By the time a project lead concludes that they need a structural drafter, the schedule is usually already under pressure. A date has been agreed, the volume of drafting has turned out larger than expected, and your own drawing office is full. At that point we are the shortest route to extra capacity, because nothing needs to be set up on our side.
The team is already in place. Our large, variable team scales with each project, and when there is a rush we add people straight away.
From then on, lead time depends mainly on two things: how complete the material supplied is and whether the work can be divided. Repetitive drafting divides well, so extra staffing translates almost one-to-one into speed. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days and start as soon as we have enough information to draft without guesswork. We draft and model, and leave engineering to others.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
When an external structural drafter makes sense and when it does not
Outsourcing is not always the answer. Work that is closely tied to decisions that have not yet been made is better kept in-house. As long as a design shifts every week, handing it over costs more consultation than it delivers. The same goes for drafting that only takes a few hours, because the time needed to brief us does not outweigh the gain. Where outsourcing does pay off is with volume and repetition. A series of details in twenty variants, a revision round across a complete DWG set, hundreds of sheets that need updating after a change, an as-built file nobody in-house wants to pick up any more.
That work can be defined, handed over and divided. You supply the block, agree the standard and get it back in parts. A second signal is the nature of the peak. If the volume is temporary, a vacancy is an expensive solution to a three-month problem. If it is structural, an employee of your own may be the smarter choice, and we will simply say so when we see it. A combination also happens, where a permanent drafter handles the base load and we absorb the spikes.
A third consideration concerns what your own team prefers to do. Experienced drafters who update repetitive sheets day in, day out lose their edge on the work they were hired for. If we take over that part, their time stays available for the complex connections and coordination with the structural engineer. We are honest when an enquiry is better kept in-house, because a poorly matched assignment costs both sides time and benefits nobody.
The cost side of a hired structural drafter
The cost of outsourced drafting consists of more than a rate. The comparison a manager really makes is between our input and the total cost of an in-house employee: recruitment, onboarding, licences, workstation, holiday days and idle time between two projects. That last item disappears completely with us, because you carry no ongoing payroll costs. If someone is ill or on holiday, we replace them, so that absence does not end up on the project's bill either. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, agreed in consultation.
An hourly rate suits work whose scope becomes clear along the way, such as a revision round on a set whose condition is hard to assess in advance. A fixed project price suits a defined set with a clear standard, because then we know what is coming. Our timesheets only show pure working hours. If someone steps away for a five-minute coffee, the clock stops, which makes the accounting traceable for whoever has to explain the budget. What keeps costs down is, above all, the input.
A complete source, a clear CAD manual and a contact person who answers questions quickly demonstrably save hours. Repetition also lowers the price, because the second sheet in a series goes faster than the first. We do not offer a prepaid hours card or a monthly hours subscription, because with those you also pay for quiet weeks. We do not name an amount before we have seen the documents, because an estimate without insight is a guess. After a first conversation and a few representative sheets, we put forward a well-founded estimate.
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.
Which clients need a structural drafter
Our clients include engineering firms, architecture practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly companies with technical drafting work. Around the table are managers, team leaders and owners, in other words people who are themselves responsible for planning and staffing. The trigger is almost always the same: too little time, too few drafters, or a peak their own team cannot handle on top of everything else. At an engineering firm it is often about detail sheets and revisions lagging behind the design. At an architecture practice the emphasis is on detailing and on modelling work nobody in-house can pick up any more. Contractors usually come with as-built material and changes coming in from site. Manufacturers ask for production drawings and smart components that adapt to a different size. What these groups have in common is that the drafting recurs in high volume and rarely requires new design thinking.
Our focus is on the Netherlands, and that is where our clients are. We work fully remotely from our own office, so a client on the other side of the country notices no difference. You are welcome to visit, and we also come to you, but the work itself stays remote. For the drafting itself, our advantage lies in short lines of communication, not physical proximity. We started this service last year because a client asked for it, and we have offered it as a standard service ever since. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for Firefly, which shows it does not stop at one-off jobs. If you have similar work waiting, you will probably recognise yourself in one of these pictures.
From first conversation to partial delivery
The first two weeks determine how the rest of a project goes. It starts with a conversation in which we go through the project: which set exists, what exactly needs to be done, which date is fixed and who answers the questions internally. We then receive the documents, usually existing drawings that need a revision round, along with the details and dimensions.
Barry, our project manager, picks up the enquiry, Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side, and that gives you one fixed point of contact instead of a chain of referrals. We then deliver in parts. The first part is deliberately small, because its main purpose is to show that our interpretation matches what your project lead has in mind.
We process the feedback, after which the next part follows with the corrections already included. That way the set grows step by step, and you can see what is there along the way. We choose the meeting rhythm to match the pace of the project: every two days on a tight schedule, weekly when things are calmer. Day-to-day contact runs by email, phone and meetings.
For standalone drafting, files simply go back and forth by email, because that is quickest. On larger projects, you can log into the software in which the project runs. If there is a date that really cannot slip, we say so in advance and plan the staffing around it. For an earlier deadline, our team worked evenings and weekends to hit the date, even during a planned holiday of Sam's.
Frequently asked questions when you need a structural drafter
Let us take on your structural drafting
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.