Useful Stuff

Primary vs. Secondary Drawings

This post references primary and secondary drawings. What are they, and what are their differences? A primary drawing is one of the following:

   A. Any site plan drawing showing the entire site, including the site plan, paving plan, grading plan, site utilities plan, etc.

   B. Any plan drawing illustrating the plan view of the entire building, including a floor plan, foundation plan, framing plan, roof plan, electrical plan, etc.

   C. Any elevation drawing showing a full face of the building (as opposed to an elevation detail.)

   D. Any interior elevation showing a full wall (as opposed to an interior elevation detail.)

   E. Building Sections.

   Primary drawings are placed on the sheet without borders, located vertically tight to the bottom guideline on the drawing stationery. The bottom guideline is located to allow for appropriate dimension strings, section cut symbols, door & window symbols, etc. To locate the primary drawing horizontally on the sheet, figure out how many modules you need for the drawing by measuring the drawing itself and then adding space for dimension strings, etc. needed on either side of the drawing. Then round up to the next nearest full module size. Each module is 5"; the space between them is 1/4". So if the total space you need for the drawing plus left and right dimension strings is 49' - 6" at 1/4" scale, then the actual drawing plus dimension will be 12-3/8" wide. So you need three modules of width (5" x 3 plus 1/4" space x 2 = 15-1/2") for the drawing to fit. So center the drawing on the three modules.

   Secondary drawings include the following:

   A. Any detail drawing, whether it be a plan detail, section detail, or elevation detail.

   B. Wall sections.

   C. Component sections, such as dormer sections.

   Secondary drawings are placed after the primary drawings, and fit around them to fill the sheet. As a visual hint, secondary drawings do get a border, which is a .13mm line around however many modules the secondary drawing occupies. So if it's a one-module drawing, then the border will be 5" x 5". If it's three modules high and one module wide, then the border will be 5" x 16-1/2" (3 5" modules plus 2 3/4" spaces between tops and bottoms of modules.) Layout lines exist on all stationery drawings for these modules, so you don't have to do any calculations; rather, you just have to snap to the appropriate points on the Layout Lines layer to draw the border.

Dimension Dimensions

Subject line looks like a typo? It's not. What I mean is, where do you put dimensions on the page? How far are they from other things? Dimension strings should not be spaced too far apart, or they waste space. But if they're spaced too close together, the dimensions are hard to read, and can be confusing. Our standard is to space parallel strings 1/4" apart. Our dimension font is Copperplate 31AB because no font I've seen combines beauty so well with extreme numerical legibility. We use 7 points for the font size. While this may seem small, this particular font is designed larger than most, so it's highly legible. And it fits really well in the 1/4" dimension slot.

   How far should dimension strings be from other drawing objects? It depends on whether the dimension is above or below the object. By "above," I mean: the number is outside of the dimension line, or away from the line from the object. By "below," I mean the opposite: the number is between the dimension line and the object. Because text on architectural drawings should read either from the bottom of the sheet (regular upright text) or from the right side of the sheet (text turned 180° counter-clockwise) dimension strings above the object will either be to the top side or the left side of the page from the object, and dimension strings below the object will be the opposite: to the bottom of the sheet or to the right side of the sheet from the object.

   When the dimension is below the object, then the minimum space from the object should be the same as the space between lines: 1/4". Because if that's the minimum space you need for the text to read clearly between dimension lines, then you also need that much when the text is between the dimension line and the object it's dimensioning. When the dimension is above the object, however, it can be closer because you don't have to fit the dimension text between the dimension line and the object. But it can't be too small, or you confuse the dimension line with the object itself. We use 1/8" as the minimum standard dimension of the dimension line from the object when the dimension is above the object.

   There are special conditions. Dimensions on floor plans are spaced further away, for reasons that will be covered in another post. Another special condition is the set of dimension strings to the right of secondary drawings such as details and wall sections. The border around secondary drawings isn't just for visual clarity; it is also an organizing device for dimensions and text. Justifying dimensions and text to the border does two things:

   A. It visually strengthens the modules on the page, making the drawings read more quickly at a glance, directing the eye to appropriate information.

   B. It pulls this information away from the drawing itself, allowing the drawing elements to read more cleanly rather than having them muddied up with close-in dimensions and text.

   For the purpose of "dimension dimensions," the border is treated as a drawing element. In other words, the first dimension string on the bottom of the detail or the right side of the detail is 1/8" from the border since it's "above" the border as defined above. The top dimension string, because of being below the border, is 1/4" from the border. There is no dimension string to the left of the detail, as this zone is reserved for text.

Combining Drawings

Drawings may often be combined, depending on the scale of the project. If the design is a small cottage with a compact footprint, it makes no sense to scatter drawings over many sheets with lots of blank space. White space on a page may be great for high-design magazines, but it doesn't make sense for architectural working drawings. Not only does it waste paper, but it also means that information is scattered over more sheets, increasing the likelihood that the builder will miss something. So if drawings are to be combined, which are the most likely candidates?

   A. Details are the ultimate wild cards, able to go on many sheets, but they go last. First, place the main drawings on the sheet. Next, place the notes that pertain to those drawing types. Finally, fill the remaining slots with details. Drawing notes are tied to the drawings they reference, but details are freer to move to other sheets.

   B. Elevations are easily combined. As a rule, put all exterior elevations on a single sheet if possible, only using subsequent sheets where necessary. Just make sure that you're able to get all the elevation notes on, too.

   C. Floor plans of multiple levels may be combined on the same sheet. Just make sure you're using main level stationery. This is because the Roof Plan has its layers on the first level stationery, but not the upper levels stationery. This is because the roof has to cover all levels. If you combine layers, then the stuff that would have gone on the Floor Framing Support layer had you used the upper level stationery should go on the Foundation Plan layer instead.

   D. If the plan is really small and one story, like a Katrina Cottage, then you can also combine foundation or electrical plans with the floor plan. Draw everything on the right layers to begin with, then copy all foundation or electrical plan drawing elements to the Dimension Layer and group it. That way, when you turn on the Floor Plan Final sheet, everything will be there. It's easier to do this than to have to manually fix the layers every time you change the layer setup, because the foundation and electrical layers don't show up when you're on the Floor Plan Final sheet.

   The following images are from one of my very small Katrina Cottages, and illustrate a lot of these combinations. Click on each image for a larger view, since they're nearly illegible here:

Drawing Numbering

Drawing layout on a sheet should begin from the right side and work left due to the left binding. The worst possible thing is a drawing along the left binding with a bit of white space separating it from the rest of the drawings on the sheet. I've seen contractors unroll only to the point that it looks like the drawings are running out, and then stop, never seeing the leftmost drawing(s.)

   But just because you organize the sheet from the right doesn't force numbering from the right. I'm hyper-sensitive to this because of working in an office years ago which was not nearly rigorous enough about drawing numbering. This was back in the 1980s when we had xeroxed details on sticky-back film (forget what the official name was) that were stuck down onto the mylar sheets. As details were stuck on as the job progressed, they were numbered. So the numbers were all over the place according to the chronology of when the details were put on. CAD methodology can be identical, with this exact problem. Occasionally, numbers were skipped, or sometimes duplicated if someone didn't notice that there was already a detail 7 on the sheet.

   We are completely rigorous about numbering according to the following system:

   A.    Lay the primary drawings on the sheet (floor plans, elevations, building sections) and annotate them with letters (A, B, C.)

   B.    Drop the secondary drawings on the sheet, annotating them with numbers (1-24). The top row of modules are 1-6, the second row is 7-12, etc. The ONLY thing that matters is where the drawing number box of the detail is located. If it's a single-module detail (5" x 5") located in the upper right corner, then it's Detail 6, even if there's not another detail on the sheet.

   Builders very quickly learn that if they're looking for Detail 19, it's in the lower left corner. They don't have to search for it. I've had many builders thank me for doing it this way, expressing frustration at having to search for the detail when the numbers are all over the page. They claim that it saves countless hours over the years, in tiny little bites. The only problem is that this system only works when there's a consistent grid. Without it, there is no "12 slot" or "15 slot" in which to consistently look for a detail.

 

Schematic Design Drawing System

I have a curious and highly portable way of doing schematic design on small-scale projects (small houses, shops, and offices) It goes something like this:

   A. I work out the basics of the building in rough sketch form on trash to the point that I know what the basic dimensions are.

   B. At that point, I draw a "cheat sheet" on CAD and print it. Normally, I work at 1/8" scale unless the buildings are very small, at which case I work at 1/4" scale.

   C. I tape the cheat sheet down to a piece of foamcore that's exactly the same size as my MacBook Pro, so I can slip it into my computer bag right beside the computer for protection and carry it everywhere I go. It looks like this:

   The edges are taped with a smooth artist's tape to protect the edges. Also, I permanently affix two tape dots at the places where a letter-size sheet would be taped down to avoid tape dots pulling off the surface of the foamcore if they stay in place for several days. I've had this one for a couple years, so they're fairly durable. This lets me set up and draw almost anywhere. I also have a larger board for ledger-size drawings, but it's not so portable... I either use it at the office or can take it with me on charrettes. One huge benefit of using small, light drawing boards is that you can spin them around so that your pen strokes are most advantageous. With a fixed board, you have to contort your body. But with this setup, you just spin the board. You can't imagine how much more relaxing this is... far less stress on your neck, back, etc.

   D. Once the cheat sheet is taped down, I tape a sheet of Clearprint vellum on top and begin drawing. Once, I drew with trash paper from a roll, but it's weaker, it has two ragged edges, the smooth-edge width is 12", not 11", so it doesn't fit in file folders without folding the paper, and... it simply doesn't feel as good drawing on it.

   E. The drawing itself still involves a bit of discovery. Everything between the cheat sheet above and the drawing below is a series of tiny discoveries as I draw, essentially making the details up as I go along. FWIW, there are normally enough other architects working on the same town who are willing (and occasionally even anxious) to do the heroic buildings, so I try really hard to focus on doing good background buildings. So the windows, shutters, eaves, columns, etc. all tend to be very ordinary... details you'd fully expect to see as you walk down a good street in this place. So while the details haven't been drawn at this point, they're very easy to imagine. For example, the gutter is a two-board V-gutter, very common in the Bahamas. It's put together with two 1x6's, waterproofed on the inside with flashing, and supported by 1x boards spaced occasionally along the wall. The shape of the cutout at the front of the board is the only part of this design that is the slightest bit whimsical... everything else is just straight-up ordinary.

Drawing Systems - Plan Layout Dimensions

Laying out interior walls isn't arbitrary. You should have fixed standards for sizes of lots of stuff, and they should accommodate real-world conditions. My plan layout standards include the following dimensions:

   Edge of door to center of wall: 6". This is half the stud width (1-3/4") plus a stud and a liner (1-1/2" + 1-1/2") plus 1/2" of shim space plus a 3/4" door frame. So it's driven by two things: the requirement for even-inch dimensions, and the fact that this just happens to be the best way of framing a door into a corner. A lucky coincidence. It drives several of the dimensions below, FWIW.

   Wall Closet Depth: 2'-6" (center of wall to center of wall) except 2'-10" on exterior walls (center of wall to outside face of exterior wall.) 2'-6" less 3-1/2" studs less 5/8" sheetrock each side yields just over 2' clear... 2' - 1-1/4", to be precise. On exterior walls, 2'-10" less the full 5-1/2" exterior wall less half of the interior wall (because all interior dimensions are to centerlines of wall) less the sheetrock equals 2' - 1-3/4". Note that we don't use 1/2" sheetrock. Rather, we use 5/8" fire-rated sheetrock everywhere throughout every room of every building for two reasons: it's fire protection you can't easily buy with other elements, and it creates a straighter wall because the sheetrock is stiffer. And it's only pennies per square foot more than a wavier, less fire resistant wall. One other thing: I'll blog later on the latest thing we're developing, which is the sheetrock-free open-core wall. But that's another story.

   Double Walk-In Closet Width: 6'-6" except 6'-10" if one of the side walls is an exterior wall. The same calculations as above apply here, and for everything below. This produces slightly more than 6' clear, which is the minimum width for walking in and having a row of hanging clothes on each side of you.

   Single or L Walk-In Closet Width: 4'-10" except 5'-2" if one of the side walls is an exterior wall. The reason for this is because you need 6" from center of wall to closet door, 2' minimum for the door (although some clients request more,) slightly more than 2' for the clothes to hang, and half the finished wall on the other side. You could technically do all of that in 4'-9", but doing things on even-number inches works out better, because you're twice as likely for a string of dimensions to add up to even feet at some point.

   Stair width: 3'-6" except 3'-10" if one of the side walls is an exterior wall. Calculated as above, this provides 3' - 1-1/4" in the clear. Take out the stringer casing, and that leaves a tread that's 1/4" less than 3'.

   Hallways: 1'-0" wider than the door at the end because of the 6" dimension on either side from door to center of wall. So a 2'-8" door requires walls spaced at 3'-8" (minimum.)

Floor Plan Layout

This is the first in a series of posts describing our system of architectural working drawing production that has, over the years, been referred to either affectionately or sarcastically as "Mouzonification". This post deals purely with layout of the floor plan.

   Work begins on the Building Layout layer with an outline of the exterior perimeter of the building. These lines are .13mm. We don't accept anything less than even-inch dimensions on anything on the Building Layout layer except for a couple special conditions noted later. This is because any framer that sees fractional dimensions will laugh at you, and figure that you haven't been out in the real world very long... and then you lose their respect, and they immediately start taking liberties with your drawings. So use even inches.

   Once you've gotten the footprint drawn, move it to the precise location on the sheet where it belongs using the Guidelines layer. In each of the four horizontal bands of Drawing Zones, there are a series of guidelines spaced 1/4" apart at the bottom of the zone. Sit the drawing on the topmost of these lines. Center it horizontally in one, two, three, four, five, or all six of the zones, depending on how large the drawing is. There are a series of guidelines spaced 1/4" apart on the right side of each of the six columns of Drawing Zones. If the footprint hangs over the innermost of these lines, then the drawing needs one additional Drawing Zone. Snap it into place so that it's precisely where it should be.

   The next step is to go to the Wall Layer and draw the exterior walls. We don't use less than 2x6 walls in most temperate areas of the US for insulation purposes. Even counting the jamb extensions, and only using today's utility costs, it pays for itself in 3-4 years tops, even in TVA country where electricity is less expensive. Use PowerCADD's Parallel Lines tool. For consistency, we always offset to the lefthand side so that you run around the perimeter counter-clockwise... remember, this is the exterior footprint, so the wall thickness goes to the inside of the layout lines. So for 2x6 walls, the right offset is 0" and the left offset is 5.5". Draw these at .13mm.

   End-snap as a general rule on the guidelines, holding your mouse clearly off the corner so that if you accidentally pull off the snap at the last second, the lines will end clearly out in space. If you vertex-snap, your mouse needs to be really close to the vertex you're snapping to on the Building Layout layer. And if you accidentally pull off, it's just barely off and you may not realize it. This introduces inaccuracy into the drawing and inaccuracy is unacceptable. I absolutely insist that every line on every drawing be precisely where it's supposed to be and precisely the size it's supposed to be. Otherwise, the gobbledygook dimensions you're creating throw everything into question. Even .0013" or whatever is unacceptable. Why not draw accurately?

   Once you have the exterior walls drawn, select the inner face of the exterior walls and change it to .35mm. You can select one line on the interior wall, then use the Select Adjoining command to select all the lines attached to it.

   Next, begin laying out the interior wall centerlines on the Building Layout layer. Always lay out using centerlines for this reason: Interior walls laid out to the face of the wall are incredibly easy to screw up when laying out the building because a framer can't always remember which side of the dimensioned point the wall is supposed to fall on. But if the framer is laying out to the centerline, it doesn't matter. And interior walls are laid out from the outside face of exterior wall framing because that's where the framer hooks the tape measure to lay out the interior walls.

   Once the centerlines have been laid out, go back to the Wall Layer and the Parallel Lines tool. Set it to 1.75" right offset and 1.75" left offset, assuming a 2x4 wall. Set the weight to .35mm. Draw the walls. Clean up the intersections with PowerCADD's cleanup tool, not WildTools' cleanup tool. In almost every case, the WildTools tool is better, but in the case of the Parallel Lines tool and the cleanup tool, it's the other way around.

Drawing Systems

We haven't done a "normal" custom home in several years. Rather, we now inhabit a lower level of the architectural profession focused on designs that are replicatable. In other words, the homes we design are "product" sold to customers we usually never see, rather than custom design done for clients with whom the architect normally gets quite intimately acquainted. As you might guess, the process is entirely different. As a matter of fact, it took us a couple years, coming from the custom design world, to get our minds entirely wrapped around the stock plan process. One of the primary differences is the fact that you're designing for a specific market segment, but you don't have any of the idiosyncrasies experienced with custom clients. In this regard, it allows the design to be more ideal because you're designing for the ideal customer from that market segment.

   The two most common methods we've used are designing for a particular development, or designing a stock plan speculatively. The biggest difference is the schematic phase. When working for a specific development, we strongly recommend doing schematics in a charrette setting. This has been the primary business to date of the New Urban Guild. Guild charrettes may involve anywhere between 3 and 12 architects and designers, although 5-8 are most common. They are attended by the entire development team, especially including their marketing department. Builders may also attend, if a builders' guild has been established. We highly encourage a broader range of unit types, from mews and carriage houses all the way to mansions, mansion condos, and live/works. At a Guild charrette, we do two sorts of design: Custom design begins with nothing but the client's requirements. We produce at least one custom design per architect per day. Many Guild members have stock plan collections, so we often re-skin proven plans in architecture appropriate to the region. We produce at least three re-skins per architect per day. These are both averages, of course, over the entire design team, because someone doing mansions will usually produce less than someone doing carriage houses. In any case, our charrette deliverables are scans of all finished drawings, which include floor plans of each level and a front elevation.

   When we're doing a stock plan speculatively, we're working in our own office designing to a particular market ideal. There are no outside requirements other than those which we identify in-house.

   During the Design Development phase, we take the sketches and convert them to CAD drawings, producing floor plans of each level and elevations of each side of the building. The big difference between working speculatively and for a client is that the client gets to review drawings at the end of this phase. We have a rigorous system of drawing production that takes awhile for someone to learn. Once they have, however, they can move much more quickly because most of the mundane decisions (drawing locations, lineweights, etc.) have already been made. IMO, one of the real secrets of architecture is the ability to translate the magic of the sketch to hardline drawings. Most architects cannot do this; their hardline drawings retain very little of what made their sketches so compelling. So this is a phase I normally do myself; my people are great at many things, but I just can't let this go. I occasionally let them do the first take, but no project ever gets out without me going over the Design Development drawings with a fine-toothed comb. And it's not just fine-toothed on design issues, but also on drawing issues. I completely insist on drawing precision for several reasons. Gobbledygook dimensions like .2497145" instead of precisely 1/4" call everything into question. You might not ever see the difference, but if the drawing is precisely right, then so many potential problems are avoided. I'll post details of our drawing system later... running out of time this morning.

   Our Construction Documents constitute what we call a Builder's Set of drawings, but it's a bit more detailed than most. We produce floor plans of each level, a roof plan, elevations of each side (all at 1/4" scale) interior elevations of the most important walls that have cabinets (kitchens, but not powder baths, for example, since the owner will pick the vanity as a product) trim details, finish schedules with the specific finishes left blank so the owners can fill in their selections, a typical wall section of each major condition, a typical porch section of each major condition, door and window details, and an entire sheet of dormer details if the house has dormers. For structural, we show a combined foundation and first level framing plan, upper level floor framing plans, but no roof framing plans since one builder might do trusses and another might stick-frame. We also produce electrical plans for each level. On both the structural and the electrical, we clearly note that the drawings only indicate design intent and that all required engineering must be done locally. We produce no HVAC drawings as residential builders don't follow them in any case... many of the residential HVAC people have never worked from drawings.

Drawing Systems Lineweights, Layers, and Layouts

I'll do this in several bite-size installments in order to be more readable. Please let me know if this is boring, or otherwise hogging listserv bandwidth. If anyone is starting their practice and wants all of this, I'll give it to you. Here are the conditions: This system works on PowerCADD, which only runs on a Macintosh. But it produces drawings that are clear and beautiful, and beside which the process of drawing in AutoCAD drawings looks impossibly excruciating. So if you want to set up this way, just let me know and I'll send you all of my stationery, details, libraries, etc. My motivation is simple: the more people that know how to draw this way, the bigger of a resource we all are to each other.

Lineweights

   We use a proportional series of lineweights where each lineweight is larger than the previous by the square root of 2. This is the same series used by one of the old technical pen companies back in the 1970's (can't remember which it is.) In any case, here's the series:

.045 mm

.065 mm

.09 mm

.13 mm

.18 mm

.25 mm

.35 mm

.5 mm

.7 mm

1 mm

   Actually, we don't use all of them. Once, we had our own plotter, and it couldn't distinguish between some of the lighter lineweights, so we eliminated .065, .09, and .18 from the series. Here are what we use the remaining lineweights for:

   .045 mm    This is our hairline. Generally, hairlines are used for the things that should disappear first when you squint. Dimension lines fall into this category, as do arrows, since they should be less weighty than the drawing itself. We also use them for what we call "surface lines," which are places that a surface breaks, but where there is no offset from one plane to another.

   .13 mm This is our standard drawing line. We have a Profile Lines Layer onto which we may copy standard drawing lines and increase their lineweight, but the line also exists on the basic drawing layer so that the drawing isn't hit-and-miss when we turn the profile lines off. We do this often on our certain drawing sheets like electrical plans, where the walls should be light and your eye should be drawn to the electrical items, not the walls.

   .25 mm We use this weight for doors and for window glass. It is also our lightest profile line. We profile wall section cavities where the air is less than 24" wide with this lineweight. We also profile elevation breaks less than 8' with this lineweight.

   .35 mm We profile wall section surfaces that meet interior air greater than 24" wide with this lineweight. We also profile elevation breaks between 8' and 24' with this lineweight.

   .5 mm        We profile wall section surfaces that meet exterior air with this lineweight. We also profile elevation breaks greater than 24' with this lineweight.

   .7 mm        This lineweight is reserved for ground breaks at the bottom of elevations.

   1 mm        This lineweight is reserved for special conditions.

 

Layers

   The following layer schemes are for our stock plans, for which our layer scheme is simplest. We have modified layer schemes for Build-Outs, Builders' Plans, Commercial, Planning, and Custom Residential. They're based on the same genetic material, but with additional layers as required for the job types. Within the Stock Plans, we have the following drawings:

 

   0.1 Title Sheet    (These are the basic layers that exist on all of our drawings.)

Comments    (This is where all checkset comments go, and any other comments that we want to attach for our reference, but which will not appear on final drawings.)

Title Block    (This is where our title block resides, including the job name, and the date and time stamp... which I HIGHLY recommend for all drawings.)

Text Layer    (This is where the content of the drawing resides... Key to Symbols, Abbreviations, Conditions for Purchase, and Index)

Layout Lines    (The layout lines establish the basic zones for the drawing. See Layouts later.)

Working Layer (This is where we paste all temporary items to which we may refer during the drawing process. For Title Sheets, it's used very infrequently.)

 

0.2 Schedules    (Same layers as Title Sheet. We use this very infrequently on Stock Plans; it's only necessary on the largest plans.

 

2.1 First Level    (This is where all drawings pertaining to the first level (or below) reside.)

Floor Plan Comments

Roof Plan Comments

Foundation Comments

Electrical Comments

Title Block

Dimension Layer    (This layer contains dimensions and also basic floor plan info like the drawing title and floor plan notes. All specifications occur in the form of notes, not as a separate Project Manual or spec book. We have a very robust set of drawing notes, which I'd be happy to share if anyone's interested. Floor Plan notes occur on the Dimension Layer. Notes for other plans (electrical, roof, foundation, etc.) occur on those layers. Also, general floor plan details occur on the Dimension Layer, while details specific to the other plan types occur on those layers. In many ways, the Dimension Layer is the parent layer of floor plans.)

Text Layer (This is where all the basic CD text is located.)

Section Cuts (This includes all Building Section and Wall Section cut marks.)

Presentation Plan    (This includes all DD notes. For example, at the DD phase, we show room names and room sizes, whereas at the CD phase, we show room names and room numbers.)

Profile Lines (See notes under Lineweights above.)

Wall Blockouts    (These are polygons or bezier curves that encompass anything heavier than a door or window glass cut through on a floor plan. The shapes are .35 mm, filled with black as per the DPZ drawing standard. Previously, we filled with white and hatched them with hairlines. DPZ is right; their system reads better)

Masonry Veneer    (Self explanatory. We draw them as polygons, then fill them with hatches appropriate to the material.)

Wall Layer (We draw walls as .13 mm lines for exterior faces of walls, which will be profiled, or .35 mm lines for interior wall faces.)

Building Layout    (This is where the drawing begins. We draw the exterior footprint here, plus the centerlines of interior walls.)

Area Calculation    (This is where the polygons representing the interior conditioned space, interior unconditioned space, and porch space reside.)

Door Layer (Self-explanatory. For stock plans, we show the door size on the floor plans (Text Layer) rather than generating door schedules.)

Window Layer (Self-explanatory. Like doors, window sizes are shown on floor plans (Text Layer) rather than generating window schedules.)

Stairs & Handrails    (Self-explanatory.)

Miscellaneous Plan Items (Columns with their bases, overhangs, headers, fireboxes, etc.)

Plumbing Fixtures    (Self-explanatory. Includes shower lines such as floor breaks.)

Appliances & Equipment (Self-Explanatory.)

Cabinets (Self-Explanatory.)

Furniture & Rugs    (Self-Explanatory. Only shows up in Presentation Plans.)

Roof Plan (Self-Explanatory. We show all the normal stuff, plus we indicate zones in which roof penetrations may occur... you don't always see that.)

Floor Framing Plan    (First level floor framing plan. Our notes are very explicit in that a structural engineer must be consulted for local conditions.)

Foundation Plan    (Drawn on a separate layer, but shows up on a single sheet with the floor framing plan. Foundation & framing notes and details go here.)

Electrical Plan Text    (Electrical notes and keys.)

Power Plan (Self-Explanatory.)

Lighting Plan (Self-Explanatory.)

Auxiliary Plan (Should be self-explanatory: phone, computers, doorbells, smoke alarms, etc.)

Texture Layer (Masonry hatches, etc.)

Room Name Spots    (Diagonal lines to corners of each room to facilitate placement of room names in the centers of rooms.)

Layout Lines

Working Layer

 

Sheets: 2.1 First Level produces the following drawing sheets:

Electrical Plan (All of the electrical layers, plus Title Block.)

Floor Plan Area    (Wall Layer, Masonry Veneer layer, Building Layout layer, Area Calculation layer, and Miscellaneous Plan Items layer... facilitates measurement of plan areas.)

Floor Plan Dimension (Layers needed for dimensioning the plan.)

Floor Plan Draw    (Layers needed in early drawing phase of the plans.)

Floor Plan Final    (Final CD layers.)

Floor Plan Layout    (Beginning set of layers.)

Floor Plan Presentation (Final DD layers.)

Foundation Plan    (Foundation Plan & First Floor Framing Plan plus Title Block.)

Roof Plan (Roof Plan plus Title Block. The roof plan occurs on the first floor sheet because not all plans have upper levels, and the roof must cover all levels.)

 

2.2 Second Level    (This is where all drawings pertaining to the second level (or above) reside.)

Floor Plan Comments

Floor Framing Comments

Electrical Comments

Title Block

Dimension Layer

Text Layer

Section Cuts

Presentation Plan

Profile Lines

Wall Blockouts

Masonry Veneer

Wall Layer

Building Layout

Area Calculation

Door Layer

Window Layer    

Stairs & Handrails

Miscellaneous Plan Items

Plumbing Fixtures

Appliances & Equipment

Cabinets

Furniture & Rugs

Floor Framing Plan

Floor Framing Support (This layer shows all lower level plans as .13 mm lines, plus it shows all wood headers as double .5 mm lines.)

Electrical Plan Text

Power Plan

Lighting Plan

Auxiliary Plan

Texture Layer

Room Name Spots

Layout Lines

Working Layer

 

Sheets: 2.2 Second Level produces the following drawing sheets:

Electrical Plan

Floor Framing Plan    (Floor Framing Plan, Floor Framing Support, and Title Block.)

Floor Plan Area

Floor Plan Dimension

Floor Plan Draw

Floor Plan Final

Floor Plan Layout

Floor Plan Presentation

 

3.1 Elevations (This is where all exterior elevations are drawn.)

Comments

Title Block

Dimension Layer

Text Layer

Presentation Plan    (DD text occurs on this layer.)

Nonprofiled Foreground (Some items need to occur here in order to appear properly profiled. Handrails are a classic example. If anyone has read this far and is interested, ask me... it's slightly complicated, but a very good reason.)

Profile Lines

Drawing Layer    (Primary drawing layer.)

Surface Lines (See lineweights discussion above.)

Text Blockouts    (Text is much more readable if items on the Texture Layer are obscured below the text blocks.)

Texture Layer

Layout Lines

Working Layer

 

Sheets: 3.1 Elevations produces the following drawing sheets:

Dimension (Layers required for dimensioning.)

Draw (Layers required for drawing.)

Note (Layers required for notes.)

Print (CD layers.)

Print Presentation    (DD layers.)

 

3.2 Sections (This is where all building sections are drawn. Layers and sheets are identical to 3.1 Elevations.)

 

5.1 Interior Elevations (This is where all exterior elevations are drawn.)

Comments

Title Block

Dimension Layer

Text Layer

Profile Lines

Drawing Layer

Surface Lines

Texture Layer

Layout Lines

Working Layer

 

Sheets: 5.1 Elevations produces the following drawing sheets:

Dimension

Draw

Note    

Print    

Stretch (Layers needed to stretch templates into lengths of walls being elevated.)

 

9.1 Wall Sections (This template is also usable for details (if they can't all be shown on the other sheets) and also for a Dormer Sheet, which shows dormer elevations (front and side) and dormer sections (transverse and longitudinal) plus details.)

Comments

Title Block

Dimension Layer

Text Layer

Profile Lines

Drawing Layer

Surface Lines

Texture Layer

Layout Lines

Working Layer

Layouts

   Our layout divides the D-size drawing sheet (24" x 36") into 24 modules (6 wide by 4 high,) each 5" x 5". Horizontally, the modules are separated by 1/4"; vertically, they're separated by 3/4". Horizontally, that's 1/8" each side from the centerlines. Vertically, it's the same dimensions plus space for drawing titles. This very rigorous system allows for details and major drawings to cohabitate peacefully on the same sheet. Major drawings get alphabetical designations (A-whatever.) Details get numerical designations beginning with 1 in the upper lefthand corner, then left to right until you get 24 in the lower righthand corner. Drawings ALWAYS are numbered by where their title occurs, so that you always know precisely where to look for drawing 17 on every sheet. Text occupies a band beginning 2-1/4" wide beginning 1/8" from the left size of each zone. Dimensions are 1/8", 3/8", and 5/8" from the right side of each zone. This is because it's graphically clearer to extend an arrow from the end of a note (to the right) while it's cleaner to put most notes to the right of a detail for reasons I can explain if anyone's interested. Let me know if you'd like an image of this layout scheme.

Soap Skin & Bubble

  I learned lots of stuff while learning SketchUp for SmartDwelling I that was published this week in the Wall Street Journal. One of the most useful things I discovered was the Soap Skin & Bubble external tool for SketchUp. I'll post a link when I have access to my laptop again... or you can also Google it. It's one of the coolest things you've ever seen.