What Is Coordination Drawing?

A coordination drawing overlays multiple disciplines' work, typically architectural, structural, and MEP, into a single reference drawing showing how their systems fit together in the same physical space. Unlike a single-discipline drawing, its purpose isn't to convey one trade's design intent, it's to reveal where different trades' work needs to be reconciled before construction.

Coordination drawings are most commonly produced for congested areas: mechanical rooms, ceiling plenums above corridors, or any zone where ductwork, piping, conduit, and structural elements all compete for the same limited space. A coordination drawing for a ceiling plenum, for example, might show ductwork routing, sprinkler piping, electrical conduit, and structural framing all in one composite view, at a scale detailed enough to catch actual conflicts.

Producing a coordination drawing traditionally required manually assembling each discipline's drawings into a shared reference, historically on a light table, more recently by overlaying CAD or BIM layers. Structured AI's Overlay feature automates this process, aligning drawings from different disciplines automatically, even when they're drawn at different scales, so the coordination view gets built without the manual alignment work that used to make this process slow.

FAQ

Is this term used consistently across the industry, or does it vary by firm or region? Most of these terms are used fairly consistently across the industry, though exact usage can vary slightly by firm, region, or project delivery method. When in doubt, project-specific contract documents typically define exactly how a term is being used on that project.

How does this connect to AI-assisted drawing review? Structured AI's QA/QC Compliance Checks, Document Chat, and Overlay features are built to catch the kinds of issues and inconsistencies that show up in exactly this part of the design and construction process, with findings tied to the exact page and location involved.

Where can I learn more about related terms? See the related topics below for connected concepts that often come up alongside this one.