If you are looking into the BIM modeller rate, it is usually because modelling work has been sitting with your own team for weeks. That backlog has consequences that rarely show up on a timesheet. Revisions pile up, the latest changes exist only in the head of one colleague and the as-built set falls behind reality.
The moment a contractor or supplier asks for up-to-date sheets, nothing adds up any more.
We see that pattern regularly in the files that come in to us. Our work consists of modelling and drafting for companies that are short on drafting capacity. We take over the volume, stick to the client's standard and deliver in stages. We agree the rate per hour or as a fixed project price, depending on what the work requires. Our hours are pure working hours. Below, we show what that means in practice using our own project work.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
An as-built file our BIM modeller put straight
Firefly supplied us with as-built material in which the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand. The whole set was hard to read and messy. A file like that forces an immediate choice. We could call the client about every unclear point, or we could work it out ourselves. We chose the latter and still delivered a clean result. That is a deliberate choice, because every phone call costs the project leader on the other side time as well. We collect questions, work out what we can deduce from the material ourselves and only put the real decisions forward.
We took two lessons from that project. The first is that a partial delivery has to come early. Once twenty sheets are built on the same wrong assumption, fixing them costs many times more. The second is that a short inventory up front pays off, even if it feels like lost time. We now review the entire package before anyone starts modelling. Missing dimensions, duplicate sheets and conflicting versions surface straight away.
That approach cuts the number of hours and therefore the cost, without us losing speed. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for this client. That volume makes it clear where time really leaks away in this type of work. Usually not in the modelling itself, but in figuring out what was actually built. We shape our way of working around that. A client notices it mainly in the number of questions he does not get.
What a BIM modeller delivers when you work with us
Our work starts with the model and ends with usable sheets. We model in Revit and produce floor plans, sections, elevations and detail sheets from it. We also do 2D drafting in AutoCAD, often as a revision round on existing DWGs. We use Rhino for complex forms that are hard to capture in a standard model. As-built drawings make up a steady part of our volume. We build parametric Revit families from scratch or clean them up, depending on what is already there.
A smart component like that adapts to a different size without anyone redrawing it. The material schedule updates along with it, so a change to the component carries through to the schedule. In pipework for greenhouse construction, that delivers the biggest gains. If you need a valve in 90 and in 110 and draw it by hand every time, you lose time structurally. With a good family it is placed in a single action, which saves at least seventy per cent. We can deliver DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice any common CAD format.
Engineering is not part of our package. Calculations, structural advice and permits stay with the client, because that is where the responsibility and the knowledge of the design lie. What we do is carry the drafting volume that your own team can no longer absorb. That can be a single set of sheets or a continuous stream of revisions throughout an entire project. Both happen with us, and each calls for a different agreement on the rate. We discuss that format before anyone starts on the model.
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.
The delivered set and what happens after the BIM work
For us, a delivery is more than a folder of files. We deliver editable files in the formats the client uses. For Revit, the model goes with it, including the families we built or cleaned up. For AutoCAD work, we deliver the DWGs in the agreed layer structure and with the client's title block. File naming follows the convention we set at the start. We never rename anything afterwards, because in a live project that breaks more than it fixes. The intellectual property belongs to the client. Nothing stays with us that a next party would need. That matters, because the follow-up process continues without us. A drawing office manager has to be able to pass the set on to construction, to a supplier or to the next revision round. That is why we do not deliver exports that can only be viewed and nothing more.
With each partial delivery, we also note which choices we made where things were unclear. Those notes are short and practical, and they stop someone having to guess six months later. As far as the rate is concerned, this way of working is not an extra line item. We see a clean handover as part of the drafting work itself. After all, a set your own team cannot use independently has no value. On larger projects, the client can also log in to the software we use to track the project. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files are simply exchanged by email. Whichever route it is, the files arrive in the agreed form.
CAD standards and layer structure help determine the rate
We work to the client's standard and drawing conventions, which the client provides to us. That sounds obvious, but in practice it determines a good share of the hours needed. A well-documented standard means a modeller works in the right layers from the outset. If that documentation is missing, we derive the setup from existing sheets, and that takes time to figure out.
We then put our assumptions forward, preferably before the volume starts to flow. We adopt title blocks, dimension styles, text sizes and hatching exactly as they are. We do not impose our own views on a set that has been in use for years.
If we see something that will cause problems later, we flag it and leave the decision to the client. A second factor is the state of the existing family library. If it is clogged with duplicate components, connecting to it takes more time than a clean start. In that case, we tell you honestly that rebuilding will work out cheaper than repairing. The third factor is the input itself. Complete documents and a contact person who answers quickly noticeably reduce the number of hours.
We only bill pure working hours, so waiting time never ends up on the invoice. If someone walks away for five minutes to get a coffee, the clock stops. That precision fits how we look at the rate. Every hour should be traceable to something in the model or on a sheet. With a fixed project price, the risk shifts to us, and then we want the scope to be sharply defined.
Frequently asked questions about the BIM modeller rate
Hand your BIM modelling 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.