02/11/2026
CAD and dimensioning for construction plans: CAD makes it very tempting to dimension every single aspect of construction plans, but it's important to realize that differences in real buildings and how they are designed occur as well as differences between any as-designed and even field measured and reality also exist - you don't catch every off-perpendicular or crooked aspect of a building and it makes drawing spaces crazy if you did. I ran into what seems to be a crooked demising wall, but if a crew does to lay out the space and you've only given them full dimension lines on either side, they won't wind up in the same space at the far end - they just wont'. So you give them the overall dimension in one place, along with any jogs along the way, then you fully dimension from either end to the "flex space" - spaces where the exact dimension isn't crucial. This funnels any minor disagreements between the dimensions and reality to the place it matters least. I was taught this years ago in Chicago at my first job and it's still true - you want to draw something that can be built and only get tight on the dimensions where you have to - leaving some wiggle room rather than having to adjust the measurements all over the place if the actual field conditions or field measures are off just a bit. "Align" is another good way to handle uncertain measurement areas, or "equal" and this sets what you want in the layout without getting too far into precision that will just delay the layout and build-out. (I do typically do the "equal" as measurements - unless it's the flex space.)
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