Beautiful renders do not help the person on site at 7am. These are the dimensions and details that decide whether a fit-out goes in clean.
Ask any installer what makes a good drawing pack and none of them will mention the render. They will talk about scribes, service cut-outs and whether the setting-out dimension runs from something that actually exists on site.
Dimension from the building, not the drawing
A run of wardrobes dimensioned from its own left-hand end is useless in a room that is 14 mm out of square. Setting out should start from a datum the installer can find — a structural wall, a finished floor level, a column centre — and the pack should say which one.
Scribes are a design decision
Every junction with the building needs a declared scribe: how much material is there to remove, and who removes it. A 3 mm scribe on a plastered wall is optimism. Twenty millimetres, drawn and labelled, is a plan.
- .01Wall junctions: 20 mm scribe minimum on plaster, 10 mm on tile
- .02Floor junction: allow for the finished floor build-up, not the screed
- .03Ceiling junction: shadow gap rather than a scribe wherever possible
- .04Between units: consistent reveal, dimensioned once and referenced
Services, before the carcass
Sockets, waste pipes, extract ducts and data points all pass through joinery, and they are the single most common cause of a unit going back to the workshop. The pack should carry a services sheet showing every penetration with a position and a size, cross-referenced to the M&E layout.
IF A HOLE IS NOT ON THE DRAWING, IT WILL BE CUT ON SITE WITH A JIGSAW — AND IT WILL LOOK LIKE IT.
Hardware, specified by part number
"Soft-close hinge" is not a specification. Blum 71B3550 is. Part numbers let the workshop order correctly, let the estimator price accurately, and let the installer adjust on site without guessing which system they are looking at.
What travels with the drawings
A complete package is elevations, plans and sections; carcass drawings per unit; a cut list keyed to sheet stock; a hardware schedule with part numbers; nested CNC files; and an edge-banding schedule. The workshop should never have to phone the drawing office to start cutting.