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Sheet A2.4 — Masonry Shop Drawings
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Shop Drawings · Coursed & Tagged

Masonry Shop Drawings, Drawn As You Build

A masonry shop drawing is a submittal requirement — coursing, openings, special shapes, reinforcing, finishes, laid out unit by unit. Done by hand it's days of masonry detailing and a redraw every time the plans move. TMM is masonry estimating software that tags every block as you build the wall, then renders the coursed, labeled elevation — and the steel bar list — automatically.

Masonry Shop Drawings Are the Bottleneck Nobody Owns

Every masonry submittal needs a shop drawing — the coursed elevation that proves the wall before a block gets laid. And on most jobs it's the slowest, most expensive piece of paper in the package.

You hand the architect's plans to a detailer or a service, wait days, and pay by the sheet. The person drawing your wall has probably never laid one. Then the plans change — a height, an opening, a finish band — and you're back in the queue waiting for a redraw. The drawing is always behind the job.

Hand-detailed / service

What you get

  • Days of turnaround, priced by the sheet
  • Drawn by someone who doesn't lay block
  • Coursing modeled from a drawing, not the wall
  • Full redraw every time the plans move
  • Drawing and takeoff live in separate files
TMM, drawn as you build

What you get

  • Coursed elevation the moment the wall exists
  • Built by the mason who knows the wall
  • Coursing rendered from real block, corners and all
  • Change the wall — the drawing redraws itself
  • One model: drawing, count, order, and bar list in sync

Every Block Tagged, the Drawing Falls Out

TMM doesn't draw a picture of a wall. It renders the wall course by course — and because every segment is taggable, the drawing labels itself. This is Elevation D from the 15th pod set: a 28-foot gable end, rake coursing stepping up both slopes, a door with its lintel, split face carrying up into ground face, and a control joint run clean through the peak.

Masonry shop drawing sheet A05 — Elevation D, a 28'-0" gable end wall with rake coursing stepping up both slopes, a door opening with a (2) #5 lintel, split face to ground face finish transition, corner units, bond beam courses, vertical reinforcing, and a control joint carried through the peak, courses numbered C1–C21 over three grout lifts.
Elevation D · gable · rake coursing · split face → ground face · CJ through the peak Powder River Masonry · MasonX · Sheet A05

Courses are numbered up the elevation. Grout lifts are marked where you set them — adjust the lift heights and the lines move with the pour you're actually planning. Openings carry their size and location. Bond beam courses sit where the rebar schedule puts them. Control joints land in position. Finishes — stretcher, single score, split face, ground face — are tagged onto the segments, color-coded across the elevation in their real coursing positions. And the cut list comes out with it, so every cut piece is counted, not buried. All of it carried straight into the count and the order.

Coursed Numbered course-by-course elevation
Tagged Finishes & special shapes on every segment
Live Redraws when the wall changes
Elevations rendered in TMM · openings, bond beams, control joints, finishes labeled automatically

The proof that the units are typed, not drawn, is the legend. On Elevation A, every block is color-coded — corner, half, cut, bond beam — because the model knows what each unit is before it hits the elevation. That's not markup added over a picture; it's the wall reporting itself.

Masonry shop drawing sheet A02 — Elevation A, an 11'-1" wall with a legend color-coding every unit as corner, half, cut, or bond beam, courses numbered C1–C15 with grout lift lines and vertical reinforcing shown in position.
Elevation A · legend keys every unit — corner / half / cut / bond beam Powder River Masonry · MasonX · Sheet A02

That's the whole point of tagging once: the shop drawing, the block count, and the supplier order are the same wall, not three documents you reconcile by hand. Change the finish band from split face to single score and it moves on the drawing and in the order at the same time.

Nine Sheets, One Trace

This is the full 15th pod set as it comes out of the model — plan, six elevations, a rebar and dowel layout, and a steel bar list. One trace of the wall produced every sheet. No re-entry, no second file to reconcile.

Nine sheets, one trace, no re-entry.

The Steel Comes Out With It

The same model that lays out the coursing counts the steel. The 15th pod set carries a steel bar list — 285 bars, 2,031.4 linear feet — broken out by mark: bond beam, corner, lintel, rake, lift 1 verts, lift 2 verts, and rake verts. Shape codes ride along too — corner-bend and peak-bend — and every discrete cut length is counted separately.

That's not linear feet with a waste factor thrown on top. It's a bar list you can hand to the supplier and order from.

285 Bars, counted by mark & cut length
2,031.4 Linear feet — discrete, not a waste factor
7 Marks · corner-bend & peak-bend shape codes
Steel bar list rendered from the same model as the coursing · Sheet A09
Masonry shop drawing sheet A09 — steel bar list, 285 bars totaling 2,031.4 linear feet broken out by mark with size, shape code, cut length, and quantity.
Steel bar list · 285 bars · 2,031.4 LF · by mark, size, shape, cut length, qty Powder River Masonry · MasonX · Sheet A09
Masonry shop drawing sheet A08 — rebar and dowel layout plan, vertical reinforcing at #5 @ 48" on center with dowels and bond beam steel located around the building perimeter.
Rebar & dowel layout · #5 @ 48" O.C. vert · dowels and bond beam steel located Powder River Masonry · MasonX · Sheet A08

Here's the gap the industry lives with: masonry detailing services that model the coursing generally leave rebar quantities out of scope, and rebar detailers produce a bar schedule but not the coursing. You end up buying two sets of drawings that don't talk to each other. Here the same model produces both — the coursed elevations and the bar list, off one trace.

Scope: straight vertical and horizontal reinforcing, dowels, bond beam steel, lintel and rake bars. Pilaster hoops and bent bar are excluded — coordinate those with the rebar detailer.

Sample set · 15th pod

See the whole thing — all nine sheets, plan through bar list.

What the Elevation Shows

A submittal-ready masonry shop drawing has to show the wall the way it gets built, not the way it gets billed. TMM renders each piece:

Coming in version 2: a full bond-drawing set, elevation by elevation, and a 3D model of the wall. Today the coursed, tagged elevations, the cut list, and the steel bar list come out automatically.

Shop drawing questions

What the submittal always needs.

What are masonry shop drawings?

A masonry shop drawing is the submittal a masonry contractor provides showing exactly how the wall gets built: course-by-course elevations, dimensions, opening locations, special shapes (corners, bond beam, lintel units), reinforcing placement, and control joints. It translates the architect's design intent into the unit-by-unit layout the crew lays and the supplier orders from.

What does a CMU shop drawing have to show?

Sizes and profiles of units, full coursing shown as wall elevations, locations of special shapes, every opening with its dimensions, reinforcing and rebar coordinated with bond beams and lintels, and control joint locations. The Masonry Modeler renders all of it from the coursing — courses numbered, lifts marked, openings labeled, bond beam courses and control joints in their real positions.

How long do masonry shop drawings take to produce?

Drawn by hand or sent to a detailing service, a set runs days — and a full redraw every time the plans change. Because TMM tags every unit as you build the wall, the coursed, labeled elevation comes out automatically the moment the geometry exists. The shop drawing isn't a separate job; it's a byproduct of building the wall.

Can the drawings show architectural finishes like split face or ground face?

Yes. Every segment is taggable by finish — stretcher, single score, split face, ground face — so banded courses and accent bands show on the elevation in their actual positions, color-coded, and carry straight through to the count and the order. Tag the wall once and the finish lives on the drawing and in the takeoff.

Does the set include a rebar bar list?

Yes. The same model that lays out the coursing produces a steel bar list — every bar counted by mark and cut length, with a rebar and dowel layout sheet. Straight vertical and horizontal reinforcing, dowels, bond beam steel, lintel and rake bars are in scope. Pilaster hoops and bent bar are excluded — coordinate those with the rebar detailer.

Can I set where the grout lifts fall?

Yes. Grout lifts are adjustable — set the lift heights to match the pour you're actually planning, and the lift lines move with them on the elevation. The drawing reflects how the wall gets built and grouted, not a fixed assumption, so the crew can plan their pours off the shop drawing itself.

Do the shop drawings update when the design changes?

Yes. Change a wall height, swap a finish, move or resize an opening, and the elevation, coursing, labels, and counts redraw automatically. There is no re-detailing from scratch — the drawing is always a current reflection of the wall.

Got a submittal due

Have a job now? Send me your elevations and I'll run a sheet.

A submittal's due and you need coursed elevations, not a software trial. Send the drawings and the wall info — heights, block sizes, finishes — and I'll turn a sheet around.

Send your elevations
See it first

Want the full set to look at?

Grab the 15th pod set — all nine sheets, plan through steel bar list — and see exactly what comes out of one trace.

Build the wall once. Get the drawing, the count, the order, and the bar list.

Trace the wall, tag the units, the shop drawing draws itself. Founder pricing at $300/mo while seats last.

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