Top 12 Detailer Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting an impressive resume means pushing your most relevant strengths into the light. For detailers, those strengths are the tools and techniques that turn rough intent into clear, constructible reality. Below you’ll find the core 12 skills employers scan for, the ones that help you turn ordinary drawings into reliable, buildable detail.

Detailer Skills

1. AutoCAD
2. Revit
3. MicroStation
4. SolidWorks
5. Tekla Structures
6. 3ds Max
7. Rhino
8. SketchUp
9. Adobe Photoshop
10. BIM 360
11. Navisworks
12. Bluebeam Revu

1. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is a CAD workhorse for detailers, used to produce precise 2D drawings and clean 3D geometry that anchor fabrication, coordination, and construction documents.

Why It's Important

It delivers accuracy and speed. You draft once, dimension right, and hand off drawings that other teams can trust, which trims rework and keeps production humming.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

Sharpening your AutoCAD chops comes down to speed, consistency, and smart automation.

1. Keyboard shortcuts: Learn them, customize them, lean on them. Every saved click adds up over a project.

2. Custom workspace: Build tool palettes, ribbon tabs, and right‑click menus that match your detailing tasks.

3. AutoLISP and scripts: Automate repetitive steps. Batch layer tweaks, title block fills, or view setups with small utilities.

4. Blocks and standards: Standardize layers, linetypes, text, and symbols to keep output consistent across sheets and teams.

5. Iterate with new features: Review release notes and fold useful tools into your routine instead of letting them gather dust.

6. Community and practice: Join professional groups, swap tips, and build tiny test files to explore features without breaking your production model.

Keep trimming friction. Your drawings will get faster and cleaner.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

2. Revit

Revit is a BIM platform for modeling buildings in rich 3D with connected documentation. Detailers use it to align geometry, data, and sheets in one coordinated environment.

Why It's Important

When the model drives the drawings, changes stay in sync. You reduce clashes, tighten coordination, and catch conflicts before they become field headaches.

How to Improve Revit Skills

1. Shortcuts and options: Tailor hotkeys, mouse settings, and selection behavior to cut through busy views.

2. Templates and families: Build a tidy library with naming standards, parameters, and view templates that enforce consistency without thinking.

3. Add‑ins and tools: Bring in vetted plugins that streamline tasks like tagging, sheet management, and QC.

4. Detailing best practices: Use detail items, keynotes, and view filters for repeatable, review‑friendly output.

5. Model management: Purge, audit, and manage worksets to keep files nimble and stable.

Small process upgrades compound into serious project gains.

How to Display Revit Skills on Your Resume

3. MicroStation

MicroStation delivers robust 2D/3D drafting and modeling for infrastructure and building projects. Detailers rely on its precision and reference workflows to keep large, complex sets under control.

Why It's Important

It’s built for accuracy and long‑haul projects. References, levels, and sheet models keep giant deliverables aligned and tidy.

How to Improve MicroStation Skills

1. Keyboard shortcuts and function keys: Customize them to slash time on frequent commands.

2. Workspace and configuration: Set up workspaces, dgnlibs, and standards so your tools and styles are always at hand.

3. References and federated files: Attach, clip, and manage references cleanly for collaborative detailing.

4. Advanced modeling: Explore solids, surfaces, and parametrics for assemblies that need more than lines and arcs.

5. Training and community: Use vendor learning paths and user forums to troubleshoot and trade techniques.

Structure your environment once; benefit on every job after.

How to Display MicroStation Skills on Your Resume

4. SolidWorks

SolidWorks is a parametric 3D CAD platform used to design parts, assemblies, and production drawings with exacting tolerances and manufacturing intent front and center.

Why It's Important

For a detailer, the payoff is direct: accurate models become accurate drawings, which become parts that fit, fasteners that align, and assemblies that just work.

How to Improve SolidWorks Skills

1. Strong fundamentals: Sketch relations, design intent, and feature order—get these right and edits won’t snap your model in half.

2. Shortcuts and custom menus: Mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and custom tabs shave real time off repetitive actions.

3. Templates and standards: Title blocks, notes, weld symbols, and dimension styles—lock them in so drawings stay consistent.

4. Advanced features: Configurations, design tables, sheet metal, weldments, and surfacing push your efficiency and flexibility.

5. Add‑ins: Bring in simulation, PDM, or specialized tools when projects call for them.

6. Deliberate practice: Rebuild tricky parts from reference photos or prints to stretch your technique.

Design with change in mind. Your future self will thank you.

How to Display SolidWorks Skills on Your Resume

5. Tekla Structures

Tekla Structures is a BIM platform for constructible steel, concrete, and mixed‑material models. Detailers produce shop drawings, NC data, and reports straight from the model.

Why It's Important

It closes the gap between design and fabrication. Bolts, rebar, embeds—modeled once, tracked rigorously, and sent downstream with fewer surprises.

How to Improve Tekla Structures Skills

1. Core workflows: Nail modeling conventions, numbering, and drawing production so outputs stay predictable.

2. Advanced training: Level up with courses focused on connections, rebar, and automation.

3. Tekla Warehouse: Use vetted components and tools to accelerate common tasks.

4. Customized environment: Tune roles, ribbons, and templates to your firm’s standards and project types.

5. Macros and custom components: Automate repetitive detailing. Small scripts can bulldoze big time sinks.

6. Stay current: New releases often improve numbering, drawings, and performance. Fold upgrades into your process.

7. Community and support: Discuss edge cases with peers; log issues to get fixes and workarounds.

Precision in the model equals confidence in the shop.

How to Display Tekla Structures Skills on Your Resume

6. 3ds Max

3ds Max is a 3D modeling, rendering, and animation tool. Detailers use it to create high‑fidelity visuals, mockups, and presentations that make fine details obvious at a glance.

Why It's Important

When stakeholders see intent clearly—materials, lighting, joinery, interfaces—decisions happen faster and with fewer misreads.

How to Improve 3ds Max Skills

1. Shortcuts and hotkeys: Build muscle memory for transforms, sub‑object edits, and viewport navigation.

2. Plugins: Add targeted tools for modeling, scattering, or UVs when default tools feel slow.

3. Tutorial practice loops: Learn a concept, then rebuild it from scratch without the walkthrough.

4. Texturing and UVs: Clean UVs plus smart materials make models look believable, not plastic.

5. Lighting and rendering: Master physical lights, exposure, and denoising to land crisp, readable renderings.

6. Modeling approaches: Mix poly, spline, and modifiers to handle both hard edges and organic contours.

7. Keep pace with updates: New render engines and modeling niceties can shorten your road to a final image.

Clarity sells the detail long before fabrication starts.

How to Display 3ds Max Skills on Your Resume

7. Rhino

Rhino is a precision NURBS modeler used across architecture and product design. Detailers lean on it for complex geometry, clean curves, and custom parts that standard tools struggle with.

Why It's Important

When geometry gets tricky—freeform panels, tight transitions, compound curves—Rhino stays stable and exact.

How to Improve Rhino Skills

1. Core modeling discipline: Accuracy first. Object snaps, SmartTrack, and units set the tone for reliable results.

2. Advanced NURBS: Rebuild, match, and analyze curvature so surfaces flow without kinks.

3. Grasshopper: Use parametric definitions for repetitive patterns, panelization, and rules‑driven details.

4. Precision workflows: Layers, named views, and clipping planes keep detailing focused and reviewable.

5. Rendering: Whether using Rhino Render or external engines, dial in materials and lighting to reveal edges and joints.

6. Community: Share files, ask pointed questions, and adopt tips from experienced users.

7. Project reps: Recreate real components from cut sheets to sharpen accuracy under realistic constraints.

Good inputs, clean curves, honest surfaces—everything downstream benefits.

How to Display Rhino Skills on Your Resume

8. SketchUp

SketchUp is a fast, friendly 3D modeler used for architectural, interior, and fabrication studies. Detailers sketch, iterate, and communicate details quickly with clean visuals.

Why It's Important

Speed plus clarity. It’s easy to learn, easy to review, and perfect for explaining how parts come together before anyone cuts material.

How to Improve SketchUp Skills

1. Extensions: Add tools for profiles, joints, parametric elements, and high‑quality rendering when native tools hit limits.

2. Tags and Scenes: Use Tags (formerly Layers) and Scenes to manage visibility, phases, and detail levels across views.

3. Groups and Components: Model with components for repeatable elements and painless edits.

4. Custom toolbars: Keep frequently used tools close; remove clutter that slows you down.

5. Trusted content: Pull from curated model libraries and verify dimensions before dropping items into your set.

6. Stay current: New releases improve graphics, inference, and workflow. Adopt upgrades that cut friction.

Sketch fast, detail smart, present clearly.

How to Display SketchUp Skills on Your Resume

9. Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the go‑to for image editing and compositing. Detailers use it to enhance drawings, mark up visuals, create textures, and prep presentation boards that read instantly.

Why It's Important

Fine control over edges, tone, and texture makes details pop. Clear visuals mean fewer questions later.

How to Improve Adobe Photoshop Skills

1. Pen tool mastery: Precise selections and masks separate signal from noise.

2. Non‑destructive editing: Layers, masks, adjustment layers, and Smart Objects—edit boldly without burning bridges.

3. Healing and cloning: Clean artifacts, patch textures, and polish surfaces with restraint.

4. Color and tone: Use Curves, Levels, and Blend If to balance contrast and guide the eye.

5. Advanced compositing: Match perspective, light, and grain so separate elements live in the same world.

6. Custom brushes and patterns: Build repeatable detail effects you can deploy in seconds.

7. Keep up with updates: New selection tools and filters can halve the time to a clean result.

Crisp images sell your intent before the meeting even starts.

How to Display Adobe Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

10. BIM 360

BIM 360 (now part of Autodesk Construction Cloud) is a cloud platform for model coordination, document control, and multi‑team collaboration. Detailers use it to centralize models, drawings, and reviews in one place.

Why It's Important

Shared truth. With versioned files, issues, and markups in a single hub, teams move together instead of guessing which revision is real.

How to Improve BIM 360 Skills

1. Docs discipline: Organize folders, permissions, and naming so people find what they need without digging.

2. Design collaboration: Use cloud worksharing (BIM Collaborate Pro) to coordinate updates and reduce conflicts across teams.

3. Model coordination: Run clash checks early and often; track issues with clear owners and due dates.

4. Integrations: Connect with scheduling, RFIs, and task tools via ACC Connect to cut manual handoffs.

5. Custom apps: Build light automations with Autodesk Platform Services (formerly Forge) when workflows repeat.

6. Learning culture: Tap training libraries and internal playbooks so the whole team works the same way.

7. Feedback loops: Review metrics and close issues fast; refine folder structures and permissions as projects evolve.

Centralize the data, then let the process run.

How to Display BIM 360 Skills on Your Resume

11. Navisworks

Navisworks aggregates models, detects clashes, and simulates schedules for project reviews. Detailers use it to spot conflicts and stage construction sequences before work hits the field.

Why It's Important

Find problems on screen, not onsite. Clash resolution and clear 4D visuals reduce rework and chaos.

How to Improve Navisworks Skills

1. Clash Detective: Build sensible clash tests, group results, assign owners, and track resolutions. Less noise, more fixes.

2. Model aggregation: Append, merge, and manage file sets with consistent coordinate and unit setups.

3. Workspace tuning: Customize toolbars and saved workspaces so reviews move quickly.

4. Quantification: Create takeoff items and mappings to connect model elements to quantities and cost buckets.

5. Timeliner: Link tasks to geometry, simulate sequences, and export videos for stakeholders who prefer visuals over Gantt charts.

6. Navigation: Master viewpoints, sections, and walk modes for smooth, readable reviews.

7. Training rhythm: Refresh skills periodically so new features and smarter tactics stick.

Good coordination makes every downstream deliverable sturdier.

How to Display Navisworks Skills on Your Resume

12. Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam Revu is a PDF powerhouse for markups, measurements, and collaboration. Detailers rely on it to review drawings, capture field feedback, and manage revisions at scale.

Why It's Important

Fast markups, clear comments, accurate measurements—review cycles tighten, and decisions stop stalling.

How to Improve Bluebeam Revu Skills

1. Custom Tool Sets: Build symbol and note libraries for your discipline so markups stay consistent across the team.

2. Layers: Separate scopes and phases on layers for quick toggling during reviews.

3. Keyboard shortcuts: Map frequent tasks to keys you’ll actually use—speed appears like magic.

4. Templates and profiles: Standardize cover sheets, stamps, and panel layouts to remove guesswork.

5. Measurement and Sketch Tools: Use Polylength, Count, and custom scales to keep takeoffs tight.

6. Batch operations: Batch Link and Slip Sheet keep large drawing sets synchronized without manual drudgery.

7. Training: Short, regular sessions beat one marathon class. Build habits, then refine.

Tidy markups tell a crisp story—and projects move.

How to Display Bluebeam Revu Skills on Your Resume