Architectural/Structural Steel Drawings
Introduction
Architectural and structural drawings are drawings of steel, wood, concrete,
and other materials used to construct buildings, ships, planes, bridges,
towers, tanks, and so on. Building projects may be broadly divided into two
major phases, the design phase and the construction phase. First, the architect
conceives the project and sets the concept onto paper in the form of
presentation drawings that are usually drawn in perspective by using pictorial
drawing techniques. Next, the architect and engineer work together to decide
upon construction materials and methods. The engineer determines the
structural loads, mechanical, heating, lighting, and plumbing systems. The
end result is the preparation of architectural and engineering design sketches
that guide the draftsman who prepares the construction drawings. This
section describes some common types of shapes and symbols used on
architectural and structural drawings. For additional information in
construction or building techniques, refer to the Seabee rate training manuals
of Engineeriing Aid (EA), Builder (BU), and Utilitiesman (UT).
Shapes
Structural shapes common to construction materials are beams, channels,
angles, tees, bearing piles, zees, plates, flat bars, and tie rod and pipe
column. The American Society of Construction Engineers (ASCE) lists the
symbols used to identify these shapes in bills of material, notes, or
dimensions for military construction drawings in MIL-STD-18B.
BEAMS: A beam is a structural support. Beams are defined by their
nominal depth in inches and weight per foot of length. There are wide-flange
beams and I beams. The cross section of a wide-flange beam (WF) is in the
form of the letter H and is the strongest most adaptable support structure.
The cross section of I beams are in the shape of the letter I.
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