A building engineering drafting firm is only useful when it works in the software in which you manage your own set. We draft and model in Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, as well as in Inventor and Grasshopper, with Dynamo and Vault to a limited extent. Which of these takes the lead is not our decision.
The existing set decides that. If there is an AutoCAD environment with sheets built up over years, we keep working in it. If a project runs in Revit, we build on the families and templates already there instead of setting up a structure of our own alongside them.
We always work with the latest versions and in our own environment on our own licences, so no workstations or accounts need to be arranged. Files are exchanged as DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP files. What we deliver is drafting and modelling work, not engineering and not calculations. Below you can see which drawings that produces in practice and how they connect to the next stage.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Drawing types we produce as a building engineering drafting firm
Our work consists of 2D drafting and, where needed, 3D modelling, supplemented by revisions and as-built drawings. In practice, building engineering means floor plans, elevations, sections, standard details, detail sheets, window frame schedules and the associated overviews, laid out in the format you use. We also handle the updating that arises after construction, in which an existing set is adjusted to what was actually built. That last category is often exactly the volume work an in-house drawing office never gets round to. A building engineering drafting firm earns its place in precisely this type of job, because it involves a lot of repetition and the design decisions have already been made.
We do not take over those decisions. You provide the principles, and we turn them into sheets that are correct and remain consistent with one another. Where the work repeats, we build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components. Such a component is set up properly once and then adapts to different dimensions or situations, with a material schedule that updates automatically.
If the component changes, the schedule changes with it, without anyone updating a list by hand. We can clean up existing families and templates or rebuild them, and which is wiser depends on the state of the set. A family set clogged with variants is sometimes quicker to rebuild than to repair. We put that trade-off to you before we start, because it is a choice with consequences for the rest of the project. We also spell out what a rebuild means for the sheets already in circulation with your own team.
Software and formats used for building engineering drafting
The choice of package follows the existing situation, not our preference. Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino are our main software, and we also work in Inventor and Grasshopper and, to a limited extent, in Dynamo and Vault. In building engineering drafting, the emphasis is on Revit and AutoCAD. Rhino and Grasshopper come into play when a form is hard to capture in standard components and geometry has to drive the design. We always work with the latest versions.
That sounds obvious, but it prevents the kind of problem where a file will not open at your end or where functionality used in your set is missing. We exchange files as DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice every common CAD format comes along at some point. For us, fitting in with an existing set means more than delivering the right format. We first look at how the set is structured, which components are reused, which naming is used and which conventions have evidently developed over time. Only then do we start drafting.
The work is done in our own environment with our own licences rather than yours, which keeps the start-up short because no access procedure is needed. The files must of course open without problems at your end, and we test for that before anything is sent. On larger projects we work with software you can log into to follow the progress of the drafting, while one-off jobs are simply delivered by email.
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.
CAD standards, layer structure and the client's conventions
We draw to your conventions, even when we would approach things differently ourselves. That may seem a detail, but it determines whether your own team can still manage the set after delivery. We receive the layer structure along with line types, hatching, text heights, title blocks and the naming of sheets and files. If there is a CAD manual, we follow it. If there is not, we reconstruct the conventions from a representative selection of existing files and present that reconstruction to you for confirmation before the first series goes out. That takes limited effort at the start and avoids a correction round across dozens of sheets. It gets more interesting when the existing set is not internally consistent, which is the rule rather than the exception in a file that has been running for years.
We do not choose for you in that case. We point out the deviation, explain what following it means for the new sheets and let you decide whether you want a clean-up or to continue the existing approach. In Revit the same question arises around templates and families. A template that does not suit the team's way of working causes friction every week, and that can be put right during a running drafting job. We discuss interventions like these in advance, because they affect how your own team works, not just our own pace. A standard that changes halfway through a project always costs more than a standard that gets an hour's attention at the start, and we would rather spend that hour up front.
The set our building engineering drafting firm delivers
What you get back is a complete set of source files, not just output for printing. That means your own team can carry on independently, even without us. Intellectual property in what we produce belongs to you. With Revit work, the families and template used are included, so the logic of the model remains transferable. With AutoCAD work, it covers the sheets including the layer structure and the blocks we used or modified.
We do not deliver everything at once at the end, but in parts. The first delivery is meant as a test, because it shows whether the layout and level of detail match what the next stage needs.
We process the feedback and the next series goes out on that basis. What that next stage needs varies greatly from client to client. A work planner wants different information on a sheet than a cost estimator, and a site manager wants something else again. That is why we ask early on who will use the set, because it determines how the detail sheets are set up. Before anything is sent, the set has passed through at least three review layers: a second drafter, Sam as team leader and Barry as project manager.
That keeps the number of errors minimal in practice and prevents corrections only coming to light on site, where fixing things always costs more than an extra round at the office. If a change comes in along the way, we incorporate it into the running rhythm of partial deliveries and feedback, so the set remains a coherent whole at the end.
Frequently asked questions about our building engineering drafting firm
Hand your building 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.