Most window frame manufacturers only start looking for a drafting firm when the drawing office schedule no longer adds up. There is an order package, the delivery date is fixed and your own team is short of hours. We take over that drafting work, and we do so with a team that is already in place.
For a small request, we deploy one drafter. If the volume rises, we deploy as many drafters from our large, variable team as are needed within the same project, without you having to hire people first.
Everyone who drafts for us has more than ten years of CAD experience, so we do not have to train anyone in the basics first. We draft; we do not do engineering. That means we take on production drawings, detail sheets and revisions, while the structural and technical decisions stay with you as the manufacturer. What we produce remains the client's property. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, after which we go through the whole package with you in a conversation.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
When a drafting firm pays off for window frame manufacturers
Outsourcing pays off as soon as the drafting work is predictable and the volume fluctuates. For a window frame manufacturer, that predictability lies in the repetition, because the profiles are fixed and only the dimensions and junction details differ per order. We take over that part without anyone having to explain every decision again. We ask for the drawing conventions, the standard used and a few representative drawings up front, and then we draft within that framework. There are also assignments you are better off keeping in-house. Work that constantly rubs up against production decisions, where the drafter has to ask the machine operator or the estimator what is possible, moves faster with an employee two doors down.
The same applies to a one-off drawing that is finished in an hour, because the handover then takes more time than the work itself. As soon as a series emerges, that trade-off tips. Drawing a hundred variants of the same frame takes us less time per sheet than the first ten, because by then we know the framework. A revision round across hundreds of existing DWG sheets, a set of detail drawings that needs converting to a new profile, or an as-built file that has fallen behind: that is exactly the kind of package we are set up for.
We work remotely from our own office with our own licences, so you do not have to arrange a workstation, a licence or an onboarding programme. You pay no ongoing salary costs with us and keep your own drawing office free for the work that does sit close to production. If you are unsure where that line lies, we discuss in the first conversation which part genuinely lends itself to outsourcing.
What we deliver as a drafting firm for window frame manufacturers
For a window frame manufacturer, we draft the execution part of the file. That starts with production drawings per frame or per facade surface, with the dimensions, the profile sections and the junction details at the reveal, the sill and the head. We also produce detail sheets to scale, assembly drawings and the sheets the installation crew needs on site. Where a junction remains unclear on paper, we model the node in 3D so the section is right before any material goes into production.
We process revisions to existing sets, and we update as-built files after installation has solved something differently from what the drawing prescribed. Our output matches your standard, so the title block, layer structure, text sizes and numbering that already apply. We deliver in DXF and DWG, in Revit formats and in STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format that production or the supplier requires. Our main software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, supplemented by Inventor and Grasshopper, always in the latest versions.
For standalone drafting we deliver by email, in stages, so the work planner does not have to wait for the complete package. On larger projects we use software you can log into to follow the status of the project. What we do not do is just as important: we do not run calculations, we do not check structures and we do not prepare permit documents. Our work stops at the drawing, and that boundary makes it clear to both sides who decides what.
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 drafting work at a window frame manufacturer
Most of the drafting work at a window frame manufacturer is repetition with variation. The same profile recurs in ten widths, the same junction recurs on four floors, and the difference lies in dimensions and quantities. That is exactly where the time saving lies, and exactly where we use parametric components. We build smart Revit families that adapt to a different size or a different situation, so a drafter builds the component once and then places it everywhere. The material schedule updates with it, so if the component changes, the schedule changes automatically and nobody has to update a list by hand. We know that effect well from our own work in greenhouse construction. Companies there draw in AutoCAD, and AutoCAD is not smart at building components such as valves in piping systems.
If you need a valve at 90 and at 110, you draw it by hand again every time, whereas with a smart family it is in place in a single action. In that kind of work, our approach saves at least seventy percent of the time. The same logic applies to a window frame range with fixed profile series and recurring hardware positions. We can clean up an existing family set and its templates, or build everything from scratch. Which route makes more sense depends on the state of the set, because if it is very messy, rebuilding is sometimes faster than repairing. We look at that first before proposing an approach, because a half-repaired set costs time again later.
Meetings and a fixed point of contact at our drafting firm
The collaboration runs through a fixed point of contact. Barry, our project manager, picks up a new enquiry and remains the face of the project, after which Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side. Sam has more than fifteen years in architecture, seven years of working in Iran and his own design practice in the Netherlands behind him, and he still works as an engineer.
He manages our CAD team and leads the project supervision, so you do not have to deal with four drafters at once. We set the meeting rhythm together with you. On a tight schedule we speak every two days, on a calmer project weekly.
Day-to-day contact runs through email and phone, and where it helps we come to you or welcome you at our office. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files go back and forth by email, and we stick to your numbering. On larger projects we work with software you can log into to see for yourself how far along a sheet is. We deliberately deliver in stages, collect feedback, make the changes and carry on, so a misunderstanding stays limited to a few sheets rather than the whole package.
We work in our own environment with our own licences, so we do not ask for access to your network. We draft, and the intellectual property of that work lies with you. We have not signed a non-disclosure agreement so far because clients have not asked for one, but we are open to an NDA.
Frequently asked questions about our drafting firm for window frame manufacturers
Hand your window frame 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.