Clients usually come to our assembly drawing sets service at a moment when something is squeezing: a peak their own team has no room for, a deadline that can no longer move, or a drafter vacancy that has been open for months. In each of those situations a complete set of assembly drawings has to be produced while the in-house drawing office is already full with ongoing work.
We take over that part as an outsourced drafting team, fully remotely from our own office and on our own licences. We draft; we do not do engineering, and we do not produce structural calculations.
Everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience, and the core of our team brings around twenty-five years of combined experience. Our team is already in place, so we do not have to recruit before taking on a new request. When things are urgent we add people to the ongoing work straight away, so a peak or an approaching deadline is no longer a reason for the project to slip. Sam, our team leader, directs the work and remains your fixed point of contact throughout the project.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Who needs assembly drawing sets produced
Outsourcing assembly drawings is mainly relevant for manufacturers and contractors whose product or building element consists of several parts. For a manufacturer it is often a product line made in parts, whose assembly has to be documented before production or assembly can begin. A peak in orders then means the in-house drawing office can no longer keep up, while the assembly drawings still have to be ready on time. For a contractor the problem often arises around the start of construction, when the crew has to put together an assembly of building elements on site and the existing drawings are not complete enough for that.
An engineering firm often runs into it when a vacancy for an experienced drafter has been open for months while the ongoing work simply continues. At an architectural practice, an assembly of building elements sometimes falls just outside its own expertise and is better placed with our team. The people at the table for these requests are usually a manager, a team leader or the owner, and the trigger is almost never about content.
It is about time, people and a schedule that can no longer move. Our clients are based in the Netherlands, and that is where our focus lies. What these clients have in common is that their drafting work is predictable, often with a lot of repetition, and that this kind of work lends itself well to being handed to us temporarily or structurally without the client losing control of the project.
Scaling capacity for assembly drawings
With assembly drawings, the capacity needed varies widely from project to project, which is why we scale up per assignment. That can start with one drafter for a clearly defined assembly, and on a large project we deploy as many drafters as needed from our large, flexible team. The team we use for this is already in place, so when things are urgent we add people straight away instead of recruiting first, which for an in-house vacancy often takes weeks or months. That difference is exactly where the time saving lies when a peak cannot wait.
If someone on our side is off sick or on holiday, we replace them so the work simply carries on, including during the planned holiday of someone on the project. You pay no ongoing salary costs and are not tied to staff who sit idle once the peak is over. How many drafters make sense depends on how easily the assembly can be divided. A set with many repeating parts, such as a series of similar assemblies in a product line, can be spread well across several drafters at once.
A complex assembly in which everything is closely interlinked we deliberately keep with a smaller, fixed group, because otherwise coordination costs more time than it saves. We decide that split together at the start of the project and adjust it along the way as soon as the schedule requires. That way staffing grows and shrinks with the project, instead of you having to look for temporary drafters yourself.
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.
What an assembly drawing sets service costs
For many clients, the cost of outsourcing assembly drawings matters at least as much as the content of the work itself. We work on an hourly basis or for a fixed price per project, and we choose the right option together. For an assembly whose scope we can estimate well in advance, a fixed project price is the obvious choice, because you then know exactly where you stand. For a project that takes shape as it goes, for example because the design is not yet fully settled, an hourly rate is often fairer for both sides. We only bill pure working hours. If someone steps away for five minutes to get a coffee, the clock stops, and that difference adds up on a project lasting weeks. We do not work with prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription, so you pay for the work we actually spend on the assembly.
What keeps costs down most in practice is complete and clear information up front. If information is missing, tracking it down takes time we cannot spend on the drawing itself. Clear CAD standards help too, because we then lose no time reinventing a layer structure or naming convention. A parametric set-up for an assembly with a lot of repetition also reduces costs, because once a part is in place we can reuse it again and again. We draw up an estimate for a specific project after the first conversation, as soon as it is clear exactly what you need.
Collaboration and communication during the project
Working together on assembly drawings starts with one fixed point of contact, so you do not have to keep explaining what is going on. Barry, our project manager, is your first point of contact for a new enquiry and holds the initial conversation. After that, Sam takes over the technical side and remains your fixed link for technical coordination throughout the project.
We tailor the rhythm of check-ins to you: on a tight project we speak every two days, while for calmer work once a week is enough. Day-to-day contact runs by email, phone and meetings, and we are happy to visit you or welcome you at our office.
Files go back and forth by email, and on larger projects we use software you can log into to follow the project. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, email remains the quickest route. For us, being able to follow the project means you do not only see what we have made at the very end. We deliver in stages, gather feedback, make changes and carry on, so a wrong assumption surfaces early rather than at final delivery.
We work in our own environment on our own licences, so you do not have to set anything up on your side. Everything we deliver remains your intellectual property. A short first assignment is possible if you would like to see how our collaboration and communication work in practice before a larger project follows.
Frequently asked questions about our assembly drawing sets service
Hand your assembly drawing sets over to us
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.