When a company has a vacancy open headed 2D drafter wanted, it is usually about capacity rather than recruitment. We solve that with a team that is already in place and a review structure that can handle the volume. Every piece of work passes through at least three review layers with us.
A drafter produces the drawing, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, reviews the technical side and Barry, our project manager, closes the round.
Those layers are not there for show. In repetitive drafting work, a mistake in the setup multiplies across the whole set at lightning speed, and a single slip suddenly becomes a hundred corrections. Because four people look at the work, the number of errors stays to a minimum in practice. Everyone who works with us brings well over ten years of CAD experience. We draft and model; we do not do engineering. You will receive our response to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
From 2D drafter wanted to a project under way
What starts as an open vacancy usually ends with us in a half-hour conversation. We go through the project, ask about the scope and type of drafting work, and want to know which drawing conventions apply. You then supply the details, usually along with existing drawings that need revising. We review those documents before we commit to anything, because the state of the material determines how much detective work is involved. With enough information, we can start straight away. From that point we deliver in stages.
The first stage is deliberately small, so the project leader sees early on how we draft and can say what needs to change. We collect that feedback, process it and pick up the next stage. That way a misunderstanding stays limited to a few sheets rather than the whole set. We agree the meeting rhythm at the start, and it differs from client to client. On a tight project we sit down together every two days, otherwise weekly. Day-to-day contact runs through email, phone and meetings, and we either come to you or you come to our office.
For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files go back and forth by email. Larger projects, such as greenhouse construction, we support with software that you can log into to follow the project. We make that choice based on scope, not out of habit. A client with a single round of revisions gains little from an environment they have to log into, whereas a long-running project benefits from exactly that kind of overview.
Software and formats our 2D drafters work in
Our main software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. Our toolkit also includes Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. We always run the latest versions, so a file we send back opens on your side without any hassle. Which package we use depends on the existing set. If there is an AutoCAD environment with a well-developed sheet structure, we stay in it and change nothing about the setup. If the project runs in Revit, we model in it and keep the family structure that is already there.
File formats are rarely an obstacle. We deliver in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format the next stage of the process requires. Fitting in with the existing set goes beyond the format alone. We adopt the layer structure, naming, line weights, title blocks and sheet numbering from the drawing conventions you give us. If you work with your own template, our people draft in it. If there is no template, we follow the setup of the existing sheets and put our choices to you.
We work in our own environment on our own licences, so you do not need to free up a workstation or a licence. Where the work contains repetition, we build components parametrically so a variant adapts itself instead of someone redrawing it. The material schedule then updates with the component, so nobody has to check a change by hand. Whether that approach pays off on a project depends on how much repetition the set really contains.
No ongoing payroll costs and no idle staff once the peak is over. If one of our people is off sick or on holiday, we replace them and the work simply carries on.
Scaling up when more than one 2D drafter is wanted
Sometimes it is not about one drafter but about half a drawing office. We assign as many drafters per project as are needed, because our large, flexible team scales with every project. The team is already in place, so we deploy what the project requires without having to recruit first. When things are urgent, we add people immediately and spread the set across several hands. That works because everyone sticks to the same drawing conventions and the work then passes through the same review layers. Sam safeguards the technical consistency, so drafting in parallel does not lead to differences between sheets. We absorb absences ourselves. In case of illness or holiday we replace someone, so the work continues and the schedule does not slip. Because several people look at the same set, more than one person always knows the file and a handover happens without gaps.
You pay no ongoing salary costs and are not tied to prepaid hour bundles or an hours subscription. If the volume drops, we scale back down. How far we go when a schedule is really under pressure shows in practice. For a deadline that could not move, our team worked evenings and weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours. The work also carried on during a planned holiday of Sam's. That is not our standard way of working, but it says something about how we treat a commitment. For a drawing office manager, that is often the point where the comparison with an open vacancy tips. A vacancy only becomes productive after months, whereas our team starts clearing sheets immediately within a live project.
Getting started after you have been looking for a 2D drafter
To get started, we mainly need a view of what is there. In practice, that means a set of existing drawings, the project details and the drawing conventions that apply. The more complete that package, the faster our drafters get up to speed and the fewer hours go into detective work. If material is missing, we would rather work it out ourselves than call you every day.
In an as-built file for Firefly, the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand, and we untangled it ourselves and still delivered a clean set. Barry is the first point of contact for a new enquiry.
After that, Sam takes over the technical side, so you keep a familiar face. We charge by the hour or a fixed price per project, by agreement, and only bill genuine working hours. If someone steps away for five minutes for a coffee, that time does not count. A short job is fine, and we can deliberately start small so you can judge our speed and accuracy. The intellectual property of what we make belongs to the client, so no dependency remains after delivery.
We have not signed a non-disclosure agreement so far, but we are open to doing so. You can reach us by phone or through the contact form on the website. That is followed by a conversation in which we go through the project and decide on the first step. That conversation shows whether we start small with part of a set or come in straight away with several drafters.
Frequently asked questions when a 2D drafter is wanted
2D drafter wanted? We can start right away
Send us your documents and drawing conventions and we will let you know within one to two working days what we can take on and when.