Drafting Stadards Manual

[boottmills]

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!

Boottmills
SW2006 SP3.0

 

[MadMango]

You can either purchase and reference existing standards, or you can reinvent the wheel. I think your comany would be better off if they stuck to the published standards for your industry and geographical region.

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.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[KENAT]

This is part of my job so whilst not a comprehensive list try:

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

 

[aardvarkdw]

Start with ASME Y14.5-1994 or the equivelant ISO standard depending on where you reside. Then, if you are involved in any military work, include the applicable mil specs. After that, it just depends on the company and the environment in which you work. Things like layers, line weights and colors, file naming conventions, and text styles are all important for 2d. Things like file organization, constraint methods, layout of drawings and again file naming conventions are all important with 3d work. I would recommend keeping the list short. Better tell people the minimum of what they can and cannot do without getting too far into specifics because you can't always anticipate what may be nessesary to make something work in the future. Also, your standards must be something that can be changed to accomidate future concerns and practices.

David

 

[KENAT]

I was writing at the same time as Mad Mango. Genium manual is about 4.5" thick, I just measured it.

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.

 

[ctopher]

I agree with the others.
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)

 

[KENAT]

Aardvarkdw

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.

 

[wes616]

My personal preference is for the DRM published by global engineering. I'm not sure how much is cost though. It's easier to use than the genium book (imho). The boeing doccument mentioned earlier is geared to specific to the commercial aircraft industry. If you are in aviation, and are a boeing supplier, you can get a copy (kind of).

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.

 

[ewh]

I agree with Wes about the Global manual being easier to use than the Genium, but have found situations that aren't covered in much depth in the Global manual that are well documented in the Genium. Since both are based on the same standards, you could use the Global manual as a day-to-day guide (along with company specific standards) and default to the Genium when the need arises. Of course, depending on your industry specific needs, the Genium could be a bit of overkill.

What is the speed of dark?

 

[swertel]

The DRM from Global Engineering is a very nice reference, but it is not an officially recognized industry standard so you can't state that dimensioning is in accordance with DRM Section X.

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

 

[wes616]

I don't believe that the Genium doccument is one that give any sort of industry authority either.

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.

 

[ctopher]

Wes,
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)

 

[ewh]

It is a very common practice for companies to have their own drafting standards, but most do apply ASME Y14.5 for dimensioning and tolerancing interpretations. The manuals we have been discussing happen to be a very convenient method of establishing company standards as they allow you to have comprehensive standards without having to "re-invent the wheel".
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.

 

[dogtop]

Take a look at:

http://engstandards.lanl.gov/drftman/dmindex.htm

HIH, dog

 

[ewh]

The LANL Drafting Manual is a good example of a civil type of manual.

 

[Tunalover]

You would do yourself and your company a disservice by writing a drafting manual. That could occupy your full attention for months if not years!

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