Electrical Blue Print Reading

[Saturn_Europa]

I am a licensed electrician but have only worked in maintenance at water and wastewater plants. I am trying to fill in some gaps in knowledge. Does anyone know a good book or website that teaches how to read electrical blueprints. I am really good at reading electrical diagrams, relay logic, HVAC controls, ladder logic and motor controls. But find myself getting lost on industrial and residential construction blue prints. I didnt see anything specific to blue print reading at MH.

Has anyone tried the following book:

[h=1][SIZE=+1]The Electrical Plan Reading Workbook
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Best selling books to prepare electricians for the licensing exam[/SIZE][/h]

[SIZE=-1]An excellent workbook for training programs as it starts with symbols and abbreviations and takes the student on a walk through the floor plan, panelboard schedule, load balancing schedule, neutral balancing, riser diagrams, one-line drawings, short-circuit calculations, conductor withstand ratings, load balancing delta, load balancing wye, sizing panelboards, slab drawings, detail drawings, specifications, material designations, and much more. The workbook includes 14 exams with answers to test what has been learned. These pages are perforated for removal by the instructor. Knowledge of plan reading is now required on most electrical exams.[/SIZE]
​

http://www.code-electrical.com/planreading.html

 

[Strathead]

I am a licensed electrician but have only worked in maintenance at water and wastewater plants. I am trying to fill in some gaps in knowledge. Does anyone know a good book or website that teaches how to read electrical blueprints. I am really good at reading electrical diagrams, relay logic, HVAC controls, ladder logic and motor controls. But find myself getting lost on industrial and residential construction blue prints. I didnt see anything specific to blue print reading at MH.

Has anyone tried the following book:

[SIZE=+1]The Electrical Plan Reading Workbook
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Best selling books to prepare electricians for the licensing exam[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]An excellent workbook for training programs as it starts with symbols and abbreviations and takes the student on a walk through the floor plan, panelboard schedule, load balancing schedule, neutral balancing, riser diagrams, one-line drawings, short-circuit calculations, conductor withstand ratings, load balancing delta, load balancing wye, sizing panelboards, slab drawings, detail drawings, specifications, material designations, and much more. The workbook includes 14 exams with answers to test what has been learned. These pages are perforated for removal by the instructor. Knowledge of plan reading is now required on most electrical exams.[/SIZE]
​

http://www.code-electrical.com/planreading.html

It sounds like you are a smart guy. I think you just need to self teach. First off, there is no one method of drawing plans. The methods are as varied as there are people. It is a lot more about being able to read blueprints period than it is about electrical blueprints. So get a sete of blueprints for a building that you are familiar with, fire up Google and get started.

 

[mgookin]

I am a licensed electrician but have only worked in maintenance at water and wastewater plants. I am trying to fill in some gaps in knowledge. Does anyone know a good book or website that teaches how to read electrical blueprints. I am really good at reading electrical diagrams, relay logic, HVAC controls, ladder logic and motor controls. But find myself getting lost on industrial and residential construction blue prints. I didnt see anything specific to blue print reading at MH.

Has anyone tried the following book:

[SIZE=+1]The Electrical Plan Reading Workbook
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Best selling books to prepare electricians for the licensing exam[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]An excellent workbook for training programs as it starts with symbols and abbreviations and takes the student on a walk through the floor plan, panelboard schedule, load balancing schedule, neutral balancing, riser diagrams, one-line drawings, short-circuit calculations, conductor withstand ratings, load balancing delta, load balancing wye, sizing panelboards, slab drawings, detail drawings, specifications, material designations, and much more. The workbook includes 14 exams with answers to test what has been learned. These pages are perforated for removal by the instructor. Knowledge of plan reading is now required on most electrical exams.[/SIZE]
​

http://www.code-electrical.com/planreading.html

For $25 that sounds like a wise investment.

 

[gadfly56]

If you have a complete set of plans there's going to be a cover sheet, index sheet, and a symbol sheet. Knowing what the symbols are you shouldn't have any problem reading the plans. Rather than a book on reading plans, you might be better served getting a good book on drafting so you can understand what the draftsman's view of things is.

 

[tom baker]

Here is an entire page of print reading books from ATP. ATP is a well respected company, know in the industrial training community
http://www.atplearning.com/Printreading-C48.aspx
There is one electrical book at the bottom

 

[Ingenieur]

My suggestion is to get a set of the construction plans for your facility
most keep a set on site
then 'walk through' them
start at the service and work your way down to several loads
you are 1/2 way there since you are familiar with the facility

review first:
legends/general notes
riser/single lines
equipment/fixture/etc schedules
general drawing format/layout

you type of facility will have some major construction types
office
power
process

 

[jumper]

Get a scale ruler, know how to use it, and make sure you are using the correct ratio/proportion/scale.

Quick demo:

How to read an Architect's Scale - cteunt.org

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...le.ppt&usg=AFQjCNF6s4K9rS5A8rJNvYjR9pZMdPFmtg

Edit: Another useful link:

http://www.aaadrafting.com/drafting-tools-techniques/engineeringscales.html

 

[Fulthrotl]

I am a licensed electrician but have only worked in maintenance at water and wastewater plants. I am trying to fill in some gaps in knowledge. Does anyone know a good book or website that teaches how to read electrical blueprints. I am really good at reading electrical diagrams, relay logic, HVAC controls, ladder logic and motor controls. But find myself getting lost on industrial and residential construction blue prints. I didnt see anything specific to blue print reading at MH.

there is a new thing to consider, in large commercial and
industrial work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_information_modeling

a 3d representation of a structure, with hyperlinks, and an
astounding level of detail that can be present.

 

[gadfly56]

there is a new thing to consider, in large commercial and
industrial work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_information_modeling

a 3d representation of a structure, with hyperlinks, and an
astounding level of detail that can be present.

Yes, but "there is many a slip 'twixt the spoon and the lip".

We are working on a massive construction project. I don't think I can mention the name at the moment, but it's broken down into 4 separate models, each about 60 Mb when loaded. It has been a pain in the butt. Structural was supposed to have been locked down by the beginning of this year and architectural by May. They're still moving crap for both disciplines. The sprinkler designer has had to move the risers at least a dozen times because they can't get their act together. And that still doesn't get you the prints you need to actually build stuff. That requires a top-flight CAD/BIM drafter to create the correct views and get them on the sheets.

 

[ggunn]

I assume you are using the word "blueprint" in a generic sense, referring to CAD drawings. Actual blueprints (referring to the way they were produced and copied) have gone the way of the dodo, thank goodness. Sitting there with a magnifying glass trying to decide whether a tiny number is a three, a six, or an eight is a bit of a pain.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Yes, but "there is many a slip 'twixt the spoon and the lip".

We are working on a massive construction project. I don't think I can mention the name at the moment, but it's broken down into 4 separate models, each about 60 Mb when loaded. It has been a pain in the butt. Structural was supposed to have been locked down by the beginning of this year and architectural by May. They're still moving crap for both disciplines. The sprinkler designer has had to move the risers at least a dozen times because they can't get their act together. And that still doesn't get you the prints you need to actually build stuff. That requires a top-flight CAD/BIM drafter to create the correct views and get them on the sheets.

i didn't say it worked well, i said it's *here*. my first go around with coordinating
trades was in 1995, the tin knocker and i were exchanging cad files, and i drew
right around him, and we hardly had any interference. plumber went first, sheet
metal second, and i got what was left over.

then we found out that structural steel drew the building wrong, and *edited*
the dimensions, instead of redrawing them. it saved them money. the outcome
was predictable.

 

[gadfly56]

i didn't say it worked well, i said it's *here*. my first go around with coordinating
trades was in 1995, the tin knocker and i were exchanging cad files, and i drew
right around him, and we hardly had any interference. plumber went first, sheet
metal second, and i got what was left over.

then we found out that structural steel drew the building wrong, and *edited*
the dimensions, instead of redrawing them. it saved them money. the outcome
was predictable.

Well, the upside of BIM is you can do clash detection and catch that crap before you put a shovel in the ground. It won't keep you from putting it in the model wrong since it isn't a real-time feature but you can catch the "ooops!" while it's still a collection of magnetic domains on a disk somewhere.

If we take AutoCAD's Revit as a kind of benchmark, it debuted in 2000 although PC based BIM solutions were available in the mid-90's. You might have just been able to avoid your heartache had the project been of sufficient size to warrant everybody ponying up $5K plus for the software and an additional $10K or so for the workstation. Today I run Revit 2016 on my company laptop.

 

[Fulthrotl]

If we take AutoCAD's Revit as a kind of benchmark, it debuted in 2000 although PC based BIM solutions were available in the mid-90's. You might have just been able to avoid your heartache had the project been of sufficient size to warrant everybody ponying up $5K plus for the software and an additional $10K or so for the workstation. Today I run Revit 2016 on my company laptop.

the electrical alone was over $60M, so yeah, it woulda worked.

except..... 1n 1995, nobody detailing this was running cad except
the tin knocker and me. nobody had email. to get files between
us, (he was in tennessee), i mailed him a modem and taught
him how to use HS/Link. we were in us robotics dual standard land
then.

i was using autocad 13 for dos on a pentium 90, with 16 meg
of ram, and a scsi drive. cutting edge stuff.... :lol::lol::lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0