When you outsource drafting for prefab construction to us, our approach starts with the review process, not with the drawing itself. Every sheet that leaves our office passes through at least three review layers. A drafter produces the work, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, then reviews the technical side and Barry, our project manager, goes over it last.
That sequence may sound laborious, but in prefab work with hundreds of near-identical elements it is precisely why the number of errors stays low.
A dimensional deviation in a standard element comes back in every production run that follows. We draft and model; we do not do engineering or calculations. What we do is add capacity to a drawing office that can no longer keep up with the flow of work. Every one of our people has more than ten years of CAD experience, and with our large, variable team we scale up or down per project. The work runs entirely from our own office, with our own licences.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What our drafting delivers for prefab construction
Most of our drafting for prefab construction consists of 2D production drawings and revisions to existing DWG sets. We draw floor plans, sections, details and element drawings, and convert them to the sheet layout you already use. Where a project calls for a model, we model in 3D, usually in Revit, and derive the drawings from it. As-built drawings are part of it too: a file that has been half updated by hand, we bring back to a clean digital set. Our output goes out as DWG, DXF, Revit file or STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format the production process requires.
We do not provide structural calculations or permit documents; those stay with you or your consultant. In prefab work the gain lies mainly in repetition. An element type that recurs in dozens of variants, we build properly once as a parametric Revit family, after which a different size is just a matter of a parameter. The material schedule updates with it, so a change to the component automatically changes the schedule. We also clean up existing families and templates that have become clogged after years of use.
If a set like that is very messy, we sometimes prefer to rebuild it rather than repair it, simply because that is quicker. We also handle revision rounds: changed dimensions, amended openings, new item numbering and the sheets that follow from them. We work with the latest versions of Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, and with Inventor and Grasshopper where appropriate. Your drawing conventions and standard lead the way, not our own preference.
Clients who outsource drafting in prefab construction
The people at the table with us are managers, team leaders and owners of engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers. In prefab construction we recognise a fixed pattern: the order book fills up, production is asking for drawings and the in-house drawing office is short of hands. The trigger is almost never about content, because the in-house team is perfectly capable of the work. It is capacity. A project lead who wants to put three series into production at the same time does not have six months to recruit and onboard someone.
On top of that, a peak is rarely spread neatly across the year. Two busy months do not justify a permanent appointment, and a drafter who sits idle after that peak still costs salary. We absorb exactly that part, without you building up ongoing salary costs. A second group is manufacturers whose drawing archive is no longer in order. Old sheets no longer match what is actually standing in the factory hall, and every new order starts with detective work.
We pick up a set like that and turn it back into something the work preparation team can move forward with. We also see firms that do the design themselves and prefer to hand off the detailing, so their own people can stay on the design. What these groups share is that outsourcing drafting in prefab construction is a means to meet a deadline for them, not a matter of principle. Our clients are in the Netherlands and that is where our focus lies too. We work remotely from our own office, and anyone who wants to visit is welcome.
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.
From first conversation to staged delivery
A project with us starts with a conversation in which we go through the project. We want to know what exists, what you will supply and which drawing conventions apply. We usually receive existing drawings that need revising, supplemented with details, dimensions and a CAD standard. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days, and as soon as we have enough information, we can start. Barry is the first point of contact for a new request, after which Sam takes over the technical side, so there is one consistent line. Seven years in Iran, more than fifteen years of background in architecture and his own design practice in the Netherlands make up his path, and Sam is still an engineer today. We do not deliver everything at once at the end.
A first part goes back to you early, precisely to test whether our interpretation of the standard is right. We process that feedback, and then the next part follows. With prefab elements that often means finishing one element type completely before starting the series. We decide the meeting rhythm together. Some clients want to catch up every two days, others are happy with a weekly moment. Files go back and forth by email. On larger projects we work with software you can log into to follow progress. Phone calls and meetings continue alongside that, and we visit you or welcome people at our office. A short first assignment is fine, so you can judge our speed and accuracy before more work follows.
Three review layers on all prefab drafting
Every drawing we deliver passes through at least three review layers. The drafter submits his work, a second team member checks it line by line, Sam looks at the technical side and Barry closes the line. That takes time, and that time pays for itself the moment an error does not end up in production. In prefab work that difference is large.
A drawing there leads directly to sawn and welded parts, and a wrong opening in a standard element repeats itself in every subsequent series. We therefore check not only dimensions but also whether the sheet matches your drawing conventions: layer structure, hatching, symbols, item numbering and sheet layout.
Practice shows what this is for. At Firefly we received as-built material that had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand, hard to read and messy. Instead of calling the client every day, we sorted it out ourselves and still delivered it neatly. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for that client. When there was a deadline that could not move, the team worked through evenings and weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours.
The work also carried on during a planned holiday of Sam's. If someone drops out through illness or holiday, we bring in a replacement and the drafting simply continues. We do not promise zero errors, because nobody can. What we do is systematically keep the chance of them small.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing drafting for prefab construction
Hand your prefab 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.