Documents & process
Shop Drawing
A detailed fabrication or installation drawing produced by the contractor or a specialist supplier, developing the designer’s intent into something that can actually be built. It is submitted for review before manufacture.
The design drawing says what is wanted. The shop drawing says how it will be made — the exact connections, tolerances, fixings and dimensions that the fabricator will work to.
And the review of it is where a familiar liability question bites: the consultant reviews for conformity with design intent, not for correctness of the contractor’s dimensions. A shop drawing approved with a wrong dimension on it produces a wrong component, and the contractor will find that “but you approved it” is a weaker argument than it feels.