Structural steel detailing in India — shop drawings, erection drawings and connection design

Structural steel detailing is where the structural engineer’s design gets translated into the fabrication-level information that the workshop actually needs to cut, drill, and weld steel. A structural drawing tells you that a column is a 254x254x89 UC section with a base plate and four anchor bolts. A structural steel detailing shop drawing tells you the exact base plate dimensions, the weld size between the column and the base plate, the bolt hole diameter and pattern, the piece mark, the erection weight, and the position of every hole in every connection plate. Without that information, fabrication cannot begin. Suncorporation prepares shop drawings and erection drawings for all projects we fabricate — this is a fundamental part of our fabrication process, not an optional service.

What structural steel detailing covers

Shop drawings

Shop drawings — also called fabrication drawings — are the primary output of structural steel detailing. A shop drawing for a fabricated element contains everything the workshop needs: the overall dimensions, the cross-section, the lengths of each component plate or section, the weld sizes and types, the bolt hole pattern and hole diameters, the surface treatment specification, the piece mark linking the element to the erection drawing, and the erection weight. For a simple element like a standard beam with end plate connections, a single shop drawing sheet might cover one or two beams. For a complex transfer truss node with five or six members framing into it, the shop drawing for just that node might run to three or four sheets.

Erection drawings

Erection drawings show how the individual fabricated elements fit together on site — the position of each element in the structure, identified by piece mark, with the overall structural grid, floor levels, and erection sequence. The erection drawing is the document the site erection team uses to work from: which column goes where, which beam connects to which column, which end of the beam goes to which connection. Getting the erection drawing right is as important as getting the shop drawing right — a wrongly marked erection drawing produces elements installed in the wrong position, which is expensive to correct.

Connection design

Connection design sits at the boundary between structural engineering and structural steel detailing. In many Indian projects, the structural engineer specifies the required connection capacity (shear and moment), and the fabricator’s detailing team designs the connection to achieve that capacity using IS 800:2007 bolt and weld design methods. For seismic applications — SMRF connections in IS 1893 zones III and above — the connection design is more complex, involving continuity plates, doubler plates, and compliance with the pre-qualified connection requirements of IS 1893:2016 Annex E.

Software used in structural steel detailing in India

Tekla Structures is the most widely used 3D structural steel detailing software in India for medium to large projects. Tekla produces a 3D model of the complete steel structure and generates shop drawings, erection drawings, and bills of material from the model. The key advantage of 3D structural steel detailing over 2D CAD is that clash detection — finding where two elements occupy the same physical space before fabrication — is done automatically by the software, and changes to the model propagate automatically to all affected drawings. AutoCAD is used for structural steel detailing on smaller projects or for projects where 2D CAD structural drawings are provided.

The structural steel detailing process at Suncorporation

Structural steel detailing starts when we receive issued-for-construction structural drawings. Our detailing team builds the 3D model in Tekla, starting with the primary frame and working through secondary steel, connections, and ancillary elements. Clashes are detected and raised with the structural engineer through a formal RFI process. Connection design is done in parallel with the modelling and submitted to the structural engineer for review. Shop drawings are submitted through a formal approval cycle — typically two rounds of comments before approval. Approved shop drawings are issued to the workshop, and CNC cutting data is generated directly from the model and sent to the plasma cutting machine.

Structural steel detailing cost in India — 2026

For projects that Suncorporation fabricates, structural steel detailing is included in the overall fabrication price. For standalone structural steel detailing services, typical rates in India in 2026 are Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000 per drawing sheet for standard structural steel shop drawings, Rs 12,000 to Rs 22,000 per sheet for complex connections including connection design calculations, and Rs 15,000 to Rs 28,000 per sheet for bridge structural steel detailing due to higher precision requirements and IRS documentation standards.

Structural steel detailing enquiries

For projects that Suncorporation is fabricating, structural steel detailing is part of our scope — send us the IFC structural drawings and we will produce shop drawings and erection drawings as part of the fabrication contract. For standalone structural steel detailing services, contact us with your structural drawings, project location, applicable design code, and required submission date. We respond to all structural steel detailing enquiries within 24 hours.

Contact Suncorporation for structural steel detailing. Also see: Industrial shed fabrication | ROB construction | Crane girder fabrication | High rise steel fabrication