If you look at your typical Chinese metropolis, you will see scores, perhaps hundreds, of cranes raising skyscrapers. The fundamental ingredient in the development of such buildings is steel. Steel structures are the spine of every urban center.

Before a building can be developed, it has to be designed. And this is where the drafting of steel structures comes into play. Structural detailing design is critical to the safety of everybody involved - those working on the construction site, and those finally living in the building. A huge amount of designing is necessary in order to gratify safety ordinances while satisfying all the stipulations the client and architect have defined.

A steel detailing designer must know all about pressure and force - when to get the structure to yield to outer pressures, and when to withstand such forces, to maximize the integrity of the structure. A building must also resist great weights, and so this must also be taken into account. From the weight of snow to the speed of wind, a steel structure detailer must take into account all kinds of outside forces.

Nowadays, there are more and more demands for creative design, which means the detailer can often be pushed to take on difficult designs and try to render them into a secure living space for thousands of people.

Even So, it’s not all bad for the detailer - software packages like AutoCad, Asteel and Tekla Steel have helped speed up the operation of drafting and detailing structures.