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If you attempt to include all building systems on the same drawing, it becomes cluttered with information and difficult to understand. For example, consider that offices have lighting fixtures, electrical wiring, air conditioning ducts and communication networks above the dropped ceiling. A smarter approach is to create separate drawing sets for each building system - this makes design requirements easier to understand, while preventing interpretation errors. As you might expect, the number of drawings needed to describe the building and its systems increases in proportion with project scale. To make construction plans simpler, they are divided into drawing sets such as the following: Architectural Structural Electrical Mechanical All building designs must be submitted to a local authority, to be checked for code compliance and zoning requirements before a building permit is issued. In the case of New York City, only a Professional Engineer (PE) or Registered Architect (RA) can submit plans for approval, and the authority in charge is the NYC Department of Buildings. Architectural and Structural Drawings Architectural drawings show the appearance of the building: floor plans, interior and exterior elevations, sections, and any details required to provide the contractor with a clear image of how the completed project must look like. By working with a qualified architect, you can make sure the drawings are easy to understand and compliant with building codes. The structural drawings describe how the building is physically supported. At a glance, these drawings appear similar to architectural drawings, since they display the same floor plans, elevations, sections and details. However, the main difference is that structural drawings specify the construction elements needed to support the dead load of the building, plus the live load of its contents and occupants. Buildings must also have enough strength to withstand weather conditions like wind and snow, and extreme events such as tropical storms and seismic activity. All structural designs are subject to federal and local building codes, and there must be an exact match of shape and dimensions between architectural and structural drawings.