Shop Drawings

[Alwayslearningelec]

Not sure how many of your are familiar with this term. Anyone know where the term came from. Guess just from the subcontractor(SHOP) doing their own drawings.

 

[petersonra]

There are probably different definitions for different companies.

We refer to shop drawings as the drawing set we send out to our shop to build by.

 

[infinity]

For us the shop drawings come from the electrical contractors engineer or draftsman. At one time we even had a staff architect making them up.

 

[gadfly56]

Not sure how many of your are familiar with this term. Anyone know where the term came from. Guess just from the subcontractor(SHOP) doing their own drawings.

Speaking on the fire alarm side, the shop drawings usually contain all the information necessary to construct the system. Conduit routing and size, cable sizes, device installation details, panel interior arrangement, speaker/horn and strobe candela settings should all be a part of the shop drawings. It is common for electrical contractors to sub the fire alarm work to a fire alarm vendor, the most common arrangement being "parts and smarts". Under this arrangement, the EC pulls all the conduit and cable and installs and terminates the field devices. The FA vendor makes the final terminations in the fire alarm control unit and do the final test and inspection. Naturally, the drawings will need to contain every bit of information the EC needs to execute his end of the project. The "shop" designation might have originated with the mechanical trades, as ductwork is hardly ever fabricated on site, but done in the shop and then shipped and assembled on site. In that case, a drawing would be needed for each piece describing the height, length, width and sheet gauge, etc. Likewise, design drawings show the intent but not things like the interior of the cabinet, since the fire alarm system vendor and model are usually not known at the time the bid goes on the street.

 

[Charged]

If the project has book specifications , shop drawings are often required and described in the submittals. I usually think of it as something additional to the manufacturer standard product data.

 

[steve66]

I think the term comes from trades like structural steel, where the shop fabricating the steel (trusses, columns, etc.) produces drawings and calculations for the architect/engineer to review prior to fabrication.

 

[jim dungar]

Shop drawings contain the details required to actually build/manufacture what is drawn as opposed to overall conceptual or architectural drawings.

For example an architectural drawing may show what a switchboard is supposed to look like on its outside and where it will be located, while shop drawings may show the internal components, structure and wiring.