Download The Professional Practice of Architectural Working Drawings

This book is designed to teach attitudes, basic drafting skills—both hand and computer-aided (CAD) skills, and fundamental concepts of architectural drafting to persons who will benefit from this information in their professional lives. Beyond this, the authors hope to communicate to readers an understanding of architectural drafting as a means of graphic communication, that is, a language. The professional architect or draftsperson needs a clear and fluent command of the language of architectural drafting. With the advent of the computer, a new way of approaching working drawings has evolved—that of drawing full-scale buildings. Previously, we would draw floor plans, for example, at 1⁄4″ = 1′0″. The drafter would have to understand the size of a structure in a fraction of its original size. We presently draw buildings in such a fashion that the computer monitor becomes a type of window through which we are able to view full-size buildings in space. Buildings are drawn in 3-D and rotated into a plan and elevation, or rotated and sliced to produce sections, framing, and floor plans. This rotation and slicing process helps the architectural technician and student better understand what the construction documents entail. The Professional Practice of Architectural Working Drawings, third edition, is divided into three parts. Part I, “Professional Foundations,” consists of Chapters 1 through 7 and is designed to provide basic information about drafting equipment, the process via computer aided drafting (CAD), foundations in building a better strategy using CAD, office practice and procedures, fundamental skills, and an understanding of the evolution of construction. In this edition, Chapter 3 deals with the standards used in CAD and its impact on architectural drafting. There is a new Chapter 4 on environmental and human considerations, and a chapter dealing with the methods of construction and the various materials used in building—wood, masonry, steel, and the new composite—has been added. The initial preparation of working drawings is also new in Chapter 7, which covers the established game plan for the preparation of working drawings. Part II, “Document Evolution,” includes Chapters 8 through 16 and bridges the gap between theory and practice. These chapters teach the student to prepare site plans, foundation plans, floor plans, exterior elevations, building sections, and other vital drawings. Throughout Part II, the ability to communicate general design ideas and concepts through specific working drawings is emphasized and reinforced through practice. All of these chapters have been updated with new CAD drawings, including Chapter 16, which discusses elevators, lifts, and stairs as linking forms between floors. Part III comprises five case studies, including the new Madison Steel Building. In total, there will be access to ten case studies, five of which are new. Palos Verdes condominiums, originally in the Student Manual, has four variations in design. These newly developed case studies have been interspersed between Chapters 8 and 16, eliminating the duplication that existed in the previous edition. Information not included in the book will be available to the reader on a web site for review. Although this book was designed as a stand-alone, the combination of the book and the web site will present ten additional case studies. To understand the total sequencing of the case studies, see the charts in Appendix D at the end of this book or on the web site. A set of working drawings will be evolved, sheet-by sheet, layer by layer and at the ends of Chapters 8 through 16. Case studies of real projects, found in Chapters 17 through 20, illustrate the evolution of working drawings from the design concept through the finished construction documents for four different buildings: 1. A hypothetical one-story residence, including the development of a datum layer via a computer-generated 3-D model 2. A two-story beach house 3. A four-plex movie theatre 4. A newly developed all-steel building These four buildings use a variety of building materials— wood, masonry, and steel systems—and consider environmental and human concerns. Regional differences affect construction methods, and this is one of the most difficult subjects to address. The authors conducted a national survey to illustrate the divii verse problems faced by different regions in the country. The results of this survey are carefully summarized and included in Appendix A at the back of this book. Case studies have also been selected to show extreme conditions such as wind, rain, earthquake, and snow. Appropriately, the illustrations program in this book is its outstanding feature. An additional 400 computer-generated drawings and photographs have been added to the existing 900-plus illustrations. All the new drawings were generated using the same skills described in this book. Just as clothes, toys, furniture, and other products are made in foreign countries, construction documents are often contracted out and produced in other countries. Communication is electronically instantaneous and less expensive in other countries, and thus many architectural firms are taking advantage of this cheaper, faster method of producing construction documents. Therefore, it is important for our CAD training not only to provide and equip our drafters with information and skills that will make them more competitive with overseas drafters, but also to train our drafters so that they cannot be replaced by those overseas because they produce a better product. It is for this reason that the information contained in this book becomes the critical foundation on which CAD skills can be built. To this end, we have included, in Appendix D, a chart based on CAD standards that can enable an architectural technician or student to set up layers with the proper standards to produce a set of working drawings