When you outsource CAD drafting to a drafting firm like ours, the work goes to a permanent team of drafters who each have more than ten years of CAD experience. We do not work with a loose network of freelancers pulled together for each job: our large, variable team is already in place, and we assign as many drafters per project as are needed and scale up further as the volume grows.
Sam, our team leader, with more than fifteen years of background in architecture and seven years of work experience in Iran, directs the technical side and monitors progress, while Barry, our project manager, is the first point of contact for new requests.
The core of our team has around twenty-five years of combined experience, which helps us quickly assess even unusual assignments. We draft and model, we do not do engineering, and we carry out the work entirely remotely, from our own environment with our own licences. You are always welcome to visit us.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Outsource CAD drafting to a drafting firm that scales up
One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm like OutsourceCAD is the ability to scale up quickly without having to recruit anyone yourself. Our large, variable team is made up of permanent drafters who already work for us, and for each project we decide how many of them are involved: one drafter for a small assignment, and as many drafters as are needed on a large project. If a deadline comes under pressure because there is more work than expected, we add extra people straight away rather than pushing back the schedule.
That has genuinely happened: for a deadline that could not slip, we worked through evenings and weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours, even during a planned holiday of Sam, the team leader. If a drafter is temporarily out due to illness or holiday, we replace them with another permanent team member so the project does not stall. For you, that means no ongoing salary costs for people who are unavailable at that moment, and progress that does not depend on the health or schedule of a single drafter.
That is a fundamentally different situation from an in-house drawing office, where the work simply sits there when a colleague is out until they return. When things are urgent, we switch within our existing team, not outside it. Outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm with a permanent, versatile team largely removes that risk, because we keep capacity close at hand for the moment it is needed.
How it differs from a freelancer or a new employee
Outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm is fundamentally different from hiring an individual freelancer or taking on a new permanent employee. With a freelancer, you often depend on the availability of one person: if they are ill, on holiday or already busy with another client, the work grinds to a halt with no replacement ready. With us, that is different, because we have a permanent team that can step in whenever needed, without you having to look for a replacement yourself.
A new permanent employee brings other drawbacks: a recruitment process takes time you often do not have during a peak, and once hired, salary costs keep running even when the volume drops again. With us, you only pay for the work we actually do, by the hour or at a fixed price per project, with no ongoing commitment. We do not work with prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription, which further underlines the difference from some other external arrangements.
On top of that, everyone on our team already has more than ten years of CAD experience, whereas with a new hire the level of experience can vary and an onboarding period is needed first. The intellectual property of what we create belongs to you, just as it would with your own employee, and outsourcing does not change that. For a project lead who mainly needs flexible, temporary capacity, that is a different starting point from permanently expanding their own drawing office.
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.
Working together when you outsource CAD drafting to a drafting firm
When you outsource CAD drafting to a drafting firm, the way you work together is often at least as important as the drafting quality itself. With us, Barry is usually the first point of contact for a new request, after which Sam takes over the technical side and monitors progress. For you, that means one fixed line of contact, even when several drafters are working on a project at the same time. We agree the rhythm of catch-ups with each client: for some that means contact every two days, for others a weekly meeting is enough, depending on how fast the work needs to move and how big the project is. Files usually go back and forth by email, and on larger projects, such as in greenhouse construction, we use software you can log into to follow progress yourself without having to call.
Day-to-day contact also runs through email, phone and meetings, and where it is more practical we visit you or you come to us. We work in our own environment and with our own licences, by the way, not in yours. That distinction keeps responsibility for software and versions with us, while you keep full visibility of progress. It keeps outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm a partnership with short lines of communication, rather than a process that only becomes visible again at delivery. That overview also helps a project lead report internally on where a project stands, without having to check with our team each time.
Getting started with a drafting firm for CAD drafting
Outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm starts with a phone call or a request through the contact form on our website, to which we reply within 1 to 2 working days. In the conversation that follows, we go through the project: what drafting or modelling work there is, in which format, and which CAD standard you work to. You supply the necessary details and usually existing drawings that need revising too, so we have a complete picture before the work begins.
Once that information is in, we decide how many drafters are needed and split the work into manageable pieces that we deliver step by step.
A short assignment is a good way to start: a project lead who first wants to see how fast and accurately our team works begins with a small first assignment before handing over more. The intellectual property of what we draw belongs to you, and we are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement, even though no client has asked for one so far. As soon as the initial information is complete, our drafters get started almost immediately, and we deliver at the rhythm that suits the project, whether that is every two days or weekly.
That way, outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm does not have to be a long process before the first tangible result is ready. A project lead who has doubts is best off testing it on a concrete assignment rather than a general impression, and that is exactly what the small first assignment is for.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing CAD drafting to a drafting firm
Hand your CAD drafting over to our firm
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.