If you want to outsource BIM modelling, the scope needs to be sharply defined, or you end up buying something other than what you think you are buying. We model and we draft. We build models, develop families and templates, produce 2D drawings from those models and process revisions and as-built situations.
What we do not do is engineering. We make no calculations, we give no structural advice and we do not handle permits. We keep that line deliberately firm, because it determines who is responsible for what in a project.
The modelling itself is often extensive and repetitive, and that is exactly the part where many firms run out of capacity. That is where we deploy our team, fully remotely from our own office and with our own licences. Our main software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, supplemented by Inventor, Grasshopper and, to a limited extent, Dynamo and Vault. The work follows your standards and drawing conventions, not ours.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Who outsources BIM modelling
Requests to outsource BIM modelling almost always come to us from the same direction. Engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers get in touch, and the people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners. The problem they bring is rarely about content. It is capacity. There is too little time, there are too few drafters, or there is a peak that their own team simply cannot absorb. A firm with three projects in the detailed design phase at once gets stuck on the modelling while the design side carries on as normal. A contractor who needs a set of as-built information processed halfway through construction has nobody free internally to do it.
A manufacturer that wants its product line as smart components sees its own team losing months to it alongside the ongoing work. In all these cases, what is needed is not another adviser but hands that actually build the model. Our clients are in the Netherlands, and that is where our focus lies too. We started this service last year because a client asked for it, and since then we have offered it as a standard service.
So far we work with one client, Firefly, for whom we have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings. That is an honest picture of where we stand, and we are not going to dress it up. What does stand behind it is a team whose core has around twenty-five years of combined experience and in which everyone has worked with CAD for more than ten years. That is hard to weigh from the outside, so the only real yardstick is the work itself. That is why a project can start with a small assignment.
Three review layers when you outsource BIM modelling
When you outsource BIM modelling, the result stands or falls with the checks on it. We have set up at least three layers for that. A drafter builds the work, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, then reviews it, and Barry, our project manager, assesses it last before it leaves the office. That way, errors stay minimal in practice. What these layers prevent is the kind of error that only surfaces much later, when it is expensive.
A component placed on the wrong layer, so it drops out of the correct selection. A dimension that did not update after a change. A naming convention that differs from the rest of the set, so that a filter in the model no longer returns anything. A material schedule that is wrong because a part was copied manually instead of placed as a family. A drafter often no longer spots such things in their own work, which is exactly why others look at it.
Sam also assesses the technical logic of the model, so the review does not stop at presentation. He worked in Iran for seven years, has more than fifteen years of background in architecture, ran his own design practice in the Netherlands and is still active as an engineer. That perspective prevents us from delivering a model that looks tidy but cannot be used in the next phase. Because we deliver in parts, these review layers also run several times per project rather than once at the end. That keeps deviations small and lets us correct early.
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.
The cost side of outsourcing BIM modelling
We take a down-to-earth view of the cost of outsourcing BIM modelling. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and we agree with you which it will be. For clearly defined work, such as a fixed number of drawings from an existing model, a fixed project price makes sense. For a project where the scope is still moving, an hourly rate is fairer to both sides, because nobody then has to build in a risk premium for something that may never happen. We only bill pure working hours. If someone steps away for five minutes for a coffee, the clock stops. That sounds minor, but over hundreds of drawings it makes a noticeable difference, and it keeps every line on the timesheet verifiable. We do not work with prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription, so nothing keeps running without work to show for it.
You also pay no ongoing salary costs, and in case of illness or holidays we replace someone so the work simply carries on. What mainly keeps costs down is the state of the material you supply and the amount of repetition in the work. A clean set with clear drawing conventions takes less time than a file that first has to be sorted out. Smart families cut costs sharply in repetitive work, because a component is built once and then placed everywhere. We base an estimate on the documents supplied and the conversation about them, not on a number plucked from the air. If you want a realistic estimate, the best approach is to show us a representative part of the set.
Outsourcing compared with a freelancer or an in-house drafter
A project leader weighing up whether to outsource BIM modelling usually compares it with two other routes. The first is hiring a freelancer. That works as long as the volume stays small and the person is available, but it grinds to a halt as soon as that person falls ill, goes on holiday or starts another project. There is also nobody to check the work, because the freelancer reviews their own drawings.
With us, every piece goes through at least three review layers, and if someone drops out we replace them so the work continues. The second route is taking someone on permanently. That does not solve the peak in time, because recruitment and onboarding take months, and after that the salary costs keep running even when the workload falls.
Our staffing moves with the project, because our large, variable team scales up or down per project, and when something is urgent we add people immediately. The team is already in place, and we deploy whatever the assignment requires. What you give up compared with your own employee is physical presence in the drawing office. In return, communication runs through a single point of contact, the meeting rhythm is matched to the pace of the project, and on larger projects you can follow along in the software the project runs in.
A second difference lies in how the costs are built up, because we only bill pure working hours and nothing runs on during a quiet period. If you are torn between these routes, you can start with a small first assignment and judge the speed and accuracy for yourself before more work moves over.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing BIM modelling
Let us handle your BIM modelling
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.