Editing Engineering drawing (section)

==Legal instruments==

An engineering drawing is a legal document (that is, a [[legal instrument]]), because it communicates all the needed information about "what is wanted" to the people who will expend resources turning the idea into a reality. It is thus a part of a [[contract]]; the [[purchase order]] and the drawing together, as well as any ancillary documents (engineering change orders [ECOs], called-out [[specification (technical standard)|specs]]), constitute the contract. Thus, if the resulting product is wrong, the worker or manufacturer are protected from [[Legal liability|liability]] as long as they have faithfully executed the instructions conveyed by the drawing. If those instructions were wrong, it is the fault of the engineer. Because manufacturing and construction are typically very expensive processes (involving large amounts of [[capital (economics)|capital]] and [[payroll]]), the question of liability for errors has [[legal]] implications.