Firms that need a BIM modeller rarely get stuck on exceptional drawings, but on volume. In the assignments that come to us, the emphasis lies on repetition, with hundreds of sheets full of the same details, the same openings and the same components in a different size.
We count that up at the start, because the size of the repetitive part determines the entire schedule. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for Firefly, and that is exactly where the gains lay in building recurring components smartly.
Our team drafts and models, we do not do engineering and we do not give structural advice. We work in Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, supplemented by Inventor, Grasshopper and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. The work is carried out remotely from our own office, and our focus is on the Netherlands. Our large, variable team scales with each project. You hear from us within 1 to 2 working days of an enquiry.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What a BIM modeller costs and how we charge
Payment is by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and we choose the right form together. For a defined assignment, for example bringing a fixed set of sheets up to a current standard, a fixed project price is the obvious choice. If the scope is still moving and changes come in along the way, we work on an hourly basis, because a fixed price would then mostly contain a risk surcharge. We only charge pure working hours. If someone steps away for five minutes for a coffee, the clock stops, and that is not a slogan but simply how we record our hours.
We do not offer a prepaid hours card or a monthly hours subscription, because that leads to hours nobody can use any more. With us, you bear no ongoing payroll costs, and in case of illness or holiday we arrange cover internally so there is no idle time. What keeps costs down most is the quality of the handover. A complete set with clear standards saves us searching, and searching is the most expensive form of drafting time.
Smart families also reduce the hours, because a component that adapts to a different size does not have to be created again every time. In piping work in greenhouse construction, that saves at least seventy percent of the time on the component concerned. We prepare an estimate based on the documents supplied and a sample of a few sheets. That sample tells us more than a long list of starting points. We present the outcome before we start, so your project leader knows where they stand.
Scaling up when you need more modellers
Our team is already in place, so for us scaling up means deploying, not recruiting. An assignment often starts with one drafter who gets to grips with the standards and the existing set. If the volume increases, we expand on the same project with as many drafters from our large team as needed. When things are urgent, we add people straight away, without first going through rounds of interviews and onboarding. That is possible because everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience and the core of our team brings around twenty-five years of combined experience.
Scaling up does require discipline in conventions. Before more people start on a set, we fix the layers, naming, sheet layout and family structure. Without those conventions you would get ten variants of the same detail back, and that costs more afterwards than it delivers. Sam, our team leader, safeguards that consistency and divides the work into blocks that can run independently of each other. If someone drops out through illness or holiday, a colleague steps in and the work simply continues.
You notice nothing of this in the schedule and pay nothing for time not worked. Scaling down is just as easy, because as soon as the volume drops we take people off the project. We have no interest in staffing that is larger than the work. For a deadline that could not move, our team worked evenings and weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours, to make the delivery. We agree that kind of effort in advance, not afterwards.
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 partial delivery
The process starts with a conversation in which we go through the project, the planning and the drawing conventions. You then supply the details and usually an existing set that needs revising. We first go through those documents and report what is missing, so that no half-baked assumptions end up in the model. We then set up a trial sheet or a first component and present it to you. That takes little time and prevents us from drawing thirty sheets in the wrong direction. From that point we deliver in stages, collect feedback, make adjustments and carry on. The rhythm differs per client, because with one we meet every two days and with another weekly. That depends on how fast things need to move and how much changes per round. Day-to-day contact runs by email and phone.
For standalone AutoCAD drafting we simply send the files by email. On larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we work with software that you log into to follow progress per component. We also come to you or welcome you at our office, although the work itself is carried out fully remotely. Before a part leaves our office, it has passed our review layers, with a second team member checking the work and Sam then going over it as team leader. Barry, our project manager, gives it a final look before we deliver. At the end we deliver the source files in the format you use, and ownership of them lies with you. We put any open points on a short list, so nothing is left hanging.
Who needs a BIM modeller
Our clients are engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly companies with technical drafting work. At the table are managers, team leaders and owners, and they almost never come to us with a drafting problem but with a capacity problem. The usual reason is too little time, too few drafters or a peak their own team cannot handle.
At an engineering firm, for example, there is a set that needs a complete revision while their own people are busy on a running design. At an architectural practice it is more often about model work and the drawings that have to come out of that model. Contractors ask us for as-built material, revisions and sheets that can be used on site.
Manufacturers often have components that recur in dozens of variants and lend themselves perfectly to parametric modelling. We see that most clearly in greenhouse construction, where a 90 and a 110 valve are drawn by hand in AutoCAD every time. We build such a component once as a smart family, after which it is placed in a single action and the material schedule updates along with it.
The clients we serve are in the Netherlands, our focus market. We started this last year at a client's request and have since added it to our range as a regular service. We do not yet have public reviews, so we would rather let a small piece of work speak for us. That is why we give a project leader who has doubts a limited first assignment to judge our speed and accuracy. What follows is something we decide together based on the result.
Frequently asked questions when you need a BIM modeller
Let us handle your BIM modelling volume
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.