When you bring in a CAD technical drafting firm, the first thing you want to know is how the work is organised and who does it. At OutsourceCAD, that is clearly defined. We have a permanent team, every drafter has more than ten years of CAD experience, and Sam, our team leader, manages the technical side and project supervision.
He has more than fifteen years' background in architecture, ran his own design firm in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer. Barry, our project manager, is usually the first point of contact for a new enquiry and then hands over the technical side.
So you keep one fixed line of contact. We draft and model, but we do not do engineering. The work is carried out entirely remotely from our own office, in our own environment and with our own licences. What we produce follows your drawing conventions, not our own. You will receive our response to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, followed by a conversation about the project.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What our CAD technical drafting firm delivers
The focus lies on 2D drafting. 3D modelling is added when a project calls for it, for example because elevations and sections need to be generated from a model. We also produce as-built drawings and process revisions to sets that are already in circulation. Specifically, that covers production drawings, assembly drawings, detail sheets, floor plans, elevations, sections and schematics, depending on the industry you operate in. On a revision assignment, we receive an existing set and carry the changes through, including the related sheets that would otherwise fall out of step.
Our core software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. We also work with Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent with Dynamo and Vault. We always work with the latest versions. If you are still working in an older version yourself, we save the file in that version, so nothing needs to be converted on your side before it can be used. We deliver in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP files, and in practice in any common CAD format, so the files can move straight on through your supply chain without an intermediate step.
What falls outside our scope is engineering. We do not run calculations, advise on structural matters or handle permit procedures. We keep that line sharp, because a firm that starts meddling in the engineering behind the drawing blurs the responsibility. The volume we excel at is the repetitive part of a project. Series that resemble each other, variants of the same component and sets that need updating sheet by sheet after a change.
Clients of a CAD technical drafting firm
The companies that come to us are engineering firms, architecture practices, contractors and manufacturers. We also hear from companies that do not have a drawing office as a core activity but still need a steady flow of technical drawings. The person we talk to is usually a manager, a team leader or the owner. They are the people who keep an eye on the schedule and are the first to notice lead times creeping up. In almost every case it is about capacity, and that question rarely comes far in advance, because a peak usually only announces itself once the project is already under way.
There is too little time, there are too few drafters, or there is a peak the in-house team cannot get through. The work itself is not the problem then, the quantity is. A drawing office with a handful of people cannot simply take on a series of hundreds of sheets alongside its ongoing work. On top of that, the work left undone is often precisely the least challenging part. Carrying out revisions to existing DWG files, rebuilding an as-built file, cleaning up a set that has passed through different hands.
For in-house drafters, that is not very appealing work, and it keeps them away from the parts where their project knowledge really counts. That is the part we take over. You do not need to open a vacancy for it and you bear no ongoing payroll costs. Our focus is on the Netherlands and the clients we work with are based there too. We launched this service last year at a client's request, and it has been a permanent part of our offering ever since.
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 process at our CAD technical drafting firm, from conversation to delivery
It starts with a conversation. In it, we go through what is on the table, what needs to be completed and which conventions apply. You supply the details and usually also existing drawings that need revising. From that material we extract the drawing conventions, such as the layer names, the blocks used, the structure of the title block and the way dimensions are noted. If anything is missing, we ask for it all at once rather than bit by bit. The work then gets under way and we deliver in stages. We chose staged delivery deliberately, because you see early on how we interpret the material and can make adjustments before a hundred sheets contain the same deviation. We collect that feedback, process it and move on to the next batch. The meeting rhythm differs per client.
On a tight schedule we meet every two days, on a calmer project weekly. Contact runs via email, phone and meetings. Between deliveries, we also stick to your standard, so a partial delivery and the final set share the same structure and nothing needs to be brought into line afterwards. We visit you or you come to us, although the work itself is carried out entirely remotely. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files go back and forth by email. On larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we use software you can log into to follow progress. We can start as soon as there is enough information, and if you want a trial run first, you can begin with a small assignment.
Three review layers before a drawing goes back
Our work passes through at least three review layers before it leaves the office. A drafter produces the drawing, a second team member checks that work, Sam as team leader then reviews it and Barry as project manager gives it a final check. That sequence is fixed and applies even when the schedule is tight. The result is that the number of errors stays to a minimum in practice.
What such a check picks up is usually not spectacular, but it is costly. A layer that does not match the standard, a block placed in an outdated variant, a dimension updated on one sheet but not on another after a revision.
Points like these only come to light once the set is already with the contractor, and by then fixing them takes far more time than the check itself. What the check also delivers is that you do not have to go through the set sheet by sheet yourself before it is passed on to the next party. The second gain lies in continuity. Because several people have already seen the work, a colleague can take over a task without the project having to be explained all over again.
That is exactly what is needed when someone falls ill or goes on holiday. An example from our own work comes from Firefly, where we received as-built material in which the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand. The whole set was hard to read and messy. We worked it out ourselves instead of calling about it constantly, and still delivered it cleanly.
Frequently asked questions about our CAD technical drafting firm
Hand your technical 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.