Placing drawing checks against the structural set, before the sheets go out.

Your detailer builds placing sheets from the structural drawings, the specification and addenda that keep arriving, and a second person checks them before they go for review. That checker traces marks back to schedules, walks bars across pour breaks, confirms spacing and counts, and tries to prove the last addendum made it onto the sheets.

In the test, AI reads copies of sets you already issued, with the structural sheets and addenda in force at that date, and drafts a comparison: every bar mark against the schedule or detail it traces to, the spacing and count each sheet shows, each revision as carried, missed or unclear, and a numbered list of conflicts for your detailer and the engineer of record. Your reviewer holds that list against what actually came back.

One drawing, two names, and a checklist that changes by owner. ACI 315R-18 defines placing drawings as the detailed drawings that give quantity, size, dimensions, spacing and locations for fabrication and installation. University of Houston's master Section 03 20 00 calls them shop drawings and wants arrangement and layout, bending and assembly diagrams, bar schedules, stirrup spacing, splices, laps and miscellaneous support bars for the engineer's approval. Wisconsin's state master specification, dated September 10, 2024, adds materials, grades, bent bar diagrams, mechanical coupler and welded splice details, and tie and hoop spacing. So the comparison starts from the section written for that project, not a generic list.

A bar mark is a small piece of code. On Wyoming's bridge plans a straight bar's mark gives its size and length, so 1025-6 is a No. 10 at 25 feet 6 inches. A bent bar's mark gives its size, structural unit and number, so 7A3 is a No. 7 stirrup, with letters for abutments, approach slabs and bents. One Illinois plan sheet shows coated bars with an (E) after the mark. Mile High Flood District wants the mark on the metal bundle tag whenever the drawings use marks, so a wrong one travels with the steel. The draft reads each mark by that project's convention and lists any that trace to no schedule or detail.

Spacing and count have to agree. A placing sheet states a spacing and its bar list states a count, and either can be edited without the other. Wyoming groups bars of changing length on sloped surfaces into a numbered SET, called out by the first and last bar, so a check has to read a range rather than a line. Splices get their own pass: Iowa's Section 2404 allows them only where the contract documents show or the Engineer approves, and Ohio's Item 509 says as specified or determined by the Engineer. The draft recomputes each count from the spacing shown, lists splice locations with no source on the structural set, and says so plainly when that set is silent.

Revisions keep landing after detailing starts. CRSI's Manual of Standard Practice has sections for asking questions on placing drawings, writing an RFI, planning the submittal sequence, revising returned drawings and tracking revisions, and ACI 315R-18 gives review of placing drawings its own chapter, down to levels of approval. For every addendum or answered RFI in force, the draft names the structural sheets it touched and whether each placing sheet shows the change. Outside review can't be assumed, either: Mile High Flood District says the lists and bending diagrams it receives will not be reviewed for accuracy, and holds the contractor responsible for them.

Conflicts get written up, never resolved. ACI 315R-18 cautions that fabrication and placing tolerances, combined with congestion from couplers, headed bars and other accessories, can produce conflicts that are hard to fix in the field, and asks the team to clear them before construction. Ohio has the Engineer approve steel in place before concrete goes in. Each item on the draft list says where it is, what each sheet says and who should answer it. Your reviewer scores that against the conflicts your team found and the ones that came back as corrections or field questions. Include a set returned with corrections and one that changed mid-detailing.

After a yes, sets due to go out get a draft comparison for about 30 days, and a person approves each item before it posts anywhere.

Your detailer rules on every item and decides what goes to the engineer. Only your team marks up, issues or submits a sheet, and the same scoring carries through the month.