A client in Cincinnati said my drawings were 'too clean' for a factory retrofit

We were reviewing the plans for an old machine shop, and he pointed at a perfectly drawn pipe run and said 'That's not how it really is, you need to show the mess.' He meant the existing bends and odd supports, not my linework. It made me think, are we making things too ideal on paper versus showing the real build? How much 'as-built' detail do you actually put in before calling it done?

3 comments

3 Comments

john4302mo ago

My Cincinnati boss always makes me draw the ugly existing pipe brackets too.

jamieperez1mo ago

Heard a buddy got told to trace a rusty bolt once, wild lol.

laura2112mo ago

Honestly sounds like your client is being a bit extra. It's a drawing, not a photograph. The whole point is to show what needs to be built or changed, not to frame the existing mess. As long as your dimensions are right, who cares if a pipe is drawn straight? The guys in the field will figure out the weird bends when they get there. Spending hours drawing every janky support seems like a huge waste of time and money.