Drawing sheet

A drawing sheet, called pafta in Turkish, is the page on which a project’s drawings are laid out. Plans, sections, elevations and details are placed on sheets at a given scale, and each sheet has a number, a title and a title block. A full drawing set is made up of sheets numbered in sequence. In Turkish, the same word is also used for map sheets, such as zoning or cadastral sheets.

Sheet layout

Sheet sizes are usually taken from the international A series of paper formats. Drawings are placed to fit the sheet at the chosen scale, with the border, title block, legend and north arrow in their usual positions. A balanced layout, with the scale and title written clearly beneath each drawing, makes a sheet much easier to read. For permit submissions, the authority may also define the sheet layout and contents it expects.

Presentation sheets

In competitions and client presentations, a sheet is less a technical page and more a storytelling device. Renders, diagrams and selected drawings are arranged to tell the project’s story in a few pages. White space is part of the design here; a sheet that tries to fit everything ends up highlighting nothing. We looked at the tools used to produce architectural drawings in architectural building drawings.