The NCS is a consensus standard incorporating industry publications. It is comprised of interrelated standards, guidelines and tools for uniformly organizing and presenting facility drawing information. It is the only comprehensive standard for facility planning, design, construction and operation drawings.

The United States National CAD Standard® (NCS) V6 consists of The American Institute of Architect's CAD Layer Guidelines, Construction Specifications Institute's Uniform Drawing System (Modules 1-8), and National Institute of Building Sciences' BIM Implementation & Plotting Guidelines.

Scope / Description

Until the existence of a National CAD Standard, building owners and building design and construction professionals faced the difficulty of comprehending and organizing electronic building design data produced in a multitude of formats.

The National CAD Standard coordinates the efforts of the building design and construction industry by classifying electronic building design data consistently, allowing streamlined communication among owners and design and construction project teams. This will result in reducing the costs of developing and maintaining individual office standards, and transferring building data from design applications to facility management applications. A National CAD Standard also offers greater efficiency in the design and construction process.

NIBS' consensus project committee, the National CAD Standard Project Committee (NCSPC), with representation from across the 12 public- and private-interest categories encompassing the entire building construction community performs a detail peer review of each edition of the standard. The NCSPC follows consensus rules approved by the NIBS Board of Direction.

Licensing

NCS VERSION 6
Online Web Document
NIBS Product Code: 92014-6.
ISBN: 978-0-9673513-5-9
September 2014

NCS V6 is available online, providing licensees with 24/7 access to the standard from their office computer, laptop, or PDA. The standard includes:

• Foreword and Administration; AIA CAD Layer Guidelines; Uniform Drawing System; BIM Implementation; Plotting Guidelines and Appendixes.
• Excel Files of: AIA CAD Layer Guidelines; UDS Terms and Abbreviations, Schedules, Regulatory Information; and Plotting Guidelines' tables, downloadable from the online document.
• DWG, Line and Pat Files of Symbols, downloadable from the online document.

NCS V6 Single License
A Single License allows one to two employee(s) of your company or organization – within a single office at a single location – to access the NCS. You may make one printed copy of the NCS for your company or organization.

NCS V6 Site License
A Site License allows ten or fewer employee(s) of your company or organization – within a single office at a single location – to access the NCS. You may make no more than ten printed copies of the NCS for employees of your company or organization.

NCS V6 Enterprise License
An Enterprise License allows more than ten employee(s) of your company or organization company-wide – with multiple offices but a single domain name – to access the NCS. You may make unlimited printed copies of the NCS for employees of your company or organization.