Drafting Stadards Manual
Drafting Stadards Manual
(OP)
I have been tasked with writing a "Drafting Standards Manual" for the Drafting department where I work. We do not use any real standard of drafting to dimension or tolerance. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or an example that they could help me out with.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Boottmills ![[soapbox] soapbox](https://www.tipmaster.com/images/soapbox.gif)
SW2006 SP3.0





RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
As far as examples, I think an infamous drafting standard handbook was from GE (perhaps Boeing), it was about 7-inches thick last version I saw.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
Start out by looking at the industry/national standards relevant to where you are/what you do.
If you are in the US I'd look at ASME Y14.100 and Y14.5M for starters (if you do MBD try 14.41 I think it is too). They in turn reference a number of other standards.
Initially I'd look at your drafting standards manual drawing attention to these specs and maybe clarifying/amplifying any especially relevant points, especially as to how they are to be implemented.
There are commercially available manuals, usually a copy of a large corporations manual. For instance Genium has a manual based on the GE manual I believe. The Genium one though is about 3” thick which makes it a bit big for everyday use.
Whatever you do try and get buy in from everyone. You can’t always get it but you can try.
Also look at how you are going to enforce those standards, introducing drawing checking if you don’t do so already would be a good step once you have standards to enforce.
Bear in mind how drawing standards and their enforcement may impact other areas of the business and vice versa.
Also if you use CAD make sure that what ever standards you come up with are supported by it, for instance it would be pointless saying all text to be .12” Arial if your CAD system didn’t support Arial font.
I could go on all day but that should do for starters.
Ken
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
David
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
Reference to national/industry standards should be the first and primary effort but sometimes further clarification or summarization of especially relevant areas can be usefull. For instance the standards have a lot of "should" or "may" which you might decide should in fact be "shall" and "will" for consistency.
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
I am a fan of standards. I suggest your company purchases a set of industry standards. You can write your own based on those to meet your company's needs.
I suggest everyone in your company involved in design and/or drawings get training.
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
Makes a good point on filing system. Either formalize what you already do if it works or come up with something. A PDM/PLM system may help if you don’t have one but they aren’t essential.
Generally giving some guidance in how to use the CAD system is a good idea. Most CAD training courses emphasize what you can do with the CAD system, not what you should do. Many 'smart' features can cause a configuration management nightmare for example if it requires lots of links between files.
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
I'd really like to know what the internal doccuments of the car companies are like though... Anyone from Ford or GM, want to share?
Wes C.
------------------------------
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
What is the speed of dark?
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
The reason I like the DRM, though, is because commercial industries (not government/military/defence/aerospace) aren't necessarily required to adhere to recognized industry standards. The DRM is a compilation of notable sections of ANSI/ASME and MIL-Specs. It's a nice single reference to get all of the major components from the respective industry standards. By using the DRM, you are nearly to the level of following ASME Y14.X.
--Scott
For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
Here is the kicker.. in private industry you can adopt it as your "company's" drafting standards just as well as you can any other set of standards. You don't "officially state" your company standard like you would ASME Y.xxxx or whatever, it just is.
For example, you don't put on a boeing drawing that this drawing per boeing standard.
The company standard gives authority to the drawing, whereas in a national standard (asme/iso), the drawing gives authority to a standard.
As a matter of fact yoru company standard can adopt it's own international standard.
for example it can say something like.
UNLESS CONVERD IN THIS DOCCUMENT, REFER TO ASME DOCCUMENT XX.XXX
Our company standard says that for dim and tols refer to ASME Y14.5-1994.
Wes C.
------------------------------
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
True, unless Boeing or a aerospace/govt company/agency owns the drawings.
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
While the Genium or Global manuals don't have any particular industry authority, there are industries to which they really don't apply, such as civil or construction related industries.
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
http://engstandards.lanl.gov/drftman/dmindex.htm
HIH, dog
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
RE: Drafting Stadards Manual
I recommend the GENIUM DRM (from Genium Publishing). This was originally the GE DRM. GENIUM bought the manual from GE and has since taken over maintenance. This manual emphasizes meeting ASME Y14.100 (formerly emphasizing MIL-STD-100) and all standards reference therein (and that's a big pile of standards!).
You can buy hardcopies with a yearly update service and/or a CD containing the manual on smart pdfs (allowing searching for keywords!).
You simply can't go wrong with this. Note that GLOBAL DRM (as of last November) is no longer being maintained.
Tunalover