visio and a free set of iso stencils is cheapest for electronic. Otherwise they make iso drafting paper which I use a lot for field notes to welders and inspectors.
For books, check out a couple by IPT. They have one on blueprints (specifically boilers, tanks, piping etc), and another on pipefitting. Both are excellent.
"So that's why nothing fit" is because contractors scale isometric drawings. Remember some of the lines are not to true dimensions. For dimensioning purposes use 2D layouts.
My reply was in jest. I’m sure it’s been done, but how does the contractor decide what scale factor to use when they try to scale the isometric drawing? I'd love to hear the contractor trying to explain why things didn't fit.
I’m a piping designer at an oil refinery and 75% of the drawings I create are piping isometrics. From my experience piping is fabricated from the iso’s. Sometimes the contractor will take the piping iso’s and break them down to simple spool sheets for pipe fitter to fabricate from. Any 2D layouts or elevation drawings created for the project are used more for layout and general reference.
