Erection Drawings for Steel Field Crews

Erection drawings are field-use drawings that show where each shipping piece is installed and how it attaches to the rest of the frame. The erector's foreman and ironworkers use them to sort pieces off the truck, set members at the right grid, elevation and orientation, and install the field bolts and welds.

The general contractor's project manager uses the same sheets to coordinate steel with other trades and to track the submittal; the page for general contractors covers that side. Vertex extracts erection views from the same SDS/2 model used for the shop drawings, so piece marks, elevations and field bolt lists come from one model revision. Erection drawings are part of full structural steel detailing scope.

An erection package covers framing plans for each level with piece marks, elevations along bracing and wall lines, sections at edge and sloped conditions, field connection details, and field bolt lists. Anchor rod setting plans are added where anchor rods are in the steel scope, and erection sequence information is shown where the erector or contract provides it.

Plans, elevations and sections

• Anchor rod setting plans: rod locations dimensioned to grids, rod diameter and grade as the design drawings specify, projection above concrete, and base plate elevations.
• Framing plans: every member with its piece mark, grid lines and dimensions, top-of-steel elevations, and orientation marks.
• Elevations: braced frames and wall lines with brace marks and work points.
• Sections: edge angles, canopy supports, sloped framing and anything a plan view cannot show.

Connections and bolts

• Field connection details: bolt quantity and size, loose connection material by mark, and field welds shown with the AWS A2.4 field weld flag, size and length.
• Field bolt lists: diameter, grade and thread condition (such as ASTM F3125 Grade A325N), length and quantity for each field connection.

On the airport terminal thermal break framing project, framing plans on ARCH D (24x36) sheets, sections and field bolt lists were among the deliverables. Its frame-to-structure connections put (4) 3/4" dia. A325N bolts, washers and bushings through 1" Armatherm 500 series thermal breaks, where the pad thickness adds to the bolt grip; the thermal break detailing service covers that connection type.

The piece mark at a location on an erection plan is the same ship mark that heads the assembly detail and is marked on the steel in the shop. Because both sets come from one SDS/2 model, the crew can match a piece on the truck to its detail and to its place in the frame.

1. The steel shop drawings title each assembly detail with its ship mark and list its parts in the bill of material.
2. The shop marks the finished piece with that ship mark.
3. The fabricator's shipping lists identify each load by ship mark.
4. At the site, the crew finds the mark on the erection plan, sets the piece, and takes bolts for that connection from the field bolt list.

Loose items shipped separately, such as clip angles, splice plates and shims, need marks that appear on the field connection detail as well as the shipping list. A mark changed on a shop drawing but not on the erection plan is found by the crew, on the steel. Regenerating erection views and reports from the same model revision as the shop drawings prevents that gap.

AISC 303, the Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges, makes the fabricator responsible for shop and erection drawings. The erector installs the steel from the approved erection drawings, and the owner's designated representative for design, usually the Engineer of Record, reviews and approves them. An outside detailer works inside the fabricator's responsibility.

Approval does not relieve the fabricator of responsibility for the accuracy of detailed dimensions and the fit-up of members, which is why the drawings are checked before they are submitted. Field connections shown on the sheets are detailed to the EOR's design or a delegated connection engineer's design; Vertex does not take design responsibility for them.

A usable erection drawing lets an ironworker identify, orient and set a piece without phoning the shop. Vertex sets up erection sheets with grid references on every view, top-of-steel elevations, orientation marks, bolt information on the sheet or in the field bolt list, and clouds around every revised area, tagged with the revision.

• Grid references: plans, elevations and sections tie to the building grid, with members located from grid lines.
• Top-of-steel elevations: stated against the datum on the design drawings, including at dropped, raised and sloped members.
• Orientation marks: shown wherever a piece could be set end for end or facing the wrong way, such as a beam with different connections at each end.
• Elevations and sections: drawn wherever a plan alone would leave the crew guessing.
• Bolt information: field bolt size and grade at the connection, or keyed to the field bolt list.
• Clouded revisions: changed areas clouded and the change recorded in the revision log.

Before release, each erection drawing is checked by a second person who did not draw it, against the design drawings, specifications, RFI responses and your shop standards, and corrections are back-checked. The independent drawing check and revision control page describes the full sequence.

Changes are made in the SDS/2 model, clouded on every affected erection sheet, recorded in the revision log, and re-issued with field bolt lists regenerated from the same model revision. That keeps the crew's piece marks, elevations and bolt counts in step with the current issue instead of an earlier one.

A design change arrives as a revised design drawing or an RFI response and is incorporated like an approval comment. A field condition, such as an embed out of position, starts with your team or the erector. If the fix changes the design, Vertex drafts the RFI, you submit it to the EOR through your contractual channel, and detailing proceeds on the answer rather than an assumption.

India Standard Time is 9 hours 30 minutes ahead of US Eastern Daylight Time and 12 hours 30 minutes ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. A revision request sent at 5:00 p.m. EDT reaches the team at 2:30 a.m. IST the next day, ahead of the team's working day, so a revision sized to a working day can be back for review the next morning. The limitation is plain: a crew at a misfit at 2:00 p.m. will not get a same-hour answer. The steel detailing process shows where revisions sit in the full workflow, and revision volume is one of the factors behind the $15–20 hourly detailing rate.

All three come from the same model but serve different people at different times. Anchor rod plans go to the contractor setting rods before steel arrives, shop drawings go to the fabricator's shop floor, and erection drawings go to the erector's crew when the steel lands. The table compares purpose, audience and key contents.