Technical Drawing : Layout

In part one of our technical drawing series, we will look at Layout. How should a drawing be composed, and what sort of information do we need to show on our architectural drawings?

Architectural drawings can be produced on varying paper sizes. From A0 all the way down to A4, paper sizes are assigned according to the information being presented, office standards, type of project and so on. 

No matter the size of the drawing sheet, the drawing layout must fulfill certain requirements. 

Your drawing will require a title block and likely further information and notes. The layout of our drawings needs to be clear, rational and easy to read. 

When creating a set of architectural drawings we must be consistent with the appearance of each drawing. This includes being consistent with factors such as:

• Drawing numbers in a chronological and rational fashion
• Title block orientation
• Use of fonts and styles through all the drawings
• Alignment of drawings

When producing a set of architectural drawings, it is sometimes wise to sketch out the drawings you intend to produce, how they will appear on the drawing sheet, what will be included, what the drawing numbers will be and so on.

Sheet composition

The composition of your drawing sheet is important. If you have more than one drawing on a sheet, make sure they are in line and space well. Leave a margin around the page of at least 10mm. Traditionally you would use a border line around the drawing sheet, although now it has become just as common to have no border.

If you are presenting an architectural drawing sheet with many drawings on it – details for example, make sure there is order. Adopting an invisible grid format might help you organise the drawing so that everything stays aligned. When presenting drawings that are related to one another on the same page, for example a window head and jamb or a plan and elevation, make sure they are lined through so that the reader can see the relationship between the two drawings.

Image 01 - a clear, easy to read composition

Image 02 - the main drawing is centred on the page with the small details aligned and evenly spaced.

Image 03 - drawing sections line through, and neatly centred on the page.

Image 04 - Section details line through with finished floor levels.

Image 05 - An invisible grid gives these drawings a clear order.

Title Blocks

Title blocks can be displayed both horizontally and vertically, and can depend on office standards, aesthetics, or the information displayed on the sheet. It is more common to see a title block on the right hand side of a drawing displayed vertically.

It is important the the title block remains consistent within your architectural drawing package, and the format, font and sizing remains the same. 

The title block typically contains the following information:

• Name of Architecture Practice (address, contact information, email etc)
• Practice logo
• Revisions list
• Notes (this is sometimes separate to the title block)
• Key plan
• Name of project
• Location of project
• Client name
• Project number
• Drawing title
• Sheet/Drawing number
• Scale of drawing
• Date

Title blocks vary from company to company, here are a few examples of title blocks, some traditional and some more contemporary. 

Image 06 - Example of a title block

Image 07 - Example of a title block

Image 08 - Example of a title block

The key takeaway here is that the information is clear, concise and easy to read. These title blocks provide suitable information to anyone viewing the drawing so that they can understand the nature of the drawing, who it has been drawn by, the location of the project, when it was drawn and so on.

Never produce a drawing, whether for a client or for a student project, that doesn’t have a title block/ basic information. (This of course excludes presentation boards, visualisations etc, which is different).

So, once we have our basic drawing layouts and title blocks covered, its time to move on and start looking at labelling and annotation. Stay tuned for the next part of the series. 

Download this PDF Guide! Click on the button below.