Bringing in an AutoCAD drafting specialist, with us, means an established team picks up the work, not a single freelance drafter fitting something in on the side. We divide the work in our own office, on our own licences and with the latest version of AutoCAD. A drafter produces the drawing, a second team member checks it, our team leader Sam reviews the technical side and Barry, our project manager, gives the set a final check.
Everyone who drafts for us has more than ten years of CAD experience.
We draft and model; engineering is not part of our work. Contact runs through one fixed point of contact, so your project lead only has to explain things once. We work remotely for clients across the Netherlands, and you are always welcome to visit. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, after which we go through the project with you in a conversation. As soon as the existing documents and drawing conventions are in, we can start.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
The AutoCAD drafting work that comes our way
By far most of the work that comes our way is 2D drafting in AutoCAD. Think of floor plans, sections, details and piping schematics, which we deliver back in DWG or DXF according to your drawing conventions. We also carry out revision rounds on existing sets, for example when a route has been moved, dimensions have been changed or a detail has been built differently on site. As-built files are a category of their own. They often include material that has been printed askew or partly drawn by hand, which we first have to decipher before a clean drawing can come out of it.
If a project calls for more than flat drawings, we model in 3D and deliver Revit formats or STEP files. In practice, we handle any common CAD format, so an old export from another package will not stop us. If a file comes in whose structure is unclear, we work that out first before adding a single line. An AutoCAD drafting specialist mainly pays for itself on repetitive work. We see that clearly in greenhouse construction, because AutoCAD is not smart when it comes to building components such as valves in piping systems.
If you need a valve in 90 and in 110, you draw it by hand again every time. We take that manual work over, and where possible we suggest building such a component as a smart Revit family, so that once drawn it can be used everywhere. What we do not deliver is engineering, calculations or structural advice. Our role stops at the drafting, and we deliberately keep it that way.
How a project runs with our AutoCAD specialists
It always starts with a conversation. In it, we discuss what is there, which standard applies and which drawings are needed first. You supply the details and usually also the existing drawings that need revising. We ask for a reference drawing as well, because an example from a previous project says more about layers, title blocks and hatching than a list of conventions. We then start drafting and deliver in stages. After each partial delivery, we gather feedback, incorporate it and pick up the next part.
That way your project lead can see early on whether the picture is right, and we correct any deviation before it has been carried through fifty sheets. The rhythm differs per client. On a tight schedule we speak every two days; for calmer work, a weekly check-in is enough. What we mainly want to know in those check-ins is whether the latest delivery passed your own internal review without comments. Files go back and forth by email, which is the quickest option for standalone AutoCAD drafting. On larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we work with software you can log into to follow progress.
Day-to-day questions are simply handled by phone and in meetings, and we visit you or welcome you at our office. We do the drafting itself in our own environment, so nobody has to free up a workstation or licence for us. The intellectual property of the delivered files belongs to you. We will sign an NDA on request, even though no client has asked for one so far.
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.
When outsourcing AutoCAD drafting pays off
Outsourcing is not the best move in every situation, and we would rather say so up front than afterwards. It mainly pays off with volume and repetition. A set of dozens of similar sheets, a long revision round or an as-built file that has been sitting on the shelf for months: that is work where our team picks up speed. A peak your own team cannot handle is also a clear moment, especially when a deadline cannot move. We then scale up with our large, flexible team, without you building up ongoing payroll costs. Outsourcing makes less sense when it is a matter of a few odd hours a month. The coordination involved then outweighs the gain, and your own team is finished before we have got up to speed. The same goes for work closely intertwined with ongoing design meetings, where the drawing changes every day because of decisions made around the table.
A drawing office is better off keeping that in-house. A job where you are still working out how the set should be structured is also hard to outsource. We draft at our sharpest when the direction is fixed and the work mainly calls for execution. Work that requires engineering, calculations or permits is outside our scope anyway. If a project lead is in doubt, a short job is the most down-to-earth test. We can start with a small, clearly defined part, such as a single revision round, so you can judge our speed and accuracy before more volume is handed over. That first round almost always shows which part of the AutoCAD drafting can be outsourced on a structural basis and which part stays in-house.
How we differ from a freelancer or a new employee
Hiring a freelancer seems the simplest solution, but the comparison looks different as soon as the work grows. A freelancer is one pair of hands. If they are out due to illness or holidays, the work stops and the project knowledge goes with them. With us, we replace anyone who drops out, so the drafting carries on. We also deploy more people as soon as the project calls for it, because our large, flexible team scales with each project, and when things are urgent we add capacity straight away.
A second difference lies in quality control. With us, every drawing passes through at least three review layers: a second team member, Sam as team leader and finally Barry as project manager.
A solo drafter checks their own work, however experienced they are. If you spend all day in the same set, you eventually stop seeing your own mistakes. Compared with a new permanent employee, time is the main factor. A vacancy for an experienced AutoCAD drafter sometimes stays open for months, followed by an onboarding period. We are up and running as soon as we have enough information, and you carry no ongoing payroll costs, no idle time between projects and no recruitment process.
On the other hand, an in-house drafter is in the office every day and informally picks up on what is going on. We cannot replicate that proximity, but we can compensate for it with a fixed point of contact and an agreed rhythm of check-ins. Sam directs the team and is responsible for the technical side and project guidance, so you keep one line of contact. The handover on a follow-up job also takes less time, because the project knowledge stays within our team.
Frequently asked questions about an AutoCAD drafting specialist
Hand your AutoCAD drafting 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.