When someone asks how much CAD drafting costs, we first answer a different question: who does the work and how is it organised? We work from our own office with an established team and our own licences. The work is done remotely, while clients are welcome to visit when that helps.
Barry, our project manager, picks up each new enquiry, after which Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side and directs the CAD team. Sam has more than fifteen years' background in architecture and still works as an engineer.
Every drawing we produce is handled by someone with more than ten years of CAD experience. We draft and model, and engineering or calculations are not part of that. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and only pure working hours appear on the timesheet. Below you can read what we deliver, who we do it for and how our checking process works. When you send a new enquiry, we respond within 1 to 2 working days.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What we deliver within CAD drafting
How much CAD drafting costs depends entirely on exactly what is on the table. We deliver 2D drafting and, where needed, 3D modelling, as-built drawings and revisions. Specifically, that means floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets, part drawings and piping schematics. In AutoCAD we work up individual drawings, usually in high volume and with a lot of repetition. In Revit we build the model and derive the sheets from it. We use Rhino for freer geometry, and Inventor and Grasshopper come in when the work calls for them.
We use Dynamo and Vault to a limited extent. We also build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components that adapt to a different size or a new situation. The material schedule follows along, so when the component changes, the schedule changes too. We deliver in DXF, DWG, the Revit formats and STEP, and in any other common CAD format. We always run the latest versions and follow the drawing conventions we receive from the client. As a result, a sheet from us fits in among the sheets from your own drawing office.
A construction-ready detail sheet takes more hours than an elevation that comes straight out of the model. That is why we always ask about the required level of detail before we prepare an estimate. Without that level, every figure remains a guess, and that helps nobody. So we would rather put a sample sheet next to the enquiry than pile up assumptions. In a revision round, we also adopt the structure of the existing sheets. That saves you an extra round of corrections.
Who asks how much CAD drafting costs
This question mainly comes from companies that do not have enough drafting capacity of their own. Our clients are engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, as well as companies with a lot of technical drafting. The people we talk to are managers, team leaders and owners. They keep an eye on both planning and staffing, and the two regularly clash. The trigger is almost always capacity: too little time, too few drafters or a peak that the in-house team cannot handle. An engineering firm might, for example, have a piping schematic in greenhouse construction in which a valve in 90 and 110 has to be added to the drawing again and again.
That work is not difficult, but it eats up the hours of people who should be doing something else. An architectural practice has a model set that needs to be worked up while the designers are already on the next project. A contractor is stuck with an as-built dossier that was half drawn by hand. In all these cases the question is about hours, and therefore about money. We started this service last year because a client asked for it, and we have offered it as a standard service ever since. For Firefly we have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings.
Our clients are based in the Netherlands, and that is where our focus lies too. We do not have public reviews yet, so we prefer to let the first piece of work speak for itself. A limited first assignment is enough for that. It shows you how fast we work and how accurate the result is. If you are happy with it, we take on the larger volume. We do not tie anyone to a subscription or a minimum volume.
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.
From first conversation to delivery of the drafting work
Every project with us starts with a conversation about the project. You supply the details and usually existing drawings that need revising. We go through those documents and decide which part needs to be tackled first. Then we start drafting and deliver in stages. That staged delivery starts deliberately early, because a deviation in the structure costs many times more time later on. We gather feedback, make adjustments and move on to the next part. The meeting rhythm differs per client, as one wants contact every two days and another is happy with a weekly check-in. How urgent the work is determines that rhythm. Files go back and forth by email. On larger projects, including greenhouse construction projects, we use software that you can log in to and follow the project.
For standalone AutoCAD drafting we simply deliver by email, because an extra environment adds nothing there. Day-to-day contact runs via email, phone and meetings, and we visit the client or welcome them at our office. We work in our own environment, not in the client's. That saves hassle with licences, access and administration. If you want to know how much CAD drafting costs in your case, set out the scope and the deadline in that first conversation. We then follow up with a substantiated estimate per drawing type. We start as soon as we have enough information to work without assumptions. A short assignment up front is always an option.
Three pairs of eyes on every drawing
Our work passes through at least three review layers before it goes to the client. A drafter produces the drawing, a second team member checks it, and Sam then reviews the technical side as team leader. Barry, as project manager, goes over it last. As a result, errors hardly ever occur in practice. We do not charge separately for that checking, because it is part of the work.
In practice, what we catch is mostly small, persistent issues. A layer that deviates, a dimension that does not follow the model, hatching that differs between two sheets. Deviations like these cost the most time on site or in production, because someone only notices them late.
At high volume, consistency counts for more than elegance. A hundred sheets with an identical structure raise fewer questions than a hundred sheets that are each slightly different. Sam steers on that, and he does so with more than fifteen years' background in architecture. He ran his own design firm in the Netherlands and worked in Iran for seven years. The core of our team has around twenty-five years of experience combined. We hold no certifications, so we let the work itself provide the proof.
A small first assignment shows that way of checking most clearly. If you continue after that, you keep the same team and the same point of contact. Changing faces mean time spent explaining things all over again. That time ultimately ends up on the drafting invoice as well. We prefer to keep it short and predictable. So a fixed team saves more than just convenience.
Frequently asked questions about how much CAD drafting costs
Hand your CAD 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.