When you look to outsource drafting for steel construction, there is almost always a concrete piece of work behind it. Often it is a set of general arrangement drawings that needs detailing, detail sheets that keep coming back in the same variants, or a 3D model from which the drawings will later be produced.
We also regularly receive revision work on existing DWGs and as-built material that still needs processing after erection. We take that drafting off your hands and deliver it in the structure you use yourself.
Our role stays clear: we draft and model, and we leave engineering, calculations and structural advice with your own team and consultants. Below you can read how a project runs with us, which software and formats we work in, how we scale up when volume increases and what information we need to get started. We work from our own office with our own licences, and our focus is on the Netherlands. Clients are welcome to visit us, although the work itself is done remotely.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
How outsourcing drafting works in steel construction
It starts with a conversation in which we unpick the work. What is ready, which drawing conventions apply, which part needs to go out first and where the critical date lies. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days, so that conversation is usually arranged quickly. You then supply the details, usually together with the existing drawings that need revising. We go through that material before we start and tell you what we are still missing. We prefer not to make assumptions, because a wrong assumption costs the most time further down the set.
We agree in advance exactly what goes into the first batch. We deliver in stages. A first batch goes back, your team reviews it, we process the feedback and move on to the next part. That way a misunderstanding about the structure stays limited to a handful of sheets instead of the whole set. We agree the meeting rhythm per project: every two days when it is urgent, weekly on a calmer project.
Meanwhile our review process runs alongside. A drafter does the detailing, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, reviews the technical side and Barry, our project manager, goes over it last. If there is a date that cannot move, we say so in advance and bring in extra people. Our team has worked evenings and weekends when a deadline genuinely could not slip. With a tight schedule we make clear up front which part will be ready when.
Software and formats for outsourced steel construction drafting
We draft in AutoCAD, model in Revit and use Rhino where the geometry calls for it. Our people also work with Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent with Dynamo and Vault. We run the latest versions of all these packages. If you are still on an older version, we agree before the start which version the delivery should be in, so nobody ends up with a set their own environment cannot open. We deliver in DWG, DXF, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format.
More important than the format is how the file is built internally. We adopt the layer structure, numbering, title blocks and dimensioning style from the existing set, exactly as your own team does. For that we ask at the start for a drawing you consider good. If our work matches it, the outsourced set stays interchangeable with the in-house work. For components that recur in several sizes, we look at whether a parametric setup pays off.
We build smart Revit families that adapt to a different size, with the material schedule updating automatically. If a family set already exists, we assess whether cleaning it up is enough or whether rebuilding it is quicker. We work in our own environment with our own licences, so no accounts or workstations are needed on your side. On delivery we briefly explain how the set is structured, so your team can carry on with it without further explanation.
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.
Scaling up capacity when drafting peaks
Volume in steel construction rarely arrives evenly. For weeks nothing out of the ordinary comes in, and then three orders land at once, with sheets that all have to be finished this month. For a wave like that, our large, variable team scales with each project. The team is already there, so no recruitment round is needed. When something is urgent, we add people straight away as soon as the input is complete. When volume drops again, we scale back and the cost simply stops. With us you carry no ongoing salary costs, do not need to set up a workstation and are not left with a half-occupied position after the peak. There is no prepaid hours card or monthly hours subscription either. We cover absence ourselves. If someone drops out through illness or holiday, we put someone else on it and the work continues.
That is the practical difference from a single freelancer, who drops out as a person and takes his work with him. Onboarding takes little time with us, because everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience. Sam, the team leader, safeguards the technical line and project supervision, regardless of who is working on it that week. He has more than fifteen years of background in architecture and still works as an engineer himself. Your point of contact also stays the same, so you do not have to work out who to talk to this week. For you, that means drafting capacity that moves with your order book rather than your payroll.
Getting started with outsourcing and what we need
To get started we need three things: the details of the work, the existing material and your drawing conventions. By existing material we mean the current DWGs or models and, where available, the as-built material. An example drawing that is considered good internally helps us most, because it shows us the structure we need to follow. If anything is missing, we flag it immediately rather than filling it in ourselves.
As soon as the file is complete, we can start. The more complete the input, the fewer hours go into figuring things out. We know from experience how it goes otherwise: at Firefly we received as-built material whose drawings had been printed incorrectly and partly completed by hand.
Hard to read and messy. We sorted it out ourselves rather than calling the client every day and still delivered it neatly, but those hours did count. If you want to start small, you can. We then begin with a defined package, for example a series of detail sheets, so your project lead can judge our speed and accuracy. We decide on the billing method in the same conversation: per hour or per project at a fixed price.
When billing by the hour, we only charge pure working hours. In that same conversation we tell you what we consider realistic in terms of sequence and lead time. We respond to new requests within 1 to 2 working days. You can reach us by phone or via the contact form, followed by a conversation in which we go through the project.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing drafting for steel construction
Hand your steel construction 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.