What is Structural Design?

Structural Design also known as structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right. Structural engineers are most commonly involved in the design of buildings. Structural engineers must ensure their designs satisfy given design criteria, predicated on safety (e.g. structures must not collapse without due warning). 

Structural engineering theory is based upon physical laws and empirical knowledge of the structural performance of different landscapes and materials. Structural engineers may design the individual structural elements of a structure, for example the beams, columns, and floors of a building. More experienced engineers would be responsible for the structural design and integrity of an entire system, such as a building. Buildings are made to endure massive loads as well as changing climate and natural disasters.

What is Piping Design?

Piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another. "Piping" sometimes refers to Piping Design, the detailed specification of the physical piping layout within a process plant or commercial building. In earlier days, this was sometimes called Drafting, Technical drawing, Engineering Drawing, and Design but is today commonly performed by Designers who have learned to use automated Computer Aided Drawing / Computer Aided Design software.

Industrial process piping can be manufactured from wood, fiberglass and glass and steel, aluminum, plastic, copper, and concrete. The in-line components, known as fittings, valves, and other devices, typically sense and control the pressure, flow rate and temperature of the transmitted fluid, and usually are included in the field of Piping Design. Piping systems are documented in piping and instrumentation diagrams.

History of idocz Drafting in Calgary

A Brief History
idocz was established in Calgary in 2008 with a vision of helping companies realize their informational assets. We are a very passionate about the important role that documents and drawings play in a company and believe that they key to maximizing their potential is through proper document management practices.


Initially idocz provided solutions in the traditional areas of document processing, such as, capture, indexing and uploads. However, as we grew, we wanted to provide a complete, wall to wall, solution for our clients in the information management space. Being situated in Calgary, a large number of our clients were from the oil and gas industry, and as with many other industries, drawings make up a large percentage of companies documents.  Although drawings represent a large financial investment, intellectual capital, and are required for compliance and liability reasons, we felt that they were commonly overlooked when it came to document management and governance practices.  Through conversations with our clients, we discovered that there was indeed a demand for services such as scanning and indexing, and for cleansing drawings by updating their titleblocks, naming conventions, and standards.  At this point we had a team of experienced drafters, and so, as a natural extension of the solutions we were providing, we began offering CAD drafting services.


Our Experience
Since offering drafting services and support, idocz has been able to assist a wide range of clients from large scale oil and gas companies, to smaller fabrication shops.  Our team has conducted a number of full drawing management clean-up projects, As Build markups, fabrication drawings, IFA/IFC packages, standardization, and redrawing projects. Our list of clients includes Husky Energy, Penn West Exploration, Inter Pipeline Fund, HC Piper and RIPA Industries.  For more details on the projects we have conducted please visit our drafting case studies or send us an email.


The Future
Over the course of 2012 we plan to expand our services in the drawing space by offering design and surveying solutions.  Through a combination of internal growth and our network of partnerships we hope to provide a more complete solution in the area of engineering information management.