IFC drawings or Issue For Construction 2D drawings are often confused with Shop drawings. In this blog post we will see what is the difference between these two types of 2D CAD drawings in construction industry.

What are IFC drawings?

IFC drawings are those drawings set which are issued by the design consultants or an Architect to the construction contractor. These drawings are issued at the final stage of design process which gives them the name as IFC or Issued For Construction drawings set.

These IFC drawings contains enough details to fully describe the construction to be done and the contractor can bid the estimate amount in terms of time, price, labor, material, equipment, etc to complete the work.

What are Shop drawings?

Shop drawings are those drawings which are prepared by specialist contractors or sub-contractors by their technical office based on IFC drawings. Shop drawings contains the minute details required to facilitate a construction for a particular component. They contain the installation details and bill of materials and requires approval from engineer-in-charge to proceed with the construction. Often on a mid and large construction projects or on a compliant construction project, these shop drawings are required. Mostly for small construction projects, IFC drawings do the job as shop drawings.

In short, Shop drawings are made by contractor according to the site situation and demand of site and submit to their client for approval, whereas IFC drawings are those issued by clients or consultants to contractors for providing a fair idea of estimates and construction overview.