One of the first tasks in the process of building a ship is the translation of the owner's requirements into an outline design. Decisions need to be made about the exact type of ship it will be, where the cargo will be carried and, if it is a warship, where the guns will be positioned. All of these decisions are made in the design office.

When all the necessary calculations have been carried out to support the design, sketches are prepared and handed over to the drawing office. Here, the draughtsmen can then start to create the more detailed plans.

The tools used to undertake all of these jobs did not change for many years. For example, all of the calculations were done by longhand using a slide rule, and every drawing was made using pencil or ink on paper. However, these procedures were completely transformed with the introduction of computers and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software.