Understanding Building Section Drawings: Components and Details

Exploring Building Section Drawings and Components

Understand the intricacies of a building section sheet as we break down its three major components: the axonometric, the key plan, and the building section itself. Discover the conventions and details within the building section, including pochade walls, elevation datums, and referenced wall sections.

Key Insights

  • A building section sheet consists of three main elements: the axonometric view of the building, the key plan showing the location of the building section cut, and the building section itself which displays more detailed information.
  • The walls in the building section are typically depicted as pochade, or shaded in, while room names and numbers are shown, along with elevation datums and guardrails for balconies. References to further detailed wall sections are also included.
  • The axonometric view and plan view work in tandem to provide a comprehensive understanding of the structure, showing the 3D model and the location of the building section cut respectively. These elements combined offer a thorough representation of the architectural design.

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Let's review the building section sheet. You can see that there are three major components on this drawing. There is the axonometric of the building, the key plan, and the building section itself.

If we look at the key plan, you can see that the building section drawing is cut between this symbol and this symbol, looking to the right. If we look at the axonometric, the clipping plane that views the 3D model has been slid over to show the contents of the building at the building section. When we zoom into the actual section, we see a little bit more detail.

Again, over on the right is the axonometric from the 3D model. Right in front of us is the building section itself. In the building section, we're showing the column grid, the room names, through which the section is cut.

You'll notice that all of the walls are what we called pochade, P-O-C-H-E. What that means is shaded in. Historically, people would show the construction details located within the walls and the floors in a building section.

The convention these days, though, is to have the building sections pochade because the actual information for wall sections and details would be shown separately in wall section files and detail files and structural engineering files. So again, the building section is typically pochade. Room names and room numbers are shown.

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You can see that we have the elevation datums along the right-hand side. You can see here that we have guardrails for the balconies shown. They're shown grayed out, and the reason they're shown grayed out is that they are in the distance.

So everything that's pochade in black is the actual cut. Things that are further back are shaded. You can also see that we have references here and over here to wall sections.

We would need to look on page A-318, image 1, or image 2 to see the wall section that's cut here. And again, in the wall sections, the images will be even larger to show more detail. One of the beauties of the way in which the architect has assembled this building section page is that they're showing the axonometric view of the building.

They're showing in a plan view the location of the building section cut. Then in a section view, they're showing the actual building section, and they're referencing to wall sections that are cut. Now let's go and learn about wall section drawings.

photo of Al Whitley

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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