Anyone looking for a drafting firm for equipment manufacturing starts with a practical question: in which format and to which CAD standards should the work come back? We turn that around and ask for that information straight away. The client supplies the layer structure, layer names, title block and existing files, and we continue working in them.
That might be a set of DWGs, an Inventor environment or a model that moves through the chain as STEP. We deliver in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format, always in the latest versions.
All our drafters have more than ten years of CAD experience, Sam, our team leader, directs the technical side and Barry, our project manager, picks up the request. We draft and model; we leave the engineering to the client. For equipment manufacturers, that means part drawings, assemblies, elevations, revisions and as-built work. The work passes through several review layers before it comes back. That way the project leader knows that what they receive fits straight into their own set and needs no clean-up round.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
When a drafting firm for equipment manufacturing makes sense
Outsourcing is not always the right answer. If the drawing office has a peak lasting a few weeks and the in-house team has some slack, solving it internally is often simpler. If the backlog is growing structurally, or there is a series of machines with lots of repetitive part drawings, the picture changes. For us, the tipping point usually comes when your own drafters no longer get round to the real engineering work because they are busy updating sheets. That is exactly the work we take over. A revision round on an old set also lends itself well to outsourcing, because it takes a lot of time and requires few design choices.
Work that is closely intertwined with ongoing engineering decisions is better kept in-house by the client, because that is where the knowledge lies. We do not make those decisions and do not want to. A third consideration is duration. For a single drawing, the start-up hardly pays off, because we need the standard and the files before we can begin. From a series or a continuous flow of work onwards, that investment pays for itself, because we then reuse the same conventions every time.
If the project leader is in doubt, a small first assignment is the cheapest way to find out. We then take on a defined portion, for example a handful of part sheets for one machine. That quickly shows whether our way of working fits the in-house drafting team. Our team can then scale up within the same project without the conventions having to be discussed again. This build-up keeps the risk for the client small.
The cost of a drafting firm for equipment manufacturing
With us, you can work by the hour or per project at a fixed price. We decide together with the client which form suits, and that depends mainly on how sharply the work can be defined. If there is a clear set of sheets of known size, a fixed project price is convenient because the amount is known in advance. If the scope is still unclear, for example with a revision round on an outdated equipment set, an hourly basis is fairer for both sides. We only bill pure working hours. Even a five-minute coffee break falls outside the hours we bill.
We do not offer prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription, because then the client pays for capacity that may sit idle. What keeps costs down is above all the quality of the input. A complete set of files, recorded CAD standards and a clear brief save hours that would otherwise go into detective work. Repetition also lowers costs. For a series of machines with recurring parts, we set up the first sheet carefully and the rest then goes faster. Parametrically built components reinforce that effect.
With us, the client pays no ongoing payroll costs, no workstation and no licences, because we work in our own environment. In that conversation we indicate which parts we can pick up quickly and where we expect extra detective work. If it turns out along the way that the scope is larger than expected, we report it immediately rather than afterwards. We only make an estimate after we have seen the documents.
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.
Who we draft for in equipment manufacturing
Our clients at OutsourceCAD are engineering firms, manufacturers, contractors and architectural practices, and more broadly companies with technical drafting work. In equipment manufacturing, these are mainly manufacturers and engineering firms. The person at the table is usually a manager, a team leader or the owner, someone responsible for the schedule who can see it no longer adds up. The trigger is almost always capacity. Too little time, too few drafters, or a peak the in-house team cannot handle. Sometimes something else is at play: an employee leaves and the knowledge of an ongoing set walks out of the door with them. We then take over the drafting so the schedule does not collapse while the vacancy is open. A second recurring picture is the client with an archive that is no longer correct. At Firefly, we received as-built material whose existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand.
Barely legible, messy, and nobody had time to sort it out. We worked it out ourselves instead of calling the client constantly, and still delivered it neatly. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for that company. That is why we deliver in batches and gather feedback along the way, so the project leader stays in control. We stick to that approach even with an urgent request, adding an extra drafter rather than reducing the review. What these clients have in common is that they want to hand off the drafting, but not the control. Anyone in equipment manufacturing in that situation usually recognises this pattern straight away.
The process at our drafting firm, step by step
Everything starts with a conversation. Barry picks up the request, we schedule a short meeting and go through what is there: the type of machine, the size of the set, the deadline and the drawing conventions. Sam then joins as team leader for the technical side. The client supplies the details and usually the existing drawings that need a revision.
If documents are missing, we say what we lack before we start, because a half-start costs more time afterwards. As soon as we have enough information, we put drafters on the work. We deliver in batches. A first partial delivery shows how we have applied the standard, how the sheets are built up and whether the detailing is at the desired level.
The client gives feedback, we process it and carry the corrections through the rest of the set. We repeat that rhythm until everything is done. Meetings take place every two days or weekly, depending on how urgent it is. Files go back and forth by email and, on larger projects, through software the client can log into. Before a partial delivery goes out, the work passes the drafter, a second team member, Sam and Barry.
We can start as soon as we have enough information, and when it is urgent we add extra people. The intellectual property of the delivered files belongs to the client. We answer a request within 1 to 2 working days, after which that first conversation follows. If you want to see how such a project works in equipment manufacturing, call us or fill in the contact form.
Frequently asked questions about a drafting firm for equipment manufacturing
Hand your equipment 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.