The field of technical illustration known as architectural draftsmen or drafters are the specialists who draw the architectural and structural features of a building for new construction. These professionals may specialize in various types of building, like residential, structural, or commercial.
A major part of these people use a tool called a CAD or Computer Aided Drafting program to draw complete technical drawings of structures. In times past, before the advent of computers, a drafting board and its related equipment were used. Some still use these today.
The drafter usually starts creating a drawing from a sketch and lays out the floor plan with all walls, windows, and doors. The floor plan is the template for your entire set of drawings. From this plan they show where the owner or builder wants the electrical, show how big the rooms are, place dimensions to define the house, note the window and door sizes, etc. They could start with the exterior views but that would limit the interior of the home to the shape of the outside.
The next drawing to be created is the foundation or basement plan. In standard construction, houses are built on masonry foundations or basements. A foundation is the part of the home that anchors it to or keeps it from settling into the ground. Usually noted on the foundation or basement are the thickness of the walls, the locations of the joists or floor trusses, the locations of the piers or posts to hold up the floor along with the dimensions.
And then the exterior views or elevations are drawn which depict how the home will look from the outside once completed. This drawing includes the front, left, rear, and right views and sometimes a roof plan.
My name is Tim Davis and I draw architectural plans for a living. I also teach others how to draw house plans at http://houseplandrafting.us/. If you want to learn other types of drafting in a virtual classroom on the internet go to http://draftingschool.net/, where House Plan Drafting is included, along with how to draw site plans, blueprint reading, mechanical drafting, and a whole lot more.
