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UNIT 9 - CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS
Once you and your client have agreed on the design of the floor plans and elevations (and in the 'real world', budget & cost estimates),
you can begin to draft the Construction Drawings. These plans then become a part of the Contract Documents, which are the written and graphic contractual and legal agreements for all persons involved.
Since your drawings will be legal documents, it is essential that they are accurate and complete, addressing every component of the building that will be constructed on or offsite.
Construction drawing sets are normally arranged as the process of construction, however the process of developing the plan sheets is interwoven with input from consultants such as structural, mechanical, civil, electrical and acoustical engineers to name a few.
For example, though construction starts with initial site work and the foundation, the foundation plan cannot be drawn completely until the roof, floors and wall framing and structural load calculations are done to determine the type and size of foundation needed to support the building.
ASSIGNMENT 1 - FLOOR PLANS
Beginning with your floor plans, draft on the computer, including doors, windows, permanent cabinets, fixtures and appliances. If you are using AutoCAD or ArchiCAD, each of those components should be on separate layers. Exterior walls are 6" (incl.1/2" sheathing) & interior walls are typically 3-1/2" rough framed.
Remember, to reduce material waste, layout the perimeter wall lengths and heights on a 2' or 4' module if possible as you did with your scaled plan AND try to achieve the same for the inner dimensions of interior rooms wherever possible.
Still be open to altering the design at this point as sizes of rooms and spaces get defined in the drafting of the floor plans, however, after this point, it often makes it difficult to coordinate changes and revise plans and scheduling, which also adds to the cost of the building.
DUE - 4/22/24
ASSIGNMENT 2 - ELEVATIONS
Just as you created your Preliminary Elevations from projecting lines from your Floor Plans, the same process can be used for drafting them on the computer. If you are using AutoCAD, ArchiCAD or SketchUP, you can assign properties, heights, thicknesses, etc. to walls in plan view and easily convert them to a 3d view which will illustrate the heights of walls and each component i.e. windows, doors based on the properties you assigned or selected from the menus You can then rotate the 3d view to show each side of the house in a 2d Elevation View.
You can also add the exterior finish materials, roofing, fascia and any trim or detailing that will be included in the plans.
Show each window and how it will open as discussed in class. You will be adding notes and titles to the Elevations later as part of the final completion of the plans.
DUE - 5/14/24
ASSIGNMENT 3 - BUILDING & WALL SECTIONS
After you have completed your final Floor Plans & Elevations, the Structural portion of the plans that show how the building is built, are drawn. This includes not only the framing of each floor, but also how the building is assembled, including details of connections and reinforcing applications. In addition, to showing the buildings structure, Building Sections also illustrate the characteristics of the interior spaces and volumes that can't be seen in exterior views (elevation views). A cutting plane is established on the Floor Plans that indicates where and what you will show in your Building Section. Only major structural components of the building need to be shown, without detail, as you would see if the building was in the 'rough framing' phase.
Most Building Sections are done at a plot scale of 1/4"=1'-0" or in the case of larger buildings, 1/8" or 1/16" scale to allow it to fit on a standard size paper plans sheet.
Because of this, it would be very difficult to see and read the details at such a small scale, so details are drawn at a larger scale on separate sheets as referenced in the plans.
Building Sections are referenced on the Floor Plans and Structural Plans with a bubble that includes the Building Section alphabetical reference and sheet number where it is found in the set of plans.
​Wall Sections are created to show more detail, such as how various walls are constructed including the materials, hardware, connections and reinforcing. These are then noted with brief descriptions and/or specific instructions for each component or part of the buildings structure. Often times there will be multiple Sections needed to show all the various places where walls are built different from one another. Because of the level of detail, Wall Sections are drawn and/or printed at a larger scale than Building Sections. Most often, 3/4" = 1' scale is sufficient to show the necessary details.
Wall Sections are referenced on the Floor Plans and Structural Plans similar to Building Sections with a section or cutting plane line through the wall, including the direction you are looking, and referenced with a bubble that includes the Wall Section numerical reference and sheet number where it is found in the set of plans.
Prior to starting Sections, Show your floor plan to the
instructor so they can designate the section's cutting plane.
DUE - 5/22/24
ASSIGNMENT 4 - FOUNDATION PLAN
At this point in the process, a Structural Engineer is consulted to determine the integrity and structural components needed for your design to be built. These involve the framing plans for the roof, floors and foundation to support all the gravity loads or weight, and the vertical and lateral forces of the building. Typically, this starts with the Roof Framing plan followed by the Floor Framing Plans and concluding in the Foundation Plan which is designed to support all loads paths distributed from the framing plans above. In Design/CAD 2 you will have the opportunity to complete framing plans for the entire house.
However, this year we will only be creating a Foundation Plan that shows the concrete foundation and footing that you've drawn in your Building and Wall Sections.
Start by copying your Floor Plan and delete all interior walls, fixtures, windows, doors and other misc. items. if you have created layers for these items, you can simply turn off those layers and then make a copy.
The next step is to offset your foundation wall lines 3" to the outside
and 3" inside to create a 12" wide footing. The footing lines should be hidden lines so you'll have to change the properties to your footing layer.
DUE - 5/31/24
ASSIGNMENT 5 - DIMENSIONING, TITLE BLOCK & NOTES
The last portion of completing your plans will consist of adding dimensions and notes to your drawings and creating plan sheets with title blocks and then arranging them in construction sequence with the applicable drawing(s) on each sheet. Dimensioning is done first as dimensions must be placed in specific locations and then notes are added and placed where they are easiest and clearest to read without overlapping dimensions.
Your instructor will inform you as to what notes are required and where they should be placed on each sheet.
DUE - 6/12/24
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