Why are construction drawings considered as stepping stones for developing a building?

When it comes to construction business, describing the importance of construction drawings is not that simple as they provide great advantages for architects and engineers for the successful development of the building. In fact the entire actual construction is based on construction drawings, which are developed attentively by AEC professionals during the early stages of preconstruction. When it comes to the development of technical documents, construction drawings are developed at the first place by design and construction professionals.

Importance of construction drawings can be understood from the fact that they are utilized by all the important building stakeholders such as architects, engineers, contractors, and owners etc throughout project lifecycle. When it comes to defining construction drawings they can be described as all kinds of technical drawings which are developed for different building trades such as architecture, structure and MEP during preconstruction.

Site plans, floor plans, elevations, sections, structural shop drawings, erection drawings and MEP shop drawings etc are all parts of construction drawings which are developed by highly technical AEC professionals. Architectural drawings such as floor plan and elevation etc. are utilized by architects and engineers for understanding the technicalities of architectural design.  A floor plan is an architectural drawing which gives a detailed description of a floor in terms of the placement of doors, stairs, windows etc.  The correlation between different spaces in a floor is effectively described by architects through floor plans. By looking at floor plan one can easily understanding the location of different rooms and the way to access them. Similarly site plan provides detailed description of the location wherein the building is going to be constructed.  With the assistance of a site plan design and construction professionals can clearly understand the location of parking area, layout of nearby roads and drainage system of the building etc.

However, fabrication drawings developed for structural and MEP trades are utilized by fabricators for manufacturing building components associated to these disciplines such as columns, beams and pipes etc.

When the actual construction begins, architects and engineers do not refer anything else apart of construction drawings services.