A drawing register lists every drawing with its current revision and status. Here is what to record, how to label revisions and how to keep it accurate.
Updated 1 November 2026.
A drawing register is one list of every drawing on the project with its current revision, status and issue history. Revision control is the discipline of changing that list only when a new revision is issued, marking the old one superseded, and issuing only from the register. Set both up before the first issue, because fixing them mid-project is much harder.
At a minimum: the drawing number, title, discipline, current revision, status, the date of the current revision, and who it has been issued to and when.
Pick one convention at the start and apply it to every drawing. Some projects use letters (A, B, C) or numbers (0, 1, 2). Others follow ISO 19650, where preliminary revisions are P01, P02 and contractual revisions are C01, C02. Put the convention in the contract documents, so consultants and subcontractors use the same one.
The common mistakes are overwriting a file instead of issuing a new revision, letting two copies of the register circulate, treating the title block revision and the register revision as separate things, and not recording who received what.
Tracta builds the register from your uploaded drawings, and you can export it to CSV. The earlier revision is marked superseded and stays linked behind the new one, and the file on a revision that has been sent can't be replaced.
A list of every drawing on a project with its number, title, current revision, status and date. It tells everyone which drawing is current.
The register shows the state of every drawing now. A transmittal records one issue: which revisions went to whom and when.
Yes, and many builders do. It works while one person updates it and nobody issues drawings from outside it. It struggles when several people edit it and nothing ties it to what was actually sent.
Every time a new revision is received or issued, not in batches. A register that lags behind reality is the usual cause of builds from old revisions.
A transmittal register records which drawing revision each subcontractor received, when, and whether they acknowledged it. Here is how to set one up.
A transmittal records what was sent, to whom and when. A submittal is information sent for approval. Here is how they differ and how they work together.
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