When a client puts the question of a BIM modeller wanted on the table, our conversation almost always starts with the file format and the CAD standards. We want to know which Revit version the set is in, which templates sit underneath it, what the layers are called and which title blocks apply.
That information determines whether a modeller is up and running within a day or first spends a week working out how everything fits together. We work in our own environment with our own licences, always on the latest versions, and deliver in DWG, DXF, Revit formats or STEP.
Alongside Revit we draft in AutoCAD and Rhino, and where the project calls for it we use Inventor, Grasshopper, Dynamo or Vault. We adopt your drawing conventions, because our team adapts to the existing set and not the other way round. The work is carried out fully remotely from our own office, with the Netherlands as our area of operation. We respond 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.
When hiring a BIM modeller makes sense
Outsourcing pays off when the drafting work is predictable and the volume is greater than your own staff can handle. A peak in the drawing office, a revision round on a large set of DWGs or an as-built file that has been waiting for months: those are the assignments clients call us for. We then take over the hands-on modelling work, so your own people can keep working on the design and on coordination with the construction team. Keeping it in-house is wiser for work tied to knowledge that only exists within your own firm, for example an ongoing discussion with the structural engineer or a design choice that has not yet been settled.
We do not do engineering, we do not make calculations and we do not advise on structures. Our trade is drafting and modelling, and we are honest about that at the start of a project. If a project leader is unsure whether it fits, we start with a small first assignment. That lets them judge our speed and accuracy without half a project being at stake straight away. A short assignment is fine, because we do not work with a prepaid hours card or an hours subscription.
The work also carries on during illness or holidays, because we arrange cover internally and you bear no ongoing payroll costs. The decision is usually not about quality but about time, because your own team is there, just without enough hours. We fill that gap with drafters who all have more than ten years of CAD experience. With our large, variable team we scale up or down for each project, depending on what the work requires.
What we deliver as a BIM modeller
Our work starts with the model and ends with the drawings that come out of it. We build and populate the Revit model, set up the levels and elevations, create sections and details, and extract floor plans, elevations and principle details from it. We also deliver 2D drafting in AutoCAD, from piping diagrams and floor plans to detail sheets, and 3D modelling in Rhino where needed. As-built drawings are a regular part of our work, because we bring surveyed situations, supplied sketches and old sheets back into one up-to-date set. Revisions go hand in hand with that, because in practice another round of changes always follows each delivery.
We also build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components that adapt to a different size or a new situation. The material schedule updates along with them, so if the component changes, the schedule changes automatically. We can clean up existing families and templates, and sometimes we prefer to rebuild them because repairing a cluttered set takes more time than replacing it. We assess which is more sensible per set, and we present that trade-off in advance. Our output leaves the office in DWG, DXF, Revit formats or STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format you use.
We deliver in stages, so your drafting team can review early on and not just at the end. For standalone drafting this is done by email. On larger projects, such as in greenhouse construction, we work with software that you log into to follow the project. The intellectual property of everything we make belongs to you.
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 repetitive work where the time savings lie
Most of the volume in this trade lies in repetition, not in exceptional drawings. Think of a piping diagram in greenhouse construction where a 90 and a 110 valve are drawn by hand again and again, sheet after sheet. AutoCAD is not smart at building such components, so every variant takes the same actions all over again. We solve that by building the component once, parametrically, and then placing it in a single action. In that kind of work it saves at least seventy percent of the time. The same logic applies to grids, window frame types, openings and standard details that recur across dozens of sheets. We first take stock of what really repeats, and only then do we start drafting. That inventory takes half a day and pays for itself over the rest of the project.
A revision round is also rewarding work to outsource, because the changes can often be grouped into patterns. We tackle them by type rather than sheet by sheet, keeping the number of actions low. We have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for Firefly in this way. Among them was an as-built file in which the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand, hard to read and messy. We worked it out ourselves instead of constantly calling the client, and still delivered it neatly. That way you keep your own people free for the work that does require coordination. We only charge pure working hours, so the clock does not keep running when someone steps away.
A fixed point of contact and meetings during the BIM project
Barry, our project manager, is usually the first point of contact for a new enquiry and remains so throughout the project. As soon as things become technical, Sam, our team leader, takes over, so you are not dealing with a changing line-up of people. More than fifteen years of background in architecture, seven years in Iran and his own design practice in the Netherlands are to the credit of Sam, who still works as an engineer.
He leads our CAD team and is responsible for the technical side and project supervision. We decide the meeting rhythm together, because with some clients we speak every two days and with others weekly. That depends on how fast things need to move and how much changes per round.
Day-to-day contact runs by email and phone, and where it helps we sit down around the table. We come to you or you visit us, although the work itself is always carried out remotely. On larger projects we give you access to the environment in which you can follow the work and see progress per component. Being able to follow along keeps feedback short, because a comment on sheet three prevents the same comment on sheet thirty.
That is why we deliver in stages, collect responses, make adjustments and carry on. Together, the core of our team has around twenty-five years of experience, and a project leader notices that mainly in the number of questions we do not need to ask. When a deadline once could not move, we worked evenings and weekends with days of fourteen to fifteen hours. Even during a planned holiday of Sam, the work kept going.
Frequently asked questions about BIM modeller wanted
Let us take on your BIM modelling
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.