Six Types of Millwork Drawings: Everything You Need to Know About These Technical Drawings

Millwork drawings are used to translate the design intent of a client to actual furniture manufacture. They are indispensable for project execution and coordination and help to resolve conflicts and clashes between plans of stakeholders. They bring clients, designers, architects and the millwork furniture manufacturer on the same page regarding precise details, specifications, and project budgets.

Contents

What are Millwork Drawings?

Why do Woodwork Companies Need Technical Drawings for Millwork?

When are Millwork Drawings Used?

Six Types of Millwork Drawings

1.     Plan View Millwork Drawings.

2.     Detail Millwork Drawings.

3.     Floor Plan Millwork Drawings.

4.     Elevation Millwork Drawings.

5.     Cross-Section Millwork Drawings.

6.     Isometric View Millwork Drawings.

How are Millwork Drawings Made?.

Getting Started with Technical Drawings for Millwork.

What are Millwork Drawings?

Millwork drawings are detailed plans for furniture or architectural millwork. The drawings are often made to scale, and are accurately drawn, so that any stakeholder in the design or manufacturing process knows exactly how the completed product should look.

Often, technical drawings for millwork evolve from a rough first sketch to a detailed plan of every section of the project. They can be drawn up by the millwork supplier, or outsourced to a specialist drafting company. The completed drawings are then sent to the concerned architect, designer, or customer directly for approval before manufacturing begins.

There are many types of joinery detail drawings, each with their own purpose. Some convey the overall shape and scale of the product, while others display finer details.

Why do Woodwork Companies Need Technical Drawings for Millwork?

Millwork drawings ensure all stakeholders in a particular project are fully aware and confident of the shared vision. The drawings usually go through multiple stages of revision and adaptation before they are approved by all parties.

The millwork supplier needs to be sure the project is doable. And the architect or designer needs to be sure that the project is of the right specifications and fits within the scheme of the overall project.

Technical drawings for millwork also act as a visualization tool for the parties involved in the project. The drawings are useful for setting expectations about scale and detail, ensuring that the final product is visualized before fabrication commences.

When are Millwork Drawings Used?

Millwork drawings are commonly used on a smaller scale, for interior design or woodwork design. Carpenters, suppliers and other contractors associated with a project use these drawings to ensure that the woodwork fits the client's brief and space layout.

They are also useful for custom woodwork design, where the initial ideas may be abstract and difficult to represent without drawings.

Technical drawings for millwork are also used for projects of a much larger scale. Millwork drawings can be used with other architectural drawings for whole properties, and indeed entire developments.

In modern projects, there are many stakeholders with all intent on ensuring the project is completed to a high standard, and within time and budget. Construction companies, architects, developers, investors and all the tradespeople that are involved in a large project benefit from accurate joinery detail drawings.

These drawings typically display the layout of the property or properties, the construction, and the side and front elevations of the project. Technical drawings are vital for reducing costly and time-intensive mistakes.

Six Types of Millwork Drawings

The type of a millwork drawing varies with its purpose. Some provide the overall visualization of the project, while others give an idea of scale. Some may give specific details of every square meter of the project, while others may help simplify the manufacturing process.

1.    Plan View Millwork Drawings

Plan view drawings are technical drawings that show a project from above. They display the bird's-eye view of the property or product.

These technical drawings for millwork are useful for mapping out the floor plan of a property. They are often drawn to scale, so that an architect can get a feel for the size of the rooms in relation to the surroundings and to each other. They are useful for the construction of the property as they represent accurate measurements of the foundations and frame of the project. Construction companies work in collaboration with the architect, client and millwork firm to ensure the project set out by the plan view drawings is feasible and fits the brief.

Plan view drawings are also useful to woodwork designers as they provide an overall sense of the scale of the project. They are a great help to the manufacturer, as they give accurate information on dimensions.

2.    Detail Millwork Drawings

Detail drawings are designed to give an accurate depiction of a small section of the project, on a larger scale; a ‘zoomed-in’ view of a particular part of the project. This is sometimes necessary for specific, complex parts of a project, such as a window frame or precise detailing in the woodwork of a chair.

They may be used to show, for example, how one section of a piece of woodwork slots together with another. This takes any guesswork out of the equation for carpenters or other contractors, so that the piece of woodwork functions and looks exactly as intended.

3.    Floor Plan Millwork Drawings

A floor plan drawing provides an overall top-down view of the project, alike a plan view drawing. It often serves as a ‘map’ of the whole project, ensuring that all who are involved in the construction are on the same page.

The floor plan should give an idea of the scale of the whole project, but also where everything sits within it. For a property floor plan, the positioning of various items of woodwork should be included. This helps to take informed decisions about other aspects of the build, for example, the positioning of electrical sockets, light fixtures, doors and windows.

Technical drawings for millwork are intended to give a detailed overview of the project as a whole, and further information is carried in cross-section or joinery detail drawings. This is because millwork drawings serve as a map of the entire build for every tradesperson, client and architect.

In addition to providing the construction company and various contractors with a detailed plan for the project, architects, developers and estate agents also use floor plans to market the final product.

When it comes to selling (or letting) a property to a buyer (or tenant) for the right price, a floor plan is a crucial marketing tool. Prospective buyers (and tenants) like to understand the actual layout of the property, and a floor plan can do this even if the project is still in construction.

4.    Elevation Millwork Drawings

Elevation view drawings are two-dimensional drawings of three-dimensional objects. Simply put, they depict how an item or property looks when viewed from different sides and angles. Elevation drawings are commonly drawn to show how a project will look from the front (front elevation) and from the sides (side elevation).

These technical drawings for millwork are especially useful in the construction of woodwork. They enable the designer and manufacturer to picture what the project should look like from all angles. Elevation drawings also help millwork companies plan better in manufacturing of required items.

When it comes to a property project, side elevations are useful for architects planning anything from extensions and roof conversions to new builds. They are often a requirement of local civic authorities in applications for planning permission, as they detail what the project will look like from different views. They allow authorities to visualize how the project will fit in the local area.

5.    Cross-Section Millwork Drawings

A ‘cross-section’ is the surface or shape exposed when a straight cut is made through an object, especially at right angles to the axis. Cross-section drawings show a horizontal or vertical cut through an object or property, detailing any inner components or mechanisms.

Cross-section joinery detail drawings are especially useful for millwork companies in calculating how to manufacture a piece. The drawings show how the various components of a piece should fit together. These technical drawings also show the components of an item that are not visible from the outside; for example, the drawers in a piece of furniture or shelving inside a wardrobe.

Cross-section drawings show to scale the relationship between different levels in a piece of furniture or property. In architecture, they are useful for showing the multiple floors of a property, which is especially useful if the property construction is atypical. High ceilings, mezzanine levels and loft conversions, all benefit from detailed cross-section technical drawings for millwork.

6.    Isometric View Millwork Drawings

Isometric drawings, or isometric projections, are a way of drawing three-dimensional objects. Often, shading is used to create a sense of dimensionality of the shape of an object. These drawings are particularly useful when depicting unusual shapes and features that are difficult to explain in words or with drawings using elevations.

Isometric drawings are a form of orthographic projection where the lines are drawn at an angle, typically 30°, to the usual axes. They are used for an overall image of the shape, but may not depict the dimensions accurately.

In furniture production, isometric drawings are useful to market the product, as they are easy to understand and give the overall picture of the piece without all the technical details. They are also useful for producing three-dimensional computer models of furniture or properties.

How are Joinery Detail Drawings Made?

While many furniture designers and architects use pen and paper for initial sketches, most turn to computer programs to draw up the finer details of the project.

Millwork drawings are time-consuming to draw by hand, and the need for accurate measurements and dimensions means that they take a lot of forethought, planning, and sometimes too many attempts. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) packages and software enable millwork companies, designers and architects to make technical drawings much more easily and faster.

From a rough sketch to a detailed drawing of a particular aspect of a design, there are many types of CAD programs designed for different stages of the project. SketchUp, Fusion 360, OnShape and Aspire are some of the most popular software programs for millwork design.

Many millwork companies and designers choose to outsource their technical drawings for millwork to specialist companies who can make their visions come to life. The drawings often begin as simple sketches and end up as a series of elevation drawings, floor plans and detail drawings, depending on the project and the budget.

The benefits of joinery detail drawings vastly outweigh the costs incurred in getting the drawings absolutely right before construction or manufacturing.

Getting Started with Technical Drawings for Millwork

First, to produce quality millwork drawings, it is important to know the brief inside out. The requirements of every stakeholder involved in the process, be it the architect, designer or the client, must be laid out clearly before work starts.

Joinery detail drawings are important for setting the expectations of the client, clarifying the manufacturing process, and determining any contracting that will be needed.

Next, the initial technical drawings for millwork will need to be shared with stakeholders of the project. Architects and designers will need a clear vision of how their project should be executed, and as such, the drawings may need several revisions before consensus is reached. Ironing out any misconceptions or design conflicts at the drawing stage creates a harmonious project cycle, and a better end product.

CAD software with in-built libraries can make the task of designing furniture or a floor plan much less time-consuming, yielding higher client satisfaction.

On top of this, certain aspects of the drawing process can be automated, such as drawing elevation views from a three-dimensional model. This improves the efficiency of the drawing process and means that revisions can be made faster.