Your own index
Read out your own sheet index, first sheet to last, in order.
Before you compare your index with three others, predict:
1. A set with 9 sheets and a set with 4 sheets — how similar do you think their opening sheets will be?
The first five sheets, verbatim
From one of your own sets.
Sheet index
| Sheet | Title |
|---|---|
| L0 | PROJECT INFORMATION |
| L1 | EXISTING SITE PLAN |
| L2 | NEW SITE PLAN |
| L3 | BOUNDARY AND TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY |
| L4 | NEW GRADING, DRAINAGE PLAN |
Sheet counts across your four sets
| Project | Jurisdiction | Sheets |
|---|---|---|
| Wooster Ave. | City of Belmont | 7 sheets |
| Colonial Ln. | San Jose | 7 sheets |
| Vancouver Ave. | Burlingame | 4 sheets |
| Silverwood Dr. | Lafayette | 9 sheets |
Notice what stays constant across a set that is 4 sheets and one that is 9. Both start with L0, project information. Both put the existing conditions before the new design. The set that is more than twice as long does not reorganise the convention — it just adds more sheets after the same opening sequence.
That means once you can navigate a 4-sheet set, you already know the first four moves of navigating a 9-sheet one.
Check the sheet-count table above.
1. Which project has the fewest sheets?
2. What do a 4-sheet set and a 9-sheet set have in common at the start?
What is always there
The fixed opening sequence
| Sheet | What it always is |
|---|---|
| L0 | Project information — the cover sheet |
| L1 | Existing conditions — what is there now |
| L2 | New / proposed design |
| Later sheets | Details, schedules, sections — vary by project |
This is a question you can now answer about a set you have never seen: "Where would the existing-conditions plan be?" L1, almost always — because that is the convention, not a guess about this specific job.
Put these four sheet types back in the order they always appear.
Read the index
All the evidence is in the tables in Phase 02.
1. Which sheet is the existing site plan?
2. What do L0 and L1 do the same way on every one of your sets, no matter the sheet count?
3. Which of your four sets has the most sheets?
4. Why does knowing a 4-sheet set help you navigate a 9-sheet one?
Match each project to its jurisdiction. Click the project, then its jurisdiction.
Predict the sheet
Task card
A set you have never seen, with an unknown number of sheets
Your teacher names something they need — "the existing conditions," "the project info," "a construction detail." Say which sheet it would most likely be on, and why.
- Answer from the convention, not from memory of one specific set.
- Say "almost always" or "probably" where the convention allows variation.
- For the last one, say honestly that it could be anywhere — details vary by project.
One check before your teacher starts naming things.
1. If you are not completely sure which sheet something is on, what should you say?
Convention or memory?
Were you answering from the pattern, or trying to remember one specific set? The pattern is the more useful skill — it works on a set you open for the first time.
Apply today's lesson.
1. Which skill works on a set you are opening for the very first time?
Before the next lesson
Homework. Find the scale notation on one of your own sheets — the fraction, not just the word "scale." Practise saying it aloud.
One check before you go.
1. What exactly should you find for homework?