[5]: 230  In 1944, with branches in Victoria and New South Wales, the union achieved federal registration as the Association of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Draughtsmen of Australia (AAESDA).

[9][6]: 41–42 [5]: 231  Like the AAESDA, the AAD had benefited from war-time industrial activity through a growing membership, quickly expanding to other states and achieving federal registration in October 1943.

[5]: 240 [10]: 198 During the early 1950s a plebiscite of the association's members was held to decide whether to affiliate to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), but the proposal was strongly rejected by the membership.

[11] Despite being a founding member, the AAESDA was regarded as unusual within ACSPA due to its industrial militancy, relative to the other affiliates, including being prepared to use strike action as a bargaining tool with management.

[8][5]: 237  This move was met with opposition from some sections of the union's membership, unhappy with the AAESDA being affiliated with a body traditionally associated with blue-collar workers.

[5]: 237  Earlier attempts to affiliate with the CCPSO had been rejected, due to the AAESDA's sizeable private sector membership.

[12]: 219–220  Unlike many of the traditional craft unions, the AAESDA did not attempt to restrict or regulate entry into the occupations it covered, but rather encouraged its members to gain recognised qualifications to help formalise the position of technical workers in the structure of the award system.

[12]: 219–220 In 1978 the AAESDA applied to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission to include coverage of foremen and supervisors in the Metal Industry Award.

[13] This application was opposed by employers, who argued that it would create "divided loyalties" among staff employees, and undermine their "management ethic".

[8] To better reflect this new membership profile the union changed its name in 1981 to the Association of Draughting Supervisory and Technical Employees (ADSTE).

[3] In the late 1970s and 80s technological change (such as the introduction of Computer-aided design in draughting), outsourcing in the public service and the decline of the Australian manufacturing industry began to put pressure on the AAESDA and between 1975 and 1980 it lost over 17 percent of its membership nationally, falling to 20,049.

[15] Unlike many other white collar unions in Australia ADSTE did not include managerial-level or administrative employees and many of its members were former tradespeople (60% in 1991) who had been promoted to more highly skilled positions.

Due to the makeup of the occupations it covered the union was almost exclusively male – for example, female members made up only 1.6 percent of the South Australian state branch in 1981.