Architectural Drafting: Helping to Bring Buildings to Life

Drafting and technical drawing are fundamental skills and tasks in the field of architecture as well as in the fields of engineering and science. In architecture, drafting aids in the design and construction of buildings, helps to communicate and present ideas, and renders buildings.

The need for architectural drawings and designs may require the drafter to create or record floor plans, site plans, elevations, cross sections, projections, perspectives, measurements, scales, annotations, and a whole host of other details that specify how a building or object is or how it should be built.

This requires the drafter to work closely with architects and engineers to translate their designs into working plans for construction.

In their work, drafters may be required to make different sets of drawings to satisfy a variety of purposes: presentation drawings, survey drawings, working drawings, and record drawings.

In the past, architectural drawing and drafting used to be created by hand on a drawing board, with every detail carefully created on paper. Today, computers have revolutionized the work of the drafter and made necessary a new set of skills such as knowing how to effectively use CAD software.

Drafting is an in-demand skill with career opportunities in a variety of sectors, including architecture, engineering, and science. Besides the architectural field, drafting and design skills are needed by engineers and scientists in the manufacture of tools or toys or the observation and recording of natural phenomena.