Shop Drawings • 5 min read

Revit, CAD, and shop drawings: who should do what?

A practical split between design decisions and production drafting that helps projects move faster.

Design vs production drafting

  • Your lead designer/engineer should own design intent and key decisions.
  • A production drafting team should translate that intent into consistent, buildable documentation.

Where Revit helps most

  • Coordinated plans/sections/elevations and rapid updates when design changes.
  • Clash-aware modelling for services-heavy areas (plant rooms, risers, ceilings).

Where CAD is still strong

  • Detail drafting, legacy projects, quick redlines, and simple packages.
  • Shop drawing overlays and markups where speed matters.

Shop drawings: the practical split

  • DraftLabs can produce shop drawings from approved design inputs.
  • Fabricators should confirm fabrication constraints, tolerances, and proprietary systems.

A clean handover checklist

  • Approved design drawings/model, any manufacturer details, and a clear list of required shop outputs.

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