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  • The NCS Version 5.0 Now Available!

Adopters

ANNOUNCEMENT

Revision Cycle Period for the Next Version of NCS to Open on Monday, May 20, 2013

FAQ: Does the NCS cover the layers you need?

"The NCS offers selections for chemicals, natural gas, petroleum, most airborne gases, water chillers, conveying systems (solids), fuel systems, piping, HVAC, electrical, and building...layers for architects, MEP, structural, etc., but also a large selection of layers for civil, bridges, survey, and landscaping...Our company does schools, bridges, roadway, land development, water treatment and wastewater treatment plants and we tend to get by pretty well."
Ed Lowe
CADD Coordinator
Burgess & Niple, Inc.

Home / National CAD Standard

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 v5.0 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.

NCS Version 5*

Released in May 2011, NCS V5 provides the following improvements:

  • Online document accessible 24/7 to licensees of the standard making it easier to search and implement the standard.
  • Expanded and reorganized CAD Layer Guidelines includes a new Discipline Designators for Distributed Energy.
  • Updated Uniform Drawing System includes new and revised symbols for interior elevation Indicator, azimuth indicator, architectural scale, electrical symbols and other areas.
  • New Implementation Guidelines with clear phased approaches from management buy-in to establishing an employee training plan.

As in past versions V5 tabular information such as layer groups or schedules are provided in downloadable Excel spreadsheets.

Choose your license option and place your order of the NCS Version 5.0 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.