Drafting Standards and Title Blocks 1

[goldenfab]

Hi All,

A bit of background first to better give context to the nature of my questions. I have a BS degree in AE and have worked in the corporate world in different engineering positions for 4 years but never did anything with drawings. I now have my own small business and do machine work (mostly prototypes) where I see a fair amount of drawings. I also do design work and drawings in house and for clients but nothing in any great detail and mostly prototype level stuff. I am now doing more drawings for real products that are going to production. My concern is what I don't know what I don't know. I feel a bit in a knowledge bubble running my own gig without a senior guy to mentor me. Good thing for the internet..

1. Title Blocks

Is there any type of standard that says what it can and can't be. I use Alibre Design and it has some templates. Should I just keep using the Alibre Title blocks or customize it to create my own unique company title block? Is it ever not appropriate to my company logo on the drawings, for example doing design/drawings for someone else for their product?​

2. Standards

ANSI, ISO, ASME, etc.. I know of them but not a lot about them. When should one be used over another? Is it just dealers choice? Most of what I do is mechanical prototypes and consumer product type widgets. Should I be taking some time to learn one or more of these standards. I understand the drawings I get when I make parts and my drawings make sense to me but when is adherence to a drawing standard a big deal?​

3. Dimensions vs CAD model

I have seen drawing where only a few dimensions are called out and there is a general note referencing a tolerance from the 3D CAD model. Are there any times this should be avoided?​

4. Revisions

A recent project I was brought into midway has some 3D models and 2D drawings with different rev letters. Is this ever common practice or a reason to do this? It seems like a bad idea to me. I always indicate the revision as the last part of the file name and the 2D drawings. Is there anything else that is usually done for the 3D model to convey the revision?​

5. Professionalism

Are there any things to avoid that stick out as not looking professional?​

6. Additional Learning

Apart from spending the cash on ASME Y14.5 and reading it page for page are there any good resources to brush up on what I don't know? Any good examples (or bad examples) of drawings anyone knows of?​

Thanks,

Adam

 

[CheckerHater]

The answers to most of your questions lie in contractual obligations - whatever your customer wants.
For example, if you are doing US government job, you will be required to comply with ASME Y14.100 umbrella standard. (This also answers your question number 2)
For title blocks, ASME Y14.1 and ASME Y14.1M, or ISO 7200
If you want to cover all the areas of engineering drafting, complete packaging of both ISO and ASME may be fairly expensive. There are several books out there, but they are usually falling behing of latest official standard releases.
There is no magic solution for dimension vs model question. Usually critical features will require tolerancing using GD&T (or GPS in ISO terms) This is another "larger-then-life" question.
There are formal rules for making revisions, like ASME 14.35 standard. You have to figure out your way of doing it and stick to it.
Avoid using colors, fansy fonts and lengthy shop process descriptions
It's nearly impossible to provide deep insight into all of your question at once, so you are welcome to come back with more detailed inquiries.

"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future

 

[dgallup]

Too many questions for one post but in answer the #4, most CAD systems DO NOT LIKE changing file names with every revision. The revision should be a parameter in the model that will show up in the drawing title block. If you are exporting models/drawings then it is perfectly fine to add the revision level to the file name as these are typically dumb files without parameterization or association to other files.

Choose your standards carefully and as CheckerHater said your customer base should be a big factor. Most US customers and suppliers will be more familiar with ASME although frequently their level of understanding will be somewhat lacking. Europeans will be more familiar with ISO but it's a minefield of disjointed and sometimes conflicting standards. Governments/military/aerospace will impose their own standards and will be completely inflexible.

You might want to look around for a decent class at a local community college or similar, might be cost effective way to start.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[ctopher]

I suggest maybe bring in a consultant for a day or two to help you setup your system. Somebody that is knowledgeable in this field and can help you get you going on standards and on the right track.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '17
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[goldenfab]

Thank you all for the feedback.

Regarding 1. Title Blocks, I was searching this forum on this topic and ran across this thread Value of a company's CAD title block. If title blocks are per a standard (post #2 this thread) then it does not make sense that someone had been accused of copying a companies title block. I'm wondering what part of it they copies. I guess there are certain parts of a title block that are per a standard and other parts that are customizable? Anyone have any good examples?

For point of discussion, I just drafted construction plans for a house I am going to build (personal project) and looking at other plans to see how to do mine it appears that draftsmen just use whatever Title Block they dream up. So my understanding is if you are drafting residential construction projects you do what you want but I would guess if one is doing aerospace parts for Boeing everything is probably strictly to a standard. I guess I'm trying to get a feel for what market areas my drawing capabilities are in line with and what I need to learn for other markets. I am comfortable doing prototype level proof of concept type stuff but don't know how to advance my skills from here, for example providing manufacturing drawings to big companies for mass production.