Pinnacle Infotech
3 min readMay 5, 2016

Mechanical Shop Drawings — A Powerful Tool for Matching Construction Workflow

Mechanical shop drawings constitute a vital aspect of construction workflow. They are basically the sketches containing technical information about HVAC, plumbing, piping and medical gas system. These are often considered to be a powerful tool for managing construction workflow and they help to make the analysis of complex systems. All the project stakeholders involved in a construction project refer to shop drawings for making accurate on-site and off-site pre-fabrication. Many contractors also opt for segmented spool drawings and spool map with segment locations according to the pre-fabricating standards. If you want to improve quality, reduce construction cost and manage all construction materials in a proper way, Fabrication/Spool Drawings could be the right option for you.

Now, let’s have a look at the different types of mechanical shop drawings for construction:

1. Arrangement Diagrams — They contain detailed info about the self-contained units constituting the system such as dimension, weight, fabrication, parts, lifting points as well as several other information required for constructing, testing, lifting, transporting and installing equipment. As a result of which, you can get a clear idea about the details of the components and about their assemblage.

2. Fabrication Drawings — Fabrication drawings include a list of diverse parts, making up the fabrication. Here, you can identify the parts as balloons and leader lines. Besides, you can get complex info pertaining to material standards, codes, tolerance, welding details and about heat and stress treatments from fabrication drawings.

3. Spool Drawings — Pipe spool drawings are important for the plumbers as they help them to understand what they are encountering. Contractors create the plumbing segments from spool drawings for accurate pre-fabrication both off-site and on-site. In most cases, the Segmented Spool sketches are generated as per the contractor’s standards and preference for fabrication.

4. Detail Illustrations — The illustrations where all the components used for building mechanical systems are described in a detailed manner are considered as detailed drawings. These diagrams meet all the specifications of the designers as per the codes, geometry, mass, weight, material, texture, size, surface and tolerance and heat treatment requisites. Detail sketches contain all the typical installation details & mock-ups with equipment schedules.

5. 2D Drawings — 2D diagrams are often required by the mechanical contractor during construction and they contain information related to the Floor Plans with system sizes & dimensions. Schematic drawing information is also contained in the 2D Drawings for ensuring continuity of services with design intent and for providing Riser sizes with branch connections.

Opt for the leading BIM service provider to produce all kinds of shop drawings directly from the 3d models. BIM Models represent the most comprehensive sketches and depict every component with technical information. Construction documents get generated from the information provided into the Building Information Models. You can get block-out and penetration diagrams with major structural openings coordinated with your MEP requirements from the model. So, why are you waiting for? Search online to find out the top BIM service provider that produces shop drawings for mechanical construction and match your construction work process in an effective way.

Pinnacle Infotech
Pinnacle Infotech

Written by Pinnacle Infotech

Construct Certainty with Pinnacle, the global leader in BIM Solutions. Explore our processes, standards, and projects at http://pinnacleinfotech.com

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