The Complete Guide to AWI Edition 3 Shop Drawing Requirements
A section-by-section breakdown of what reviewers actually check for on an AWI Edition 3 submittal — from general notes to the final sign-off checklist — written for drafters, not lawyers.
This checklist reflects internal QA standards refined across shop drawing submittals since AMD's founding in 2012, and is reviewed by our engineering team before every publication and update. It does not reproduce AWI's published standard text — it's our own field-tested process guidance for meeting it.
01. General Notes
Every set opens with a general notes sheet, and it's the page reviewers read first because it sets the ground rules for everything after it. Ours states the AWI grade (Premium or Custom), the applicable edition, finish standard, fire-rating requirements where relevant, and a legend for every abbreviation used downstream. Skipping this sheet is the single most common reason a reviewer sends a set back before even opening the elevations — not because the drawings are wrong, but because there's no stated baseline to check them against.
02. Dimension Strings & Tolerances
Dimension strings need to run continuously from a single reference point on each elevation, not stack piecemeal from part to part — stacked tolerances are how a cabinet run comes up 3/16" short at the last section. We annotate overall tolerance bands directly on the sheet (our shop standard is ±1/16" for field-verified openings, tighter for factory-finished panels) so the CNC nesting stage inherits the same numbers the installer will check against, instead of a second set someone re-typed by hand.
03. Joinery Details
Joinery callouts are where Premium and Custom grade actually diverge in practice, not just in the spec language. We detail every joint type used — dado, rabbet, biscuit, dowel, or KD fastener — at true scale in a dedicated detail sheet rather than relying on a note like "standard joinery," which tells a reviewer nothing and tells the shop floor even less. Section cuts through concealed joints get called out with the same rigor as visible ones, since that's usually where a first-round submittal loses points.
04. Hardware Schedules
A hardware schedule that just lists "soft-close hinge" invites a substitution the installer didn't plan for. Ours ties every hinge, slide, pull and lock to a manufacturer part number, boring pattern, and reveal tolerance, cross-referenced to the elevation it appears on. When hardware changes mid-project — which happens on most jobs — that cross-reference is what lets us update one schedule instead of hunting through forty sheets.
05. Finish & Veneer Matching
Veneer sequence-matching (book-match, slip-match, or running match) has to be specified per elevation, not once for the whole set, because a reception desk and an adjoining wall panel often carry different matching rules even on the same job. We flag grain direction and sequence on the shop drawing itself, not just in a finish schedule three sheets away, so the CNC nesting pass inherits the same instructions the finisher will follow.
06. Sign-Off Checklist
Before anything leaves QA, a senior engineer runs a fixed checklist against the general notes: dimension strings closed, joinery details cross-referenced, hardware schedule matched to elevations, finish notes present on every affected sheet, and revision clouds cleared from the prior round. This is the step most backlogged in-house teams skip under deadline pressure — and the one most likely to be the actual cause of a resubmittal.
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Our engineering team drafts exclusively to architectural millwork and commercial casework — shop drawings, submittals, and CAM-ready files reviewed against our internal 3-tier QA protocol before anything ships.