United States National CAD Standard®

The United States National CAD Standard (NCS) streamlines and simplifies the exchange of building design and construction data from project development throughout the life of a facility. It coordinates the efforts of the entire industry by classifying electronic building design data consistently allowing streamlined communication among owners and design and construction project teams. Use of the NCS can reduce costs and produce greater efficiency in the design and construction process.

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. NCS v4.0 is comprised of the National Institute of Building Sciences' Foreword, Administration, and Plotting Guidelines modules, the American Institute of Architect's CAD Layer Guidelines module, and the Construction Specification Institute's Uniform Drawing System modules. Visit the NCS content page to view sample pages from each module of the NCS.

New NCS Version 4

Released in January 2008, NCS v4.0 provides the following improvements:

• Expanded and reorganized CAD Layer Guidelines includes a new appendix with all groups and fields alphabetized into one easy to read list.
• Updated Uniform Drawing System includes new and revised symbols for geotech, security, fire suppression, masonry, plaster and other areas.
• Completely re-written Plotting Guidelines includes new tables—gray scale, color, and line width tables.

Version 4.0 now includes PDF, Excel and .dwg files making it easier to search and implement the standard. Choose your license option and place your order of the NCS Version 4.0 today!

Industry Participation

The NCS Project Committee, the NCSPC, with representation from 12 public-and private-interest categories, encompassing the entire building construction community, performs a broad peer review of each edition of the standard. To participate in the development of the United States National CAD Standard please join the NCSPC.