If you are looking for a technical drafter, with us it starts with your file format and CAD standards. With a first request, we ask which layer structure, naming and title block are in use, and in which format the files need to come back. That is not a formality.
A drawing that is correct in content but does not come back in the right DWG structure or Revit set-up still costs your own drafting team half a day of clean-up. That is why we work in our own environment with our own licences, but follow the drawing conventions you give us.
OutsourceCAD provides outsourced CAD drafting to companies that do not have enough drafting capacity in-house. We draft and model, often in high volumes with a lot of repetition, and we do not do engineering. The team is already in place, so we deploy what a project needs without having to recruit first. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days and then discuss the project in a conversation.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Parametric work that saves a technical drafter time
A technical drafter brought in for repetitive work pays for themselves fastest on parametric components. We build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components that adapt to a new situation or a different size. The component is built once and then placed everywhere, without anyone redrawing it. We link the material schedule, so it changes automatically when a component is modified. That saves time above all in sets where the same components come back in dozens of variants. An example from our own 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. If you need a valve in 90 and in 110, you draw it by hand again every time. A smart family places it in a single action. As a result, this kind of work goes at least seventy percent faster. We can clean up or rebuild existing sets of families and templates. The most sensible route follows from the condition of the existing set. If a family set has become very messy, rebuilding is sometimes faster than repairing, and we will tell you so.
We assess that choice based on the files we receive, not on gut feeling. For you, this means outsourced drafting delivers more than a stack of sheets, because your own team can simply keep using the set of components underneath it afterwards. The intellectual property of everything we make belongs to the client, so those components remain available without discussion for future projects within the same company.
Software, versions and formats our technical drafters use
Our core software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. In addition, we work with Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent with Dynamo and Vault. Our technical drafters always work with the latest versions, so a file that comes back does not get stuck on an outdated release. We deliver files in DXF, DWG, the Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format. What you supply determines how we start.
If an existing DWG set comes in with its own layer structure, we adopt that structure rather than laying our own on top of it. With a Revit model, we first look at the template, the families used and the way parameters have been named. We work in our own environment with our own licences, not in yours. That saves licence management and access rights on your side, and it means we can get straight on with the work. We use email for file exchange.
On large projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we choose software in which you can log in and follow the project. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, delivery goes by email, because an extra environment adds little there. We get the drawing conventions we follow from you, from the title block and hatches to the dimension style and sheet naming. If something in the supplied set deviates from those conventions, we flag it before carrying it through a hundred sheets. That way, the set stays consistent with what is already in your archive, even if the work runs for months.
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 we deliver when you are looking for a technical drafter
For us, looking for a technical drafter mainly means production drafting. We provide 2D drafting and, where needed, 3D modelling, as-built drawings and revisions. In practice, that means floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets, standard details, piping schematics, assembly drawings and workshop drawings, with the corresponding sheet layout. Where a model is requested, we build it in Revit or Rhino and derive the drawings from it, so a change in the model carries through to the sheets. Revision work makes up a large part of what comes in. A client supplies an existing set that no longer matches what was built, and we bring it back into line. As-built work is part of that. At Firefly, we received as-built material in which the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand.
It was hard to read and messy. We sorted it out ourselves instead of calling the client constantly, and still delivered it neatly. What we do not do is engineering. We do not make calculations, give structural advice or handle permits. We draft and model based on what you supply or decide. We keep that boundary sharp, because otherwise it becomes unclear who is responsible for what. Delivery happens in stages. We deliver a first batch, collect feedback, make adjustments and move on to the next series. For a set of hundreds of sheets, that works better than one big delivery at the end, because a deviation is spotted early rather than fifty sheets later. For Firefly, we have delivered more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings this way.
Three review layers before the drafting leaves our office
All our drafting goes through at least three review layers. A drafter draws, a second team member checks that work, Sam, our team leader, then checks it and Barry, our project manager, goes over it last. That keeps errors to a minimum in practice. This set-up is not there to add process, but because repetitive work has its own kind of errors. Anyone producing a hundred similar sheets will overlook a wrong layer or an out-of-date title block on sheet sixty.
A second pair of eyes does spot it. Sam has more than fifteen years of background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, had his own design practice in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer.
He leads the CAD team and is responsible for the technical side and project supervision. Combined, the core of the team has around twenty-five years of experience, and everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience. What the review prevents in practice is mainly rework on your side. A wrong hatch that is only noticed on the thirtieth drawing costs your own drafting team an afternoon of corrections and also leads to discussion about which version now applies.
We catch that internally. We do not hold certifications, so we rely on review and on people who have been doing this work for a long time. If we are in doubt about a detail, we check rather than silently carrying an assumption through. When a deadline could not slip, the team has in the past worked evenings and weekends to keep that review in place.
Frequently asked questions for anyone looking for a technical drafter
Hand your technical 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.