What to Include on a Gate Fabrication Drawing

The short version

• A fabrication drawing is the sheet the metalworker builds from. It is not a render.
• Show both the clear opening and the gate leaf size. They are not the same number.
• Dimension to the face of the metal, never to a centreline.
• Call up the finish properly: powder coat to AS 3715, or anodised to AS 1231, plus the colour.
• Attach a cut list. The drawing tells you the shape, the cut list tells you what to buy.
• One front elevation and one plan view cover most gates. Add a detail only where a junction is not obvious.

What a fabrication drawing is for

A fabrication drawing has one job: get the gate built right, by someone who was not in the room when it was sold. Call it a shop drawing, a workshop drawing, or a fab drawing. Same sheet. It carries every size, profile, and finish a fabricator needs to cut, weld, and coat the job.

The test is simple. Hand the sheet to a fabricator who has never seen the site. If they can build the gate without ringing you, the drawing is good. If they have to guess a tube size, a gap, or a finish, you have left money and goodwill on the table. The eight zones below are what close those gaps.

The eight things, and what each one answers

1. The title block

The title block sits bottom-right so it survives a fold. It names the drawing, the client, the date, the revision, and who drew it. The revision number matters more than people think. A gate gets quoted, changed, requoted, and built. The number on the sheet is what tells the shop which version is the real one.

Put your business name and contact on it too. A drawing that carries your shop’s details, not a software brand, reads as yours when it lands on a builder’s desk next to three other quotes.

2. Overall sizes and the clear opening

Two sets of numbers, both labelled. The clear opening is the gap between the posts. The gate leaf is a different size: smaller than the opening on a swing gate (it needs a hinge gap and a latch gap), wider than the opening on a sliding gate (it carries an overlap past the post).

Always dimension to the face of the metal. A fabricator at the saw should read a length, not work it out from a centreline and half a tube width. A typical pedestrian gate runs a 10 to 15 mm hinge gap and a 10 to 15 mm latch gap, so a 1000 mm clear opening gives a gate leaf around 970 to 980 mm. Spell that out with a dimension line, do not leave it to be inferred.

3. Frame profiles

Name the section for each member: the stiles, the top rail, the bottom rail, and any mid-rail. Give the size and the wall thickness, because 50x50 SHS in 1.6 mm and in 3 mm are different gates. Most aluminium pedestrian gates run a 40 to 65 mm box section; a sliding gate frame steps up to suit the span.

If the job is aluminium, say so and let it steer everything downstream: the finish becomes powder coat or anodising, the standard becomes AS/NZS 1664 for aluminium structures, and the welding becomes a different process to steel. See the RHS vs SHS guide for how to pick the section.

4. Infill and its spacing

Whether the gate is battened, slatted, or louvred, show the infill size and the gap between, and dimension the spacing. A note like 65 mm battens at 20 mm gaps is buildable. A picture with no numbers is not. If the gate has to meet a pool barrier rule, the gap is not a style choice, it is a compliance number, so it has to be on the sheet and correct.

5. Hardware and fixing

Show every piece of hardware and where it bolts or welds: the hinges, the latch, the drop bolt on a double gate, and the rollers and track on a slider. Give the ground clearance too, usually 30 to 50 mm. Hinge position drives whether a gate hangs true or droops a year later, so it is a dimension, not a guess.

6. The finish callout

Name the system and the colour. Powder coat to AS 3715 with a 60 µm film and a colour like Dulux Monument satin is a spec a coater can hold you to. Anodising to AS 1231 is another. Mill finish is fine if that is the job, but say it. The vague note (painted black) is where the customer and the coater end up disagreeing after the gate is hung.

7. Welding and joining notes

You do not need a full weld map on a garden gate, but a line or two helps: continuous or stitch welds, grind-back where it shows, and any joint that is structural rather than cosmetic. On aluminium, note the process so nobody reaches for a steel MIG setup. The point is to remove the guesswork, not to bury the sheet in symbols.

8. The cut list

The drawing tells the shop the shape. The cut list tells them what to buy and cut: every member, its profile, and its length. It is what stops a 6.5 m length of 50x50 SHS being ordered when 5.8 m would have done, and it is what lets an apprentice cut the job without a tape and a calculator. A drawing without a cut list is half a drawing.

A worked example

Take a 1000 mm clear opening, 1800 mm high, battened pedestrian gate in aluminium. The sheet should read, near enough:

• Clear opening: 1000 mm wide x 1800 mm high, between post faces.
• Gate leaf: 974 mm wide (13 mm hinge gap, 13 mm latch gap).
• Frame: 50x50 box, 3 mm wall, mitred and welded corners.
• Battens: 65 x 16 at 20 mm gaps, count and spacing dimensioned.
• Hardware: two weld-on hinges at 200 mm from top and bottom, lockable latch on the latch stile.
• Ground clearance: 40 mm.
• Finish: powder coat to AS 3715, Dulux Monument satin, 60 µm.
• Cut list: two stiles at 1800, two rails at 874, battens x N at 1720.

That is the whole job on one sheet. CAD60 produces exactly this, the dimensioned views plus the cut list, from the numbers you type. You are not drawing it by hand, you are checking it.

Questions people ask

More to read

• Guide: How to make a shop drawing for a sliding gate
• Guide: How to make fabrication drawings without CAD
• Guide: RHS vs SHS for gate frames
• Glossary: Title block
• Glossary: Cutting list
• Glossary: Clear opening
• Glossary: Dimension line
• AS 3715 Metal finishing (powder coatings)