US shop drawings that pass a checking gate before you see them

A complete AISC submittal for a sample equipment platform: anchor rod plan, erection drawings, shop drawings, RFI log and a clouded revision. Every set I issue goes through the same automated checks. The first draft of this one failed them, and this page shows what the checks caught.

Steel detailing · AISC · sample submittal

14 sheetsanchor rod plan, 3 erection drawings, 10 shop drawings

48 bolts80 edge distances measured against AISC 360 Table J3.4

0 errorsopen at issue: clashes, hole sizes, unlocated pieces, field welds on shop sheets

Rev 14 sheets revised and clouded, 10 unchanged and left at Rev 0

The sheets

Imperial units to 1/16″, AWS weld symbols, piece marks on the end the shop stamps, standard holes noted on every bolt group, and a bill of material on each sheet. Member sizes in this sample are illustrative; on a real job they come from the Engineer of Record’s design drawings.

Shop drawing of a W8X31 column with base plate, shear tabs and a bracing gusset, with sections A-A and B-B — Column C1: base plate, two shear tabs and a bracing gusset, each located by a dimension and welded with the symbol on the sheet. Sections show the weld and the hole on every fitting.

Anchor rod plan with grid dimensions, base plate details and anchor rod notes — Anchor rod plan: grid dimensions, base plate details and the notes the concrete contractor needs (projection, embedment, grout, nuts and washers).

Erection elevation along grid line A showing piece marks for columns, beams and brace — Erection elevation: one piece mark per member, top of steel and top of concrete, and a pointer to the anchor rod plan instead of repeating its marks.

Shop drawing of an infill beam with top flange copes at both ends — Infill beam B3: top flange coped at both ends to frame flush with the girders, holes dimensioned from the cope.

Shop drawing of a vertical brace angle with bevel and bolt holes — Vertical brace VB1: angle cut square to length, two holes at each end located from the end, hole size on the sheet.

The checking gate

The 3D fabrication model and every sheet are checked before the set is released. An error stops the set; it is fixed in the model and the sheets are regenerated, never patched by hand.

Check	Basis	This set
Bolt edge distance, every hole in every connected part	AISC 360-16 Table J3.4; below 1d needs EOR approval	80 measured, 0 below
Bolt spacing, including holes from different connections in one part	AISC 360-16 J3.3 (2⅔ d, 3d preferred)	0 below
Maximum edge distance on plates	AISC 360-16 J3.5 (12t, 6 in.)	0 over
Standard holes	d + 1/16″	all 13/16″ for 3/4″ bolts
Clashes between solids, existing structure treated as an error	3D model	0
Erector check: every piece on a shop drawing located by a dimension	simulated fit-up from the sheet alone	18 / 18 pieces placed
Field welds kept off shop drawings	shop vs. field weld in the model	0
One piece mark for identical pieces; shipping marks upper case, assembly marks lower case	AISC detailing practice	pass
Fractions to 1/16″, no leading zeros	AISC detailing practice	pass
Marks overlapping marks or dimensions	sheet geometry	0

Added after this set was issued: the erectability check. The same model passes every row above and is clash-free, yet three of its eleven lifts cannot get into place when it is erected columns first, then beams, then braces.

My own first draft failed it

These are the errors the gate found in the first version of this sample, before anyone would have seen it. The model accepted each of them without complaint.

Clash

Plate washers on the column flange

With anchor rods at ±4-1/2″, the 2-1/2″ plate washers sat on the W8 flange tips. The pattern was opened to ±5-1/2″ on a 14″ base plate.

Bolt check

Shear tab bolts in the wrong direction

The bolts were generated along the tab instead of through the beam web. The edge distance check reported holes 1/8″ from an edge and two bolt groups on top of each other.

Erector check

Gusset and shear tab not located

The column and girder sheets showed the fittings but gave no dimension to place them. Location dimensions were added to the sheets.

J3.5

Gusset edge distance over 12t

On a 3/8″ plate, a bolt sat 4.8″ from the nearest edge. The gusset was reduced from 12″ to 10″.

On a real job, a brace crossing the flange of an existing beam was found in a visual review. Contact with existing structure is now an automatic error in the gate, so it cannot pass silently again.

Revisions you can follow

After the set is issued, every change becomes a numbered revision. Each sheet is compared with the issued copy: changed values are clouded with the revision triangle, the revision is added to the title block, and the drawing log lists which sheets moved to the new revision. Sheets that did not change keep their number.

Anchor rod shop drawing at revision 1 with changed dimensions clouded and revision triangles — Revision 1 in this sample: an RFI answer changed the anchor rod projection from 4-1/2″ to 5-1/2″. The rod length, end dimensions, thread note and bill of material are clouded; the anchor rod plan and both elevations were revised too; the other 10 sheets stayed at Rev 0.

The submittal package

Organised for approval under AISC 303-22: a transmittal with the reviewer’s action boxes, a drawing log, an RFI log with the assumption used for each open question, an advance bill of material with the field bolt list, and the approval documents as one bookmarked PDF. DWG files on named layers and an IFC model come with every set.

00 Transmittal · 01 Drawing log · 02 Approval documents (bookmarked) · 03 RFI log · 04 Advance BOM and field bolts
DWG of each sheet on named layers (steel, bolts, welds, dimensions, marks, notes)
IFC4 model with piece marks, bolts and grids, for coordination

Approval documents, Rev 1 (PDF) Full sample package (PDF + IFC, zip)

Sample project for demonstration only; not for construction. DWG files are available on request.

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