Manual Of British Standards In Engineering Drawing And Design

These pages include various standards. To confirm the status of any standard, identify the replacement standard if it is obsolete and/or purchase the standard please use BSI Shop. It is also possible to become a BSI member and obtain copies of the Standards at much reduced prices.

BS 8888 Technical Product Documentation (TPD)
Specification for defining, specifying and graphically representing products.
Note: The current edition is BS 8888:2011

This British Standard supersedes BS308-1:1993, BS308-2:1985 and BS308-3:1990, which are all withdrawn. Drawing conventions which applied to BS 308-1'2'3 in general also apply to the European Standards referenced in BS 8888.

This standard is provided to unify all of the recently implemented ISO and EN ISO standards related to Technical Product Documentation (it references them). Most designers and engineers should have no difficulty in working to the new standards. BS 8888 references standards covering all aspects of technical product documentation including:

Engineering Flow Diagrams,
Representation of Engineering components,
Lettering,
Units/ quantities,
Tolerancing,
Geometric Product Specifications,
Orthographic/Axonometric representation,
Handling of Computer based information
Metrology etc. etc.

An important difference between BS 308 and BS 8888 is in the marking of the decimal place. In BS308 the decimal place is indicated with a decimal point. In BS 8888 the decimal place is indicated with a comma with each group of three digits from the decimal provided with a space e.g. 14 234,012 8 .

For manual drawings this is not really a problem. For Autocad drawings on a Windows based PC it is most convenient set the decimal point to display as a comma on the regional settings on the control panel (This option is available if you set the Country to German or France). .

BS 8888 Book

British Standards are supplying a book which provides clear information on the application of BS 8888 this costs �30,0 . The book is titled
BIP 2155:2009 The Essential Guide to Technical Product Specification: Engineering Drawing . {Neil Phelps and Colin Simmons]

This is obtained from BSI shop..
Note: Chapter 1 can be downloaded free...

This book is also obtained from Amazon ref. The Essential Guide to Technical Product Specification: Engineering Drawing -ordered through this link, I get a small gift if you order from my website

The book linked at the top of the page is an excellent book with a greater range of information. However I do notice that, in my earlier version, drawing examples still use the decimal point - The authors may have corrected this in the latest version.

BS 8888 Nominative Reference

In Appendix A of BS 8888 a list of Nominative reference standards is provided. These standards contain the detailed requirements which must by met for claiming complience with BS 8888. The pages linked below include the majority of these standards

:General principles kit.
Tolerancing and dimensioning kit
Computer aided engineering kit
Design Management
Added Standards in 2004

British Standards - ISO Drawing Aids

Drawing Sheet Sizes	Title Block Notes	Drawing Guide
Specifying Limits and Fits-Holes & Shafts	Dimensioning	Geometric Tolerances
Weld Representation	Drawing Components	Dimensioning Tolerances and Limits
Surface Texture	Notes	Lettering
Simplified Fastening Assy's	Abbreviations and Symbols	Flowsheet symbols
Notes on Process Drawings	Notes On Mechanical Drawings	Electrical/ Control Diagram Types
Diagram Ref. Standards	Electrical Control Symbols	Electrical Power Symbols
Mechanical Flowsheet symbols	Hydraulic/Pneumatic Symbols	Useful Layout Dimensions
Item References/Item List	Checking Mechanical Drawings