16.1 Blueprints Overview

Modern blueprints are not typically blue, nor is any special process used to produce them. Modern printing technology and computer aided drafting software (CAD) have exponentially streamlined print making across all relevant industries. Blueprints are used across many industries and specialized prints are implemented at many steps in the conceptual, design, and production process of any project. As a result, what you may generally think of as a “blueprint” may go by many names: architectural drawing, technical drawing, engineered drawing, detail drawing, and so on. In a welding environment blueprints are often just called prints, or drawings.

With prints serving so many purposes, to so many professions, across so many industries it should be noted that there are a variety of standards which govern how prints are made. The profession or job of making prints is called detailing and a number of different organizations publish detailing standards. These include but are not limited to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the American Welding Society (AWS). These are just American standards, which have been adopted in other countries, but many nations have developed and adopted their own national standards. This is all to say that depending on which industry, and what country, in which you read a print, the conventions and standards used to make that print may vary, slightly or significantly, from what is presented in the following pages.

When first learning to read, or, really, interpret drawings it is helpful to think of them being made up by four core building blocks:

1. Lines
2. Views
3. Dimensions
4. Written information and directions

The order of this list matches the order in which these core elements will be presented. This is intentional, as each builds on the former and adds another layer of complexity and information.