The need to get revision drawings drafted rarely comes from a calm schedule; it usually stems from a peak that swamps the drawing office, a deadline that looks unachievable, or a vacancy that has been open for months. In that situation, there is no time to recruit and train someone first, while the existing drawings still need updating before the project can move on.
That is when we step in, with drafters who each have more than ten years of CAD experience and can immediately work to your CAD standards.
We work to the drawing conventions you give us, so a revision does not stand out as a foreign element in the existing set. The process starts with a conversation about which drawings need revising and what exactly has changed. As soon as we have enough information, the first work can get under way quickly, even when the deadline is close. For a drawing office manager who can no longer absorb a peak internally, that is a direct way to clear the backlog without compromising on quality.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Getting revision drawings drafted: what we need to start
When you get revision drawings drafted by us, we start by asking for the existing drawings that need updating, together with a clear description of exactly what has changed since the last version. Without that basis, a revision takes an unnecessary amount of investigative work, because we first have to establish what is still correct and what is not. We also ask for your CAD standards and drawing conventions, so we carry out the revision in the same style and layer structure as the rest of the set. If there is no separate manual with conventions yet, we derive the standard from the existing drawings themselves.
We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, followed by a conversation in which we go through the details. As soon as the information supplied is complete enough, we can start quickly, sometimes within a few days of that first conversation. When a deadline cannot slip, we adjust the staffing immediately, with several drafters working at the same time rather than one person handling the entire revision round alone.
If you are unsure whether what you can supply is complete enough, you do not have to work it all out beforehand, because we already pick up part of that investigative work in the first conversation. We do recommend supplying as much of the latest version and the required change as possible in one go, as that saves back-and-forth emailing and speeds up our first deliveries considerably, especially when several drawings need updating at the same time within the same peak.
Clients who get revision drawings drafted and the problem they face
Getting revision drawings drafted is mainly relevant to engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, in short, to companies with technical drafting work where changes follow one another late in the project. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners, and the trigger is almost always the same problem: too little time, too few drafters, or a peak the in-house team cannot handle. At an architectural practice, we often see changes coming in late in the process, when a client makes one more change while the rest of the team is already working on the next project.
At a contractor, it is more often the case that a revision turns out to be needed during construction, because the situation on site differs from the original drawing and we have to adjust the drawings before work can continue. A manufacturer is more likely to face a revision round when an existing set of product drawings has to be adapted to a new version or a customer request, with many individual changes that we apply one by one. In every case, the problem is not a lack of knowledge but a lack of time and hands at the right moment.
Clients then bring us in as extra capacity that can slot in immediately, without the lead time that comes with hiring your own drafter. For these clients, the question is rarely whether the revision is technically difficult, but whether it can be completed on time without the rest of the ongoing work suffering, and that is exactly where we step in.
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.
What you get when you have revision drawings drafted
What we deliver when you get revision drawings drafted depends on the size of the change, from a small adjustment in one drawing to a revision round across an entire set. With a small change, we only update the drawing concerned, with a clear revision mark so it stays obvious which version is the latest and valid one. With a larger revision round, we go through the whole set and check whether a change in one component also affects other drawings in the same set. The latter often happens with parametric Revit families, where a change to a component automatically carries through to every drawing in which that component appears, instead of someone having to check each drawing separately. If an existing family set has become very messy after years of revisions, we first assess whether cleaning it up is enough or whether rebuilding will lead to a reliable result faster.
The drawings we deliver match the file format you use, from DWG and DXF to Revit formats, and the CAD standards you already apply. On larger projects, we use software that you can log into to follow progress, while for standalone drafting work we exchange revisions by email, with clear version numbers. We deliver in stages, so you can check along the way that the changes made are correct before we pick up the next batch of drawings. That keeps the revision round manageable, even when a large number of drawings is involved at once, and keeps you informed about exactly what is changing.
Scaling up and capacity during the project
A revision round rarely arrives in manageable doses; usually a large number of drawings needs updating in a short time, and that is why our large, flexible team scales with whatever the assignment requires. Our team is already in place, with a core that has around twenty-five years of combined experience, so we do not have to build anything from the ground up when you suddenly need more capacity.
When a deadline cannot slip, we add extra staffing immediately, even if that means evenings or a weekend, as happened on a previous project where we worked days of fourteen to fifteen hours to deliver on time.
If a drafter drops out during the project due to illness or holidays, we replace that person so the revision round continues without delay for you. You pay no ongoing payroll costs as you would for your own employee; you only pay for the work we actually do. That makes scaling up during a peak less risky than temporarily taking on your own staff for a revision round that is finished again after a few weeks.
Conversely, we also scale staffing back down as soon as the number of outstanding revisions drops, without you having to arrange anything. We discuss how much capacity a revision round needs to be completed within the time available in the first conversation, so the schedule is realistic up front rather than only during the project.
Frequently asked questions about getting revision drawings drafted
Let us draft your revision drawings
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.