How to become a Architectural and Civil Drafter 2024

Architectural and Civil Drafter Prepare detailed drawings of architectural and structural features of buildings or drawings and topographical relief maps used in civil engineering projects, such as highways, bridges, and public works. Use knowledge of building materials, engineering practices, and mathematics to complete drawings.

Architectural and Civil Drafter is Also Know as

In different settings, Architectural and Civil Drafter is titled as

Architectural Designer
Architectural Drafter
Architectural Draftsman
Civil Drafter
Computer-Aided Design Designer (CAD Designer)
Computer-Aided Drafting and Design Drafter (CADD Drafter)
Computer-Aided Drafting Designer (CAD Designer)
Drafting Technician
Draftsman
Draftsperson

Education and Training of Architectural and Civil Drafter

Architectural and Civil Drafter is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Architectural and Civil Drafter

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Architectural and Civil Drafter

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Architectural and Civil Drafter

Training Required for Architectural and Civil Drafter

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Architectural and Civil Drafter in different industries are

What Do Architectural and Civil Drafter do?

Produce drawings, using computer-assisted drafting systems (CAD) or drafting machines, or by hand, using compasses, dividers, protractors, triangles, and other drafting devices.
Draft plans and detailed drawings for structures, installations, and construction projects, such as highways, sewage disposal systems, and dikes, working from sketches or notes.
Coordinate structural, electrical, and mechanical designs and determine a method of presentation to graphically represent building plans.
Analyze building codes, by-laws, space and site requirements, and other technical documents and reports to determine their effect on architectural designs.
Draw maps, diagrams, and profiles, using cross-sections and surveys, to represent elevations, topographical contours, subsurface formations, and structures.
Lay out and plan interior room arrangements for commercial buildings, using computer-assisted drafting (CAD) equipment and software.
Supervise and train other technologists, technicians, and drafters.
Determine the order of work and method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing.
Finish and duplicate drawings and documentation packages according to required mediums and specifications for reproduction, using blueprinting, photography, or other duplicating methods.
Draw rough and detailed scale plans for foundations, buildings, and structures, based on preliminary concepts, sketches, engineering calculations, specification sheets, and other data.
Correlate, interpret, and modify data obtained from topographical surveys, well logs, and geophysical prospecting reports.
Check dimensions of materials to be used and assign numbers to lists of materials.
Determine procedures and instructions to be followed, according to design specifications and quantity of required materials.
Supervise or conduct field surveys, inspections, or technical investigations to obtain data required to revise construction drawings.
Explain drawings to production or construction teams and provide adjustments as necessary.
Obtain and assemble data to complete architectural designs, visiting job sites to compile measurements as necessary.
Determine quality, cost, strength, and quantity of required materials, and enter figures on materials lists.
Locate and identify symbols on topographical surveys to denote geological and geophysical formations or oil field installations.
Create freehand drawings and lettering to accompany drawings.
Calculate excavation tonnage and prepare graphs and fill-hauling diagrams for use in earth-moving operations.
Prepare colored drawings of landscape and interior designs for presentation to client.
Calculate weights, volumes, and stress factors and their implications for technical aspects of designs.
Plot characteristics of boreholes for oil and gas wells from photographic subsurface survey recordings and other data, representing depth, degree, and direction of inclination.
Reproduce drawings on copy machines or trace copies of plans and drawings, using transparent paper or cloth, ink, pencil, and standard drafting instruments.
Calculate heat loss and gain of buildings and structures to determine required equipment specifications, following standard procedures.
Prepare cost estimates, contracts, bidding documents, and technical reports for specific projects under an architect's or engineer's supervision.
Represent architect or engineer on construction site, ensuring builder compliance with design specifications and advising on design corrections, under supervision.
Review rough sketches, drawings, specifications, and other engineering data to ensure that they conform to design concepts.

Qualities of Good Architectural and Civil Drafter

Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.

Tools Used by Architectural and Civil Drafter

Architects' scales
Backlit digitizers
Compasses
Computer aided design CAD multi-unit display graphics cards
Desktop computers
Electronic scales
Estimating keypads
Flexible curves
French curves
Graphics tablets
Handheld calculators
Large-format digitizers
Notebook computers
Plotters
Pressure-sensitive graphic tablets
Print servers
Protractors
Sonic digitizers
T-squares
Three-dimensional laser digitizers
Three-dimensional motion controllers
Three-dimensional stereoscopic projectors
Triangles
Wide-format document scanners

Technology Skills required for Architectural and Civil Drafter

100 Plus Hatch Pattern Library
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe LiveMotion
Adobe Photoshop
Alias Wavefront Design Studio
Animation software
ARCOM Masterspec
Autodesk 3d Studio Viz
Autodesk 3ds Max
Autodesk Architectural Desktop
Autodesk AutoCAD
Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
Autodesk Inventor
Autodesk Land Desktop
Autodesk Revit
Autodesk Revit Architecture
Autodesk Softdesk
AutoDesSys form Z
Bentley GeoPak Bridge
Bentley MicroStation
Bentley Systems InRoads Suite
Bentley WaterCAD
Bill of materials software
Boundary survey software
C
Computer aided design and drafting CADD software
Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
Computer assisted design software
Corel Paint Shop Pro
Dassault Systemes CATIA
Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
Database software
Digitizing and photogrammetric software
Document management system software
ENERCALC FastFrame
ERP software
ESRI ArcGIS software
ESRI ArcView
Extensible markup language XML
Geographic information system GIS systems
Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
Graphic presentation software
Graphisoft ArchiCAD
Intergraph Image Analyst
Landscape modeling software
Logitech 3D Pro
McNeel Rhinoceros 3D
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Paint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Word
Motion graphics software
NavisWorks Jetstream
Non uniform rational b-splines NURBS software
OpenRoads Designer
Piping and instrumentation design PID software
PTC Creo Parametric
SAP software
Scanning software
Softimage Extreme
Specification software
SpecsInTact
Sun Microsystems Cobalt
Tekla software
Three-dimensional modeling software
Topographic map software
Trimble SketchUp Pro
UGS Solid Edge
VectorWorks ARCHITECT
Word processing software

US Universities

How to become Architectural and Civil Drafter in 2024