Requests to convert 2D to 3D rarely come to us from a strategic plan, but almost always from a peak in the drawing office. An order has come in, the existing set is in flat DWGs, and the model the client wants with it has to be ready within a few weeks. Or a vacancy stays open that just will not be filled while the work piles up.
We absorb that. Our team converts flat drawings into a usable 3D model in Revit, Rhino or Inventor and delivers the derived drawings along with it.
We draft and model, and we leave the engineering to you. The job comes in, we put as many drafters on it as the schedule requires, and when something is urgent we add people straight away. The work is done remotely from our own office, with our own licences, for clients throughout the Netherlands. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days. This is followed by a conversation in which we go through the model, the level of detail and the schedule.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Repetitive work when you convert 2D to 3D
Most of this work is not exciting, and that is exactly where the gain lies. A manufacturer has hundreds of flat part drawings that each need a model. A contractor has a set of elevations in which the same window frame detail recurs in dozens of variants. An engineering firm has a piping diagram in which the same components keep coming back in different sizes. Volume like that costs one of your own drafters weeks, while you would rather have them on the design. We take over the repetitive part and stick to a fixed way of working.
First, we take stock of which elements recur and how often. We then build those elements properly once, so our team can reuse them throughout the rest of the model. Only once that foundation is in place do we tackle the volume. That sequence saves considerably more time than drafting faster. We only count pure working hours, so time not spent on the model does not appear on the bill. That makes a volume job more predictable than a series of separate hired days.
Our large, variable team scales per project with the volume, depending on the schedule. When something is urgent, we add people straight away without you having to go through a recruitment process. If someone is out for a week through illness, we bring in a replacement and the work simply continues. You pay no ongoing payroll costs and are not stuck with capacity that becomes redundant after the project.
What you get when you need 2D converted to 3D
The basis is a 3D model that matches the existing drawings. In Revit, we build architectural and MEP models; in Rhino, the freer forms; and in Inventor, the part and assembly work. From that model, we then extract the drawings the project needs, such as floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets and part drawings. Material schedules and bills of materials come straight out of the model, so a change to a component immediately shows up in the schedule. We also produce as-built models, based on the material you supply. Revisions are part of the work, because a first model version always raises questions.
We deliver in batches, usually per part of the building or per product family, so your drafting team can get on in the meantime. With each partial delivery, we indicate what is finished, what is still open and which assumptions we have made. You decide how detailed the model needs to be. We build a model intended only for visualisation differently from a model that production drawings will come from. We make that choice in the first conversation, because refining afterwards takes more time than agreeing up front. We also take on cleaning up a half-finished model that someone else started.
Sometimes rebuilding is quicker than repairing, and when it is, we say so. We present that trade-off before our team puts time into it. Delivery is in Revit formats, DWG, DXF or STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format. We do the drafting and modelling, while calculations, structural checks and permit documents stay with 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.
Parametric Revit families speed up the conversion
When converting flat drawings into a model, the same component almost always comes back several times. For that, we build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components. A component like that adapts to a new situation or a different size. Our team builds it properly once, after which a drafter places it everywhere without redrawing it. Because the material schedule updates along with it, the schedule changes automatically as soon as the component changes. One example from our practice comes from greenhouse construction. Companies in that sector often work in AutoCAD, and AutoCAD is not smart at building up components such as valves in piping systems. There, a valve in 90 and in 110 means the drafter draws it by hand from scratch every time. Smart families ensure it is in place in a single action. The time saved in this kind of work is at least seventy per cent.
That is why, before we start, we look at how often an element recurs in the set and which dimensions vary. That count determines whether we build a family or simply keep drafting. We present the outcome to you, so no time goes into a component nobody needs. We build families from scratch or clean up an existing library. Which is wiser depends on the condition of that library. If a family library is clogged with variants nobody uses any more, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing. Besides Revit, we use Grasshopper for parametric work in Rhino, and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. We only use them when the volume justifies it, because for five components a smart family does not pay off.
Software, versions and file formats
Our main 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, and on request we deliver back in an older version if your workflow requires it. File formats are rarely a problem, because DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP files pass through our hands every day, and in practice we handle any common CAD format.
More important than the format is how well it fits your existing set. At the start, we ask for a recent sample drawing, the template and the layer conventions. If there is a CAD manual, we read it before our team draws a single line.
That way the layer structure, naming, linetypes and title blocks keep the same structure as your internal work. A model that arrives in the wrong version or with broken references only costs your drafting team time. That is why we check before delivery that all links and references are correct. What we deliver must open straight away without any searching. We work in our own environment with our own licences, not in yours. That saves hassle with accounts and available workstations.
Exchange runs by email, and on larger projects such as greenhouse construction projects we work with software you can log in to and follow the project. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, we simply deliver by email. If there is no standard, we propose a workable setup and submit it to you first. We also follow the file names and folder structure your drawing office already uses, so nobody has to rename anything afterwards.
Frequently asked questions about converting 2D to 3D
Let us convert your 2D drawings to 3D
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.