What are Construction Drawings

Construction drawings or Working Drawings (as they are referred sometimes) are the set of drawings that include all building plans, specifications, and supporting documents used during the completion of a construction project.

The creation of this set of documents typically starts with an owner or developer of a facility/building/infrastructure. When an owner needs a new building, he/she approaches an architect to create a design for the building. The architect will create several sets of building plans that will be used to construct the building. These drawings are called the “Construction or Working Drawings” and the complete set of plans are called the “Construction Documents” or “CDs”.

Construction drawings provide all the information about the project. This information is presented in the form of graphics or as written information.

1. Graphic symbols are used to represent various entities of the building eg. doors, windows, furniture, lighting, outlets, etc.
2. Written information consists of
   1. Dimensions – they are used to define the location of these entities
   2. Text – it is used to further describe them or to define specific elements of the design
   3. Legends – They are used to describe the properties of the entities e.g. type of doors, finishes, lighting, etc.

The Construction Drawing Set is typically made up of 2 parts:

1. Architectural Construction Drawing Set All the information related to architectural design is produced through floor plans, interior, and exterior elevations, reflected ceiling plans (RCPs), detail drawings, demolition plans, and millwork. They are then produced together on drawing sheets. The size of the sheet can be from A0 to A4 depending on the type of project and the amount of information required to explain it.
2. Engineering Construction Drawing Set: They are typically referred to as “Shop Drawings”. This set describes the Structural and MEP aspects of the building.

Once a completed set of construction documents has been approved by the owner, it is ready to be used to construct the building.