Request a quoteRequest a quote ↗A bilingual drawing set is laid out one of two ways: both languages on each sheet, or a separate set per language. One sheet keeps the languages together but leaves less room for notes; two sets keep each sheet readable but mean two sheets to revise per change. The choice depends on who reads the set.
When the owner or the law says so. Bilingual construction drawings are required most clearly on public work. What follows sets out what the texts say; it is not legal advice.
Who asks for both languages
Both work; they cost different things.
On a road swing bridge, 101 electrical sheets were translated from English to French and delivered as a separate French set, sheet for sheet. On the last 33 sheets added to that set, 92% of the words were repetitions: settled once, they filled in on every sheet that used them.
Swing bridge sheets
101
Repetitions
92%
Data centre sheets
72
Drawings translated
4,000+
Keep the identity of the sheet identical in both languages. The sheet number, the revision and the project number stay exactly as issued, so that the index, the cross-references and the transmittals work in either set. What changes is the wording: the drawing title, the discipline and the issue status.
On a one-sheet layout, one option is a title block (in French, the cartouche) with both languages in each field, in the same order. On a set per language, each set has its own title block in its own language, and the numbers tie them together.
The title block, both ways
The same callout, as issued and in French
TRANFORMER BANK ON18 charactersBANC DE TRANSFORMATEURS SUR27 charactersFrench runs longer. TRANFORMER BANK ON, as spelled on one sheet, has 18 characters; BANC DE TRANSFORMATEURS SUR has 27. On a one-sheet layout, the two languages share the space one used to have; on a separate set, each French block has to be rewrapped to stay clear of the outline beside it.
When we translate AutoCAD drawings, the text is written back into the DWG and we adjust the text blocks to the longer language. A very dense sheet may still need the drafters’ hand on the layout, and they are the right people to make that call. See how our AutoCAD drawing translation works.
Regulation respecting the language of the civil administration, s. 14
The contract decides; in a Quebec public contract that also has a version in another language, the French version prevails unless the parties set the legal value of each (Regulation respecting the language of the civil administration, s. 14). Drawings that carry a professional seal need particular care: the archived federal Supply Manual warns that sealed documents may carry special translation requirements, and provinces often have their own rules on sealing translated work. Check with your professional order before sealing a translated sheet.
With one set of terms for both. A callout that points to a specification section has to use that section’s words, in each language. An abbreviation must mean the same thing in the notes and in the legend. We keep one glossary across the drawings, the specification and the reports, so the French sheet and the French section name each part the same way.
Send the revised DWG files, not a list of changes. Each revision is translated against the same term base, the text already translated is reused, and the quote reflects what changed. On a set per language, every revision means two sheets to reissue; plan the transmittals so the two sets never sit at different revisions.
Before you issue
See the six ways to translate text in AutoCAD if you are doing a few sheets yourself. For a fabricator’s sheets, see shop drawings in French; for the software itself, how to change the language in AutoCAD.
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