Drawing Standards – Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (2024)

Conventions are essential for clear, unambiguous written, oral, and graphical communication. Drawings are used by engineers and manufacturing technologists to communicate their ideas and hence good engineering drawings follow conventions which are referred to as drawing standards. The American National Standards Engineering Drawing and Related Documentation Practices (ASME Y14/ANSI Y14) contains the most widely accepted set of engineering drawing standards in the United States. In addition, an individual company may have its own standards which supercede ASME Y14 to define conventions used by that company.

A set of working drawings is a set of drawings which contain all the information needed to manufacture a product. It includes information needed to fabricate each part, specify all standard components, and assemble the parts and standard components into the product.

The Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineeringand Advanced Manufacturing has a set of standards for construction of working drawings. The guidelines in theDepartment Standards for Working Drawings (PDF)take precedence over those in ASME Y14. Documentation practices in ASME Y14 shall be followed if those practices are not addressed in the Department Standards for Working Drawings.