Engineering Automation
How Automation Can Reduce the Time Required to Prepare Steel Approval Drawings
Where approval-drawing automation actually saves time — title blocks, indexes, standard sheets and data-driven views — and where judgement must stay human.
Approval packages contain a surprising amount of repetition: cover sheets, notes, indexes, standard elevations, title blocks, and PEB sheets that differ mainly by geometry and reactions. Humans are slow at that repetition and still miss a revision letter. Software is fast at it and will happily repeat a wrong input two hundred times.
Automation is therefore a time saver only after the standard is stable. If your notes still change every job because nobody owns the template, you will automate chaos. This article maps the work that is safe to generate and the work that must remain a check.
The StruTools MBS Approval Package is aimed at that repetitive PEB and steel approval production step. It does not replace the checking process.
What is actually repetitive
| Task | Automation potential | Human still owns |
|---|---|---|
| Title blocks and indexes | High | Correct job data |
| Standard notes sheets | High | Project specification edits |
| GA plans from geometry | Medium to high | Holds, exceptions, readability |
| Typical details library | High placement | Which typical applies |
| Reaction tables from analysis output | High | Load basis and presentation |
| Connection exceptions | Low | Almost all of it |
Inputs have to be cleaner than the drawings
Generated sheets are a view of a database: grids, member lists, reactions, sheet lists. If the member list still lives in three spreadsheets, the generator will pick one and you will not know which. Stabilise file management and naming before you generate PDFs.
A sensible automation sequence
- Lock the sheet standard (layers, title block, notes structure)
- Generate cover, index and notes from project metadata
- Generate GAs from geometry, then check readability
- Drop typicals by rule, then mark exceptions by hand
- Import reaction tables from the analysis workflow with the load basis labelled
- Run the same QC checklist you use for hand-drawn sets
What not to automate first
Do not start with the one unique moment connection on the job. Start with the fifty sheets that are supposed to look the same. Unique engineering is the worst place to hide a generator bug.
Time saved is only real if QC is included
If automation cuts drafting by two days and adds two days of wondering whether the index is right, you have moved the pile. Include index checks, input printouts and a sample-sheet review in the advertised time saving.
A practical workflow
- Stabilise the approval template.
- Define the data fields the generator may trust.
- Generate the repetitive sheets.
- Mark exceptions and holds by hand.
- QC using the same checklist as a manual set.
Engineering tips
- Version the template. A generator without a template revision is untraceable.
- Keep generated and hand-edited layers distinct so updates do not wipe notes.
- Store the input file with the issued PDFs.
Common mistakes
Generating from the design PDF by eye
If a human still retypes grids, you do not have automation; you have a typing interface.
Hiding overrides in the drawing only
The next generate pass will erase them. Overrides belong in the source data.
Claiming the software “approves” the drawings
Software produces sheets. People still review them against the design.
Checklist
- Template revision recorded
- Input data stored with the issue
- Index generated, then checked
- Sample sheets reviewed at plot scale
- Exceptions not left to the generator
- QC checklist completed
Frequently asked questions
Will automation remove detailers?
It removes repetitive drafting. Someone still has to own the standard, the exceptions and the check. That is still detailing.
Is this only for PEB?
PEB benefits first because the package is standardised. Conventional steel can automate indexes, notes and some GAs.
What about BIM?
Model-based drawing production is another generator. It has the same rule: garbage inputs, pretty garbage sheets. See BIM for structural steel if you expand into that topic.
Where should we start this week?
Title blocks, indexes and notes. They are visible, low-risk and they fail often when done by hand at 2 a.m.
Where this leaves the work
Automate the boring, stable parts of the approval package. Keep humans on exceptions, holds and the geometry check against design.
When you want the PEB-specific sheet flow, continue with the PEB approval drawing process.
This article provides general educational information. Project-specific structural design, calculations and drawings should be reviewed by appropriately qualified engineering professionals and checked against applicable project requirements and standards. StruTools does not replace engineering judgement or professional design review.