Understanding Mechanical Abbreviations, Legends, and Notes in Engineering Drawings

Understanding Mechanical Abbreviations, Legends, and Notes in Engineering Drawings

This article delves into the intricacies of mechanical abbreviations, legends, and notes in engineering drawings, highlighting key areas such as the Mechanical General Notes, Ductwork Legend, and Abbreviations. It provides a comprehensive overview of different symbols used and encourages readers to pay particular attention to specific details.

Key Insights

  • The article provides an overview of mechanical drawings, including Mechanical General Notes, Mechanical Ductwork Notes, Mechanical Equipment Notes, and Mechanical Piping Notes.
  • It emphasizes the importance of the Ductwork Legend, detailing symbols such as an air register marked with an X, and a return air grill indicated by a diagonal line. It also mentions other components like thermostats, carbon dioxide sensors, and smoke detectors.
  • The article also urges readers to familiarize themselves with Abbreviations and the Mechanical Sheet Index to better comprehend the details of engineering drawings.

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Let's look at our Mechanical Abbreviations, Legends, and Notes page. As we're finding in a lot of our engineering drawings, there's the Mechanical General Notes, Mechanical Ductwork Notes, Mechanical Equipment Notes, and Mechanical Piping Notes. There's the Piping Legend.

There are the Graphical Standards, which we have seen in many different drawings. There's the Ductwork Legend, and I'd really like to encourage that you pay specific attention to that, the Mechanical Sheet Index, and the Abbreviations. For the Ductwork Legend in particular, please notice that an air register has an X, a return air grill, a diagonal line.

These are important to differentiate because you'll see those a whole lot. Then we have the thermostat, the carbon dioxide sensor, and the smoke detector. You'll also see we have Flexible Ductwork and Flexible Connections.

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So those are pretty much the general overviews and the basics, but please spend some time, again, looking at the Ductwork Legend and the Abbreviations, and then we will continue on to our next drawing.

Al Whitley

AutoCAD and Blueprint Reading Instructor

Al was the Founder and CEO of VDCI | cadteacher for over 20 years. Al passed away in August of 2020. Al’s vision was for the advancement and employment of aspiring young professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries.

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