International Standard for Numbered Drawings?

Here, the first group of numbers on an outgoing document is the contract number. C(wxyz) will refer specifically to Client.....at site.......,for example, for internal purposes.

For the second group, process drawings and documents, including the P&IDs, are in the 2000-series, mechanical stuff is in the 3000 series, and control/electrical drawings in the 5000-series.

The second group thousands are subdivided within blocks of 100 for various different categories; 5010 is the cable schedule, 5020 is the instrument schedule, 5500 onwards the block cable diagrams, and so-on.

What is found is that the Client will take an incoming drawing and add the local drawing number to it, sometimes encompassing the incoming "as built" within a local border and an incoming drawing number to suit.

It's probably not international. It certainly works.

There might be an ISO equivalent to these USA documents:

MIL-D-1000A, Drawings, Engineering, and Associated Lists, and MIL-STD-100B, Engineering Drawing Practices.

chrisg288

That's a GA. I have seen many drawing number systems at both small and large companies. I would only add the caution to plan ahead! The tendency (especially with a limited character field) is to try to build too much information into the blocks of characters, resulting short term convenience and the risk of running out of characters in the long term.

I Tthink there is no International standard for Drawing numbering. The organization may formulate their own system. May be you can start with client / project ID (eg. a 3-5 charecter code), then you may use year and week identification field (eg. 0929 - for 2009, 29th week), then type of document (2-3 character code), then a running serial number (this can be based on your volume of drawing. If you handle large number of document you may require 5-6 digit code).

Parameswaran

Hi...

In such situations the best thing is to make your own departmental numbering procedure.

For this you'll first have to hold a meeting with your colleagues and brainstorm your current & future requirements for numbering of documents and their subsequent retrieval. After this you may start the work by dividing your drawings area wise, project wise, assembly wise, subassembly wise etc etc. It's always better to arrive at a consensus between all concerned for the numbering system. This will help ensure that everyone in the organisation will follow the same system. After the numbering system is established you must get the procedure incorporated in the EN-ISO 9001 system of your company and you can now be sure that any non-conformance will surely be pointed out.

Anil Tiwari / New Delhi

1. Try ISA

2. To get a common use methodology from international company

3. Set your own after reviewed other methodology

If, at any time in the future, you or your organization ever plan to use a PDM (product data management) system, I would highly recommend against using any kind of "intelligent" drawing/part numbering system.

Intelligent numbering systems are fine in the short term for humans to be able to discern the contents of a drawing from the numbers, and that had real value in pre-computer days.

Now, with many computerized management systems providing tons of drawing attributes and advanced computerized search algorithms there is little need for a human based recognition system. It will just make creating new drawing numbers more difficult as time progresses.

The best thing you could do now (in lieu of a PDM system) is to create a simple MS Access database system with lots of searchable description attributes to spit out drawing numbers from a database search when you need to find something. Use computers for what they are good at, not complex human systems adapted (usually unsuccessfully) to computers.

Your drawing/part number system could then be (for example) a simple six digit number starting at 000001. Parts and assemblies would then use a sequential "dash" number; ie, 000001-101, -102, etc, and parts/sub-assemblies could be reused easily in new projects.

Then you can start to worry about Revision Control. That's a whole 'nother can of beans.

Good luck (and don't even bother trying for consensus with everyone who may have an interest in drawing numbers. If you have 10 interested individuals, you WILL have 10 different ideas/methodologies, none of which will involve integrating computers into the equation).

Hooker

PS - We use Microsoft Access and Autodesk Vault to manage our drawings/projects. I try to discourage people from using the term "drawing numbers". Nowadays, they are really "project numbers" and drawings are a product of the project, which just happen to carry that number for tracking purposes.

excellent advice. GA.

Hello mupwi,

No there is not any set way to number drawings.

You may choose to design your actual number in a certain way, which makes it easier for you and others to check on dates for updates and, as a ref' for any possible spare parts you may need to use in the future?

As a job number or works order number you could use the day/month and year in reverse. So date 1/1/2010, will be 1011. You may want to add an a, b, etc and the actual year you send the order out to any invoice?

It means a quick glance at the order and you know exactly when it was received and invoiced. All in the Office or who has anything to do with it should know nomenclature of the sets of figure and numbers of course..... It sounds more difficult and takes a lot longer to describe than it is to use, and the use becomes automatic after a day or two.

Hope this helps. Keep in touch OK?

Regards.

There are ISO & DIN standards we use in Pakistan.

But as one of participient mentioned you have to adhere to the system chosen & all the changes /. updates implemented from time to time.

The system used should always be mentioned on drawings.

NB: Each country either has its own or adapted standard.

You better to adapt your national standard if not an International enterprise.

If you are then better to opt for ISO or DIN; most commonly used.