When you outsource drafting for interior fit-out to us, it starts with two practical questions: which file format do you work in and which drawing conventions apply. Those two determine more than most people think. A set that comes back in the wrong structure still costs a drawing office days of clean-up, however neat the lines are.
That is why we first adopt the template, with the title block, layer names, linetypes, hatches and the way dimensions sit on the sheet.
Only then do our drafters produce the first sheet. We deliver in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format, always in the latest versions. Our team works remotely from our own office, with our own licences, so you do not need to arrange workstations or accounts. We draft and model and do not do engineering. We respond to a request within 1 to 2 working days, after which we calmly go through the project with you.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Parametric families for recurring drafting
In interior fit-out the same component comes back endlessly in a slightly different size. A cabinet door, a panel, a handle profile, a leg, a fixing detail: always the same principle on paper, yet new drafting work every time in practice. We build components like these as parametric Revit families, in other words smart components. Such a component adapts to a new size or a different situation. The part is created once, and from then on a drafter places it in a single action instead of building it again. The material schedule updates with it: if the component changes, the schedule changes automatically.
That saves manual recounting and prevents a schedule and a drawing drifting apart after a round of changes. In work with a lot of repetition, this approach delivers at least seventy per cent time savings. The clearest example from our practice comes from greenhouse construction, where a valve in 90 and the same valve in 110 were drawn by hand in AutoCAD every time. We see exactly that pattern in interior work with panel sizes and cabinet layouts.
We can clean up an existing family set or build a new one. Which route is wiser depends on the condition of the current set. If there is a library that has become clogged over the years with variants and loose copies, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing. We assess that in advance and tell you what we see, even if the conclusion is not what you hoped for. The families we build remain your property, so your own drafters reap the benefits afterwards just as much as we do during the project.
Software and file formats in interior fit-out
Our main software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. Our toolkit also includes Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. Which of these packages we use depends on what happens to the set further down the line. A firm that produces its production drawings in AutoCAD gets DWG work from us that fits straight into its own sheet structure. A client who models in Revit gets a model from which the sheets are generated directly.
We handle free-form shapes and curved elements in Rhino, because a rigid parametric model is less suited there. We always work with the latest versions. That saves you having to do a conversion round before you can open our work. Input and delivery can be in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format. With each delivery we send xrefs, blocks and fonts along, because a file that only half opens on the other side costs everyone time.
For us, aligning with the existing set means more than the right format. We adopt the layer structure, naming and sheet numbering exactly as your firm uses them. If there is no documented standard, we derive it from the existing drawings and confirm our interpretation in a single round. After that we hold that line across the entire project, even when more drafters join later. That way your archive keeps growing in one style, rather than containing a recognisable block of external work.
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 drafting we deliver for interior fit-out
The emphasis is on 2D drafting for execution. We produce floor plans with furniture layouts, elevations of cabinet walls and counters, sections, detail sheets for junctions and joints, and production drawings per element with dimensions and references. Where a model is needed, we model in 3D and pull the sheets directly from it, so a change does not have to be made separately in five places. Revisions are a regular part of our work. A design that still shifts during execution, we feed back into the set, including updated schedules. As-built work is part of it too: an existing situation that has not matched the drawings for years, we bring back in line with reality. For Firefly we previously took on a file whose drawings had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand.
We sorted it out ourselves rather than calling their project lead every day, and still delivered it neatly. We bring that same attitude to interior work, where old sheets often come in just as messy. Alongside the native file we deliver a legible PDF set with a revision stamp, so it is clear on the shop floor which version applies. We deliver in stages, gather feedback and move on to the next batch. We also say straight away what we do not do: no calculations, no structural advice, no permit documents. We draw what the designer or the manufacturer has decided, developed down to detail level. The intellectual property of those drawings belongs to the client, so your team can carry on with them without restriction.
Three review layers on every piece of drafting
Every sheet passes through at least three review layers with us. A drafter produces the work, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, then looks at the technical side and Barry, our project manager, goes over it last. Those extra pairs of eyes sound like overhead, but in interior fit-out they prevent exactly the errors that turn out to be expensive.
A panel dimension that is two millimetres off on a detail sheet goes unnoticed in the model and is all the more noticeable on the shop floor. A reference to a detail that was renumbered after a revision sends a fitter to the wrong sheet. A schedule that was not updated with the latest change results in the wrong quantity of material.
Our review focuses on things like that: dimensions, references, layer structure, naming and the connection between sheets. In practice this keeps the number of errors to a minimum. Sam brings more than fifteen years of background in architecture to this, plus seven years of work in Iran and his own design practice in the Netherlands. He still works as an engineer and leads our CAD team. Alongside that internal review, staged delivery helps enormously.
Because you see sheets early, your feedback comes in while the rest is still running. We then correct a deviation from your drawing conventions in one go across the whole set, rather than across hundreds of sheets at final delivery. If you want to know how that works out in practice, start with a short first assignment and judge our accuracy on real work rather than on a story.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing drafting for interior fit-out
Hand your interior fit-out drafting over to us
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.