How to read steel construction drawings? The big picture.

When someone says, "How to read steel construction drawings?" You probably imagine one drawing with a beam, some holes, and some plates welded to it. Am I wrong?

There is so much more to reading steel construction drawings, or blueprints, than just one sheet. If you are a person who really wants to rise in the ranks of the steel industry, earn more responsibility, and in turn get a better-paying position, you need to know how to read all your drawings. Now, you are probably wondering, "What do all your drawings entail?" Well, as an Ironworker/fabricator, the drawings we will utilize the most are our shop drawings and erection drawings. However, those are not single documents. shop drawings are broken down into assembly sheets and parts sheets. Erection drawings are broken down into Anchor Bolt Embed Plans, Column Layout Plans, Elevations, Sections, Details, and more, so much more. By understanding those drawings you could become a great fitter/welder or even a journeyman out in the field. However, if you want to really stand out, and get that pay raise like we mentioned earlier, you want to take this another step further and look to understand design drawings. Design drawings are the drawings provided by architects and engineers when a structure is in its infancy. Many trades will utilize these drawings, not just the structure boys. We are talking HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and more. Now we are not going to dive too deep into their chapters of the design drawings, but there are two sections that an Ironworker should get familiar with, and those are the architectural sections and the structural sections. These two sections play a huge part in the creation of shop and erection drawings. Those are the drawings our detailers will use to conceptualize our shop and erection drawings. So, if you want to become a Field superintendent, you want to know how to read your architectural and structural drawings. Why? Let's say your guys are rigging steel in the field. and a beam won't connect? The ship mark matches the installation location in the beam layout plan, the beam dimensions match the assembly drawings, so what's the problem? You need to now look at the design drawings and see if there were any inconsistencies there. If the structural drawings are different then you need to see if it was a detailing error, if the design drawings match the assembly drawings then we know it was a design error. Now, this is a rough example, but you are getting what I am saying. Being able to read our drawings, all our drawings can help us solve the order of operation problems. That's what you get paid to do as a bossman. Solve problems. That is why it's not just being able to read one sheet.

You need to be able to see the whole picture. All our drawings work together to paint the big picture. Drawings are all interconnected, they start broad and get more detailed as we move through them. They reference and connect to one another, and honestly, you can think of them as one giant living and breathing organism. Think of a funnel, a funnel is wide at the top and gets very narrow at the bottom. This is how all our drawings work. The scope of information is broad at the top and we get more detailed in the information as we move through our drawings. Now, we are not going to teach you how to read drawings here, we have a course just for that here. A huge principle to understanding drawings, however, is that you need to understand that all your sheets help you see the big picture.

Check out our "How to Read Drawings" course here.

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-Alex