Looking at a typical Chinese urban center, you will see scores, perhaps 100s, of cranes putting up tall buildings. The key component in the development of such buildings is steel. Such structures are the backbone of every urban center.

Prior to the cranes showing up, the building has to be planned. This is where steel structure detailing has its introduction. Structural detailing design is essential to the safety of those who live in and around a building, and indeed the safety of the people actually erecting the building. A huge amount of designing is essential in order to satisfy safety regulations while satisfying all the specifications the architect and client have ordered.

A steel drafter needs to know everything about force and pressure - when to get the building to yield to outer pressures, and when to resist such pressures, to maximize the integrity of the building. A building also has to resist huge weights, so this is another issue the detailer must deal with. From the weight of snow to wind speed, a steel structure detailer must take into account all kinds of outside pressures.

These days, there are more and more demands for creative design, which means the detailer can often be pushed to accept difficult designs and attempt to render them into a safe working space for hundreds of individuals.

Still, it’s not all bad for the detailer - computer software like Asteel, Tekla Steel and AutoCad have helped accelerate the process of drafting and detailing buildings.