A drawing register template for Excel
Laid out the way a steel fabricator's office keeps one. Download it and use it; the notes below say what each column is for and where a register kept by hand goes wrong.
One sheet, nine columns, a worked first line, thirty empty rows, a frozen header with a filter. Opens in Excel, Numbers and LibreOffice. No sign-up.
The columns
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Drawing number | The number on the title block, exactly as printed: 7173-09, GA-05, 001. The number is the drawing's identity; a new revision keeps it, a new drawing gets a new one. |
| Title | What the sheet shows: GA elevations, stair C sections, base plate details. |
| Rev | The revision on the title block. P01, P02 for preliminary; C01, C02 for construction; some offices use letters. Whatever the office uses, write it the same way every time. |
| Status | Current or Superseded. Only one revision of a number is ever current. |
| Date issued | The day it went out, not the day it was drawn. |
| Issued to | Who received it: site, client, engineer, painter. If a revision went to one and not another, that is the fact you will need in six months. |
| Format | PDF, DWG, DXF, IFC. A sheet usually travels as a PDF with its DWG beside it; the model is one IFC for the whole issue. |
| Superseded by | On the old row, the revision that replaced it. This is the column that answers "which one is right?" at a glance. |
| Notes | Why it changed, who asked, anything the next person needs. |
How to keep it
- One row per revision, never overwritten. When C02 is issued, C01's row stays and its status becomes Superseded, with C02 in the last-but-one column.
- Fill the row the moment the drawing goes out, from the title block, not from memory. The register is a record of what was issued, not a plan of what will be.
- Keep the file with the drawings, not in someone's inbox. A register nobody else can open is a register nobody else trusts.
- Send the register with every issue to site. The gang needs the list of current sheets more than the office does.
Where a register kept by hand goes wrong
The register is only right if somebody typed the row before the phone rang. The usual failures are the same in every office: the revision went out and the row was never added; two people kept two copies and they disagree; the old PDF stayed in the site WhatsApp group beside the new one and the gang opened the wrong one; and when a question came a year later, nobody could say which sheet was current on the day.
None of that is carelessness. It is what happens when the register and the drawings are two separate things that a person has to keep in step.
Or let the register keep itself. Drawing Inbox is the office's box for approved drawings: drop the PDF, DWG and IFC in, and it reads the title block, files each sheet under its number, marks the old revision superseded and stamps it, and keeps the site team's phones on the current set. The register above is what it exports, filled in. £49 a month per company, plus VAT, no per-user seats.
See it working on real drawings · Drawing revision control on site: a short guide
Drawing Inbox is made by M&R Tekla Detailing Limited, a steel detailing office in Okehampton, Devon. Questions: hello@drawinginbox.com.