What Should a Gate Fabrication Drawing Include?

A gate drawing is how the gate gets built right by someone who was not there when it was sold. Call it a fabrication drawing, a shop drawing or a workshop drawing. It is the same sheet.

A simple test: hand the sheet to a fabricator who has never seen the site. If they can cut, weld and coat the gate without ringing you, the drawing is good. Every guess they have to make is a chance to get it wrong. This guide lists what closes those gaps.

What is a gate fabrication drawing for?

The customer has agreed on a gate. Now the shop needs to know exactly what to cut, how to join it, what to fix to it and what colour it goes. A sketch on the back of a quote gets you close. A proper drawing gets you there.

A render or a 3D picture is not a fabrication drawing. It shows the look. A fabrication drawing shows the build: every size, every member, every gap. If you are not sure where the line falls, the guide on shop drawings vs fabrication drawings covers it.

What are the eight things every gate drawing needs?

Each one answers a question the workshop would otherwise have to ask.

The title block sits bottom right, so it survives a fold. Put the job name, client, date, who drew it and the revision number on it. The revision matters most. Gates get quoted, changed and quoted again. The number on the sheet tells the shop which version is real. Your business name and logo belong there too, so the drawing reads as yours.

Which views does a gate drawing need?

For a plain swing gate, two views do most of the work. A front elevation shows the frame, infill, hardware and every height. A plan view shows the posts, the swing direction and the gaps from above.

Add more only where they earn their place:

• A side view when the infill sits on the face of the frame, so the depth of the whole leaf is clear.
• A detail view of any joint that is not obvious: how a mid rail recesses, how a hinge plate sits on the stile, how a roller bracket bolts on.
• A post and footing detail, so the installer knows the hole size and depth.
• An isometric for the customer. It helps them see what they are buying.

Note the scale, but never rely on it. Printers stretch and PDFs get scaled. Nobody should measure a gate drawing with a ruler. Every size the shop needs should be written as a number.

Which sizes have to be on the sheet?

Two sets of numbers, both labelled. The clear opening is the gap between the posts. The leaf is a different size. On a swing gate it is narrower, to leave a hinge gap and a latch gap. On a sliding gate it is wider, because it carries an overlap past the posts.

Dimension to the face of the metal, not to a centreline. A fabricator at the saw should read a length off the sheet, not work it out from a centreline and half a tube width. A typical pedestrian gate has a 10 to 15 mm gap each side, so a 1000 mm opening gives a leaf of about 970 to 980 mm. Write it with a dimension line.

Do not forget the ground clearance and the post height above ground. Both are easy to leave off and both change the build.

How do you call up the frame and the infill?

Name the section for every member: the stiles, the top rail, the bottom rail and any mid rail. Give the size and the wall thickness. A 50x50 SHS in 2 mm and in 3 mm are different gates. For any RHS, say which way round it goes. The RHS vs SHS guide explains why that matters.

Say the material once, clearly, near the title block. Aluminium is the default for most of the gates we draw, and it steers everything after it: the welding process, the finish and the fixings.

For the infill, give the batten or slat size, the gap and the count. "11 battens, 65x16, 20 mm gaps, set out from the centre" can be built. A picture of battens with no numbers cannot. Dimension at least one gap on the elevation so nobody has to work it out.

Where does the hardware go on the drawing?

Show every piece of hardware and where it bolts or welds on. For a swing gate that is the hinges, the latch, the lockbox if there is one, and a drop bolt on a pair of gates. For a slider it is the wheels or rollers, the track, the guide and the catcher.

Give each hinge a height from a fixed edge, like the top of the leaf or the ground. Hinge spacing decides how well the gate hangs for years, so it should never be a guess. Name the hinge and latch models too, so the right parts get ordered. The gate hinge types guide covers the choices.

How do you call up the finish and the welds?

Name the coating, the colour and the gloss level. "Powder coat, Dulux Monument, satin" is a spec a coater can hold to. Anodised and mill finish are fine too, if that is the job. Just write it down. A note like "painted black" is where the coater and the customer end up arguing after the gate is hung.

For welds, you do not need a full weld map on a side gate. A line or two does it:

• Continuous or stitch welds on the frame.
• Which welds get ground back flush, usually the ones that show.
• Any joint that carries load, like the hinge stile corners.
• The process, so nobody reaches for the wrong wire or gas on aluminium.

If you do use symbols, keep them standard. The guide on reading weld symbols has the common ones.

Why does a gate drawing need a cut list?

The drawing shows the shape. The cut list says what to buy and cut: every member, its profile and its length. It lets you plan how many 6.5 m lengths to order, and it lets an apprentice cut the job without a calculator. Without one, every length gets worked out again at the saw. Our gate cut list guide shows how to lay one out.

Here is what a 1000 mm opening, 1800 mm high battened aluminium gate looks like when all eight things are on the sheet:

• Clear opening: 1000 mm wide, between post faces.
• Leaf: 974 mm wide (13 mm hinge gap, 13 mm latch gap) by 1760 mm high.
• Ground clearance: 40 mm.
• Frame: 50x50x3 aluminium SHS, mitred and welded corners.
• Battens: 11 at 65x16, 20 mm gaps, set out from the centre.
• Hardware: two weld-on hinges, 200 mm from the top and bottom of the leaf. Lockable latch on the latch stile.
• Finish: powder coat, Dulux Monument, satin.
• Cut list: two stiles at 1760, two rails at 974 (long point, mitred), 11 battens at 1760.

Common questions