W , doors series D , etc. The precise method of sub-division and of coding is of less importance than recognising the existence...
Work analysis Precedence diagram
5.5 Precedence diagram taken from an early edition of the RIBA Management Handbook . It has the advantage that it offers a rapid assessment of the consequences of any programme's change, by its compatibility with computer analysis 5.6 A less sophisticated network, with the advantage that the time scale is immediately apparent. More readily understandable by the average client and architect than a computer print out own purposes, a more detailed network of their own activities within the team...
Pictorial views
The use of perspective sketches, axonometric and exploded views should not be overlooked as a means of conveying information which might be difficult to document in more conventional forms. The ability of CAD to produce three-dimensional information is of obvious benefit here. Nor should the value of pictorial elevations, perspectives, photo montages and models be discounted as an aid to the contractor. Photographs of existing buildings are invaluable to an estimator when 3.21 Useful format for...
Some examples
It has been noted that even the most complex of projects is unlikely to engage more than a handful of the available elemental sub-divisions. By the same token, it would be a very simple project indeed that did not benefit from a degree of elementalisation. Two examples are given here Project A a multi-storeyed building of some two million pounds contract value part of which has been used already in 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, as well as 1.14, 1.15 and 1.16 in Chapter 1 .
Design team programme
It is essential for the work of the entire design team to be integrated into a comprehensive programme, and unless a specialist programmer forms part of the team and this is almost a sine qua non for any very large or complex project then the management role of team coordinator falls to the architect. Of all the consultant team an architect is probably best fitted by virtue of his training and other duties to exercise the skills required, and should take advantage of his position as team leader...
Outline specification
The case is argued elsewhere in this handbook for a specification which is an integral part of the production documentation rather than the afterthought which puzzled site staff often assume it to have been. If drawings are to be freed of the detailed written descriptions they are frequently made to carry, it is implicit that this information must be conveyed to the contractor by other means. Indeed, the philosophy of the National Building Specification is reliant upon the geometry of the...