When companies look to outsource CAD, the question behind almost every enquiry is the same: can an external party take over our drafting without us losing control? The answer is yes, provided the right part is handed over and the drawing conventions are on the table. We take on drafting and modelling work, not engineering.
Calculations, structural advice and permit procedures stay with the party responsible for them, and that remains the case when a project overruns or changes direction.
What we take on is the high-volume part with a lot of repetition, carried out to the standard you supply. The work is done entirely remotely from our own office, in our own environment and on our own licences. The team is already in place: a large, variable team that scales with whatever each project requires. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, after which we go through the project together. In that conversation we decide which part can be handed over and which documents we need for it.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Outsource CAD starts with the repetitive part of the set
Not all drafting work lends itself equally well to handover, and we prefer to make that distinction out loud. What is ideally suited to outsourcing is the part that is high in volume and repetitive. Think of a component that comes back in eight sizes and is drawn up from scratch every time, a change that has to be carried through to dozens of sheets, or an existing set that has to be checked from front to back after a revision. That work is rarely complicated, but it ties up your own drawing office for weeks while the schedule keeps moving.
That is also where the time saved when you outsource CAD comes from. The gain does not come from clicking faster, but from two things: capacity that runs in parallel and work that is built up once instead of over and over again. A drawing office stuck in a peak cannot close that gap with overtime. From our large, variable team we put as many drafters on it as the work requires, more straight away if it is urgent, and your own team keeps the design and client coordination. What we ask is that priorities are clear.
If there is an order of work, the extra capacity lands on the part that is genuinely under pressure, not on sheets that are only needed in a month. What does not work well is work in which drawing and deciding happen in the same action. That is better kept within your own firm, and we say so up front rather than halfway through. A clean cut between what stays and what goes ultimately determines whether the collaboration brings calm or actually demands extra coordination.
What we actually deliver when you outsource CAD
The focus is on 2D drafting: floor plans, elevations, sections and detail drawings, worked up to the level at which the next party can continue with them. Where a project calls for it, we model in 3D, so the sheets come out of a model and variants do not exist separately from one another. As-built drawings are part of it, as are revision rounds on sets that have been running for some time. Everything is done to your standard and drawing conventions, including layer structure, title blocks, naming and sheet numbering. You supply those conventions and they take precedence, even if we are used to something different internally.
We deliver in stages. A first set goes back, your project lead reviews it, we process the feedback and move on to the next part, so a correction concerns a few sheets rather than a complete set. The meeting rhythm depends on the pressure on the project: every two days on a tight schedule, weekly when things are calmer. Contact runs through email, phone and meetings, and we visit you or you come to us. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files go back and forth by email.
On larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we use software you can log into to follow progress. A new enquiry comes in to Barry, our project manager, who then hands the project over to Sam, our team leader, for the technical side. Everything we produce becomes your property, drawings and models included. That gives your firm one fixed point of contact and full control over the files, even when a later phase ends up with another party.
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.
Parametric work and Revit families when you outsource CAD
Much of the gain lies in smart components. We build parametric Revit families: components that adapt to a new situation or a different size. We make such a component once, after which it can be placed anywhere without having to be redrawn. The material schedule follows along: if the component changes, the schedule changes automatically, which saves the manual checking round otherwise needed after every change. An example from our own practice makes it concrete. Greenhouse construction companies 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 each time. With a smart family it is in place in a single action.
In that kind of work it saves at least seventy per cent of the time. With an existing set, the question is whether we clean up the families and templates or rebuild them. Which is wiser depends on the state of what is there. If a family set is very messy, rebuilding is sometimes faster than patching, and we calculate that for you in advance. This is exactly the type of work for which it pays to outsource CAD, because the investment in building components only pays off through repetition, and at high volume that repetition comes naturally. For a single drawing we actually advise against it, because building the component then costs more time than it saves.
Software, versions and fitting into your existing set
We mainly draft in Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. Our toolkit also includes Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. We always work with the latest versions, in our own environment and on our own licences, so you do not need to arrange a workstation, seat or external access. File formats are rarely an obstacle: DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP are part of our daily work, and in practice we handle any common CAD format already used in the chain.
More important than the software is the fit with what is already there. Before anyone starts, we review the existing set: how the layers are structured, which blocks are in circulation, which sheets are out of date and which version is the current one.
With old projects that is no formality. We have come across material in which drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand, poorly legible and messy. We sorted that out ourselves instead of calling the client about it constantly, and still delivered it neatly. If a delivery has to be in a specific version or an unusual format, we agree that in advance so nothing needs converting afterwards.
A conversion round at the end almost always costs more time than agreeing it at the start. If you are considering outsourcing CAD but have doubts about the fit, the best way in is a small first assignment. A short job shows how we handle your existing set and whether the delivered sheets slot into your own chain without rework.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing CAD
Let us take your CAD drafting off your hands
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.