Engineering & CAD drafting insights.
The ASTCAD Engineering Design and Drafting Blog — practical tutorials, software guides, Australian standards walkthroughs and engineering case studies from our team. Over 200 articles covering CAD drafting, BIM, FEA, mechanical design and structural detailing.
Editor’s pick this week.
Construction Detail Drawings: What They Show and How to Read Them
A general arrangement drawing tells the builder what goes where. A detail drawing tells them how it actually goes together. Most of the questions raised on site, and most of the variations that follow, trace back to a...
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Shop Drawings for Steel Fabrication
Shop Drawings for Steel Fabrication - The construction industry is a vast concept to study. It is the root of creations worldwide, withou...
What is Structural Steel Detailing
Construction projects are the keys to the creation of a modern world. They need immense planning and architectural design to create the m...
What is Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) — Distinct from CAD…
Computer aided engineering (CAE) uses simulation and analysis software to test engineering designs. Learn how CAE differs from computer a...
What is Engineering Prototyping
Prototyping A prototype is a functional part model of design; it is used as the basis for continuing the production of the final part or...
2D vs 3D Drawings: Key Differences Explained (With Examples)
2D drawings show an object in two dimensions (length and width) using flat orthographic views. 3D drawings add depth, showing the object ...
What is Different types of CADD formats
What are the different CADD formats CADD formats There are several different CADD formats. The most recognized CADD formats include 2D dr...
Computer Aided Design (CAD) & Drafting Services Australia | ASTCAD
Professional computer aided design (CAD) and drafting services across Australia. ASTCAD delivers precise CAD drawings in AutoCAD, SolidWo...
Manual Drafting Equipment and Supplies: Tools, Techniques, and the Move…
Manual drafting uses pencils, technical pens, T-squares, and drawing boards to produce engineering drawings by hand. This guide covers th...
Facts of the Drafting Professional Perspective
Professional perspective There is a significant difference between an individual trained in the theories, principles, standards, and requ...
CAD Drafter: Education, Skills, Salary and Job Opportunities in Australia…
A CAD drafter produces technical engineering drawings using software like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Revit. This guide covers what CAD draf...
Importance of Reusability in CADD
The reusability offers essential CADD benefits. By using CADD, it's necessary to draw anything more than once. Developing a CADD symbols ...
WHAT IS DRAFTING STANDARDS
What are drafting standards There are a lot of industries, schools, and companies that establish standards using guidelines and specifyin...
What the ASTCAD CAD drafting blog covers
The ASTCAD CAD drafting blog is written by working drafters and engineers, which shapes what gets published: practical tutorials on AutoCAD, SolidWorks and Revit workflows, plain-language explainers on Australian drafting standards like AS 1100 and AS 4100, career guidance for drafters entering or advancing in the industry, and honest assessments of the technology waves — AI, automation, 3D printing — as they actually land in Australian drawing offices. Case-study articles walk through real project decisions, and conversion guides cover the file-format questions every multi-software office hits weekly.
How to use this blog
Articles are organised by discipline and linked between related topics, so a reader arriving on a DWG conversion guide will find the neighbouring articles on CAD standards and software selection without hunting. If you are researching a service — structural drafting, 3D scanning, BIM — the relevant articles link through to the service pages where our team can pick up the conversation. New articles are published regularly; the most useful entry points are linked below.
If there is a CAD, drafting or engineering documentation topic you want covered — or a question a client keeps asking you — tell us through the contact page. Reader questions have driven several of the most-read articles on this blog.
The blog also serves a quieter purpose: it is where we document the recurring questions from real client projects — the DWG version conflicts, the standards interpretation debates, the software licensing traps — so the next person searching that exact problem finds a straight answer written by someone who solved it last month. If an article here saved you an afternoon, that is the metric we publish against.
For readers who prefer a starting map: the standards articles anchor the reference material, the how-to-read-drawings guides serve site teams, the software tutorials serve drafters, and the career series serves people entering the industry. Everything else radiates from those four clusters.
New: AS 4100 Base Plate Design: The Limit State Procedure, Step by Step.
Tutorial: Step-by-step — creating your first CAD drawing.
Guide: CAD automation — a step-by-step implementation guide.