If you team up with a 3D drafting partner, you need to be clear about one thing in advance: which part of the work goes out of the door and which part stays in-house. As a rule, you keep the design, client contact and final responsibility for content yourself. We take over the modelling and detailing, including the revision rounds that come with them.
We draft; we do not do engineering, calculations or permit procedures. We deliberately keep that distinction tight, because otherwise it becomes unclear who is responsible for what.
In practice, we work in Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino and Inventor, always with the latest versions and in our own environment. Our team consists of drafters with more than ten years of CAD experience, led by our team leader Sam, who has a background in architecture. Barry, our project manager, picks up each new enquiry, so you keep one fixed point of contact. We respond to that enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, followed by a conversation. In it, we go through the work package point by point.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Getting started with a 3D drafting partner
We can start as soon as we have enough information, and that is less than most clients think. What we need is the existing material, the drawing conventions and a clear description of what needs to be done. The existing material is usually a set of drawings that needs revising, sometimes a model, sometimes just sketches and photos. The drawing conventions cover layer structure, layer names, line weights, hatching, symbols, title blocks and sheet numbering. If they are not written down, we derive them from what is there and put our interpretation to you for confirmation.
It also helps if you indicate which components will definitely change and which are fixed. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, even during a busy period. That is followed by a conversation in which we go through the project, and the first work can get under way straight after. Our team is already in place, so we do not need to recruit or onboard anyone. When things are urgent, we add people to the package immediately.
We prefer to start with a clearly defined part, so the first feedback comes quickly. At the same time, that lets us check whether our work matches your standard. If something turns out to deviate, we correct it on a small part rather than on the whole set. A short trial job is fine, and it is often the most down-to-earth way to begin. Calling us or filling in the contact form on our website is the first step.
Who this 3D drafting work lands with
On the other side of the table are managers, team leaders and owners, not buyers who only look at price. They call us because their capacity does not match their order book. Engineering firms get stuck on detailing that lags behind the pace of design. Architectural practices come to us when a set of details has to be finished while the next project is already in. Contractors have as-built material that still needs processing after handover and keeps getting pushed back internally. Manufacturers are looking for someone to handle repetitive work, such as the same component in five sizes with the associated schedules.
In greenhouse construction, we see large piping schematics in which the same components recur endlessly. What these situations have in common is that the work is not difficult, but there is a lot of it. The question then is not whether the team can do it, but whether it has time for it alongside the ongoing work. That is exactly the type of work that stays on the shelf internally, because attention goes to the urgent project. Our clients are in the Netherlands, and that is where our focus lies too, because communication lines need to stay short. We work remotely from our own office, and you are always welcome to visit.
We launched this service last year because a client asked for it, and it has been a permanent part of what we offer ever since. For Firefly, we now have more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings to our name. We do not have public reviews, so we let the work speak for itself. If this sounds familiar, bring your bottleneck to us in a first conversation.
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.
Our output as a 3D drafting partner
The output has to fit your process, not ours. We deliver 3D models in Revit, Rhino or Inventor, together with the drawings derived from them. That means floor plans, sections, elevations, details and overviews, on sheets laid out to the project's format. Where the model alone is enough for you, we leave out the 2D drawings. We also build parametric Revit families, and we supply them separately so your own team can reuse them later. As-built drawings and revision rounds are a standard part of our work. For a revision, we keep to the file structure and names the project already uses. Files go out as DXF, DWG, Revit formats or STEP, and in any other common CAD format. On delivery, we indicate which assumptions we have made and which points still need a decision.
Delivery happens in stages, with feedback in between, until the package is complete. How large each stage is depends on the size of the set and the pace the schedule demands. For standalone work that runs via email; on larger projects, via software you can log into. Everything that leaves our hands is your intellectual property. Before anything goes back, it has passed through at least three review layers, which keeps the number of errors minimal in practice. What we do not deliver is calculations, structural advice or permit files. If you have a specific list of required output, we will respond to it line by line in the first conversation.
Scaling up without hiring permanent drafters
With us, buying in capacity means the staffing moves with the work at hand. We start small where possible and scale up with our large, flexible team as far as the project requires. Those people are already part of our team, so there is no recruitment period beforehand. When things are urgent, we add extra people within the ongoing project straight away.
If the volume drops, we take them off and their hours stop. You therefore pay no ongoing payroll costs in quiet months. If someone is out due to illness or holidays, we replace them from the same team and the work carries on. Because every file passes through several team members anyway, such a handover takes little time.
We bill pure working hours only, and if someone steps away for five minutes for coffee, the clock stops. Prepaid bundles or a monthly hours subscription are not part of how we work. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and we make that choice in consultation with you. More people on a project calls for tighter agreements, so we set down layers, naming and sheet layout in advance.
Everyone who joins has more than ten years of CAD experience, so onboarding stays short. In practice, someone is up and running within a day on a package where the conventions are settled and the standard is known. Sam, as team leader, keeps an eye on the division of work and the review layers, even with a larger team. If you see a peak coming, it is best to talk it through with us early.
Frequently asked questions about a 3D drafting partner
Make us your 3D drafting partner
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.