The question behind outsourcing DWG drafting is almost never technical. It is whether someone can work through this pile of DWGs within the schedule without your own team constantly having to keep an eye on it. The answer is yes, provided three things are in place.
The existing files, the drawing conventions that apply within your company, and clarity about exactly what needs to be done. With those three, we can start. We work in AutoCAD and deliver in DWG and DXF, and in Revit formats or STEP where the project calls for it.
The work passes through at least three review layers before it comes back, so you never get back a half-finished set that still needs checking. We only draft and model; we do not do engineering. Our clients are in the Netherlands, and the work is done fully remotely from our own office. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days, followed by a conversation in which we go through the file.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Clients who outsource DWG drafting
Outsourcing DWG drafting comes up at engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly at companies with technical drafting work. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners. What they bring is rarely a difficult drawing. It is volume. There is a folder of DWGs that needs updating, a revision round that has been pushed back for two months already, or a set from an old project that needs bringing up to the current standard. Their own drafters are there, but they are busy with ongoing work. At manufacturers we often see repetitive work in which the same components are drawn by hand again and again.
This is clearly visible in piping diagrams for greenhouse construction. AutoCAD is not smart at building components such as valves, so if you need a valve in 90 and in 110, you draw it again every time. Where possible, we build such a component as a parametric component in Revit, after which it is placed in a single action and the material schedule updates along with it. On this kind of work it saves at least seventy per cent of the time.
At architectural practices and contractors it is more often about as-built material. For Firefly we processed a file in which the drawings had been printed incorrectly and partly amended by hand. It was hard to read and messy. We worked it out ourselves and still delivered it cleanly. The pattern is the same for all these clients. The need arises from a peak, not from a lack of knowledge in their own team. What the drawing office gets back is time for the work that does require project knowledge.
Capacity and scaling up when you outsource DWG drafting
Capacity is at the heart of outsourcing DWG drafting. Our large, variable team scales with each project, so the number of drafters adapts to the assignment. The team is already in place, so there is no need to recruit and no month is lost to onboarding. When something is urgent, we add people to an ongoing assignment immediately. Conversely, we take people off as soon as the volume drops, and the flow of hours stops too. You pay no ongoing salary costs, and there are no prepaid hour bundles and no monthly hours subscription with a minimum commitment.
We cover absences ourselves. If a drafter is unavailable due to illness or holidays, we put someone else on the file so the set keeps moving. That is possible because the work runs in our own environment with our own licences and because the drawing conventions are embedded in the way the file is set up. A replacement therefore does not start over, but picks up where the previous drafter left off. Experience is not a variable either. Everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience, and the core of the team has around twenty-five years of combined experience.
We do not deploy more people than the work requires. Most DWG assignments involve a few drafters, and for a large revision round we deploy as many drafters from our large team as it takes. We discuss in advance what staffing is realistic, based on the scope and the fixed date. What we need for that is a documented standard and access to all the source material. Without the latter, scaling up costs more coordination than it delivers.
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 cost side of outsourcing DWG drafting
The cost of outsourcing DWG drafting follows one of two models. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and we agree together which it will be. A defined set whose scope and standards are clear in advance lends itself well to a fixed price. A file whose condition only becomes clear once the files are open is fairer on an hourly basis. In both cases, we only bill pure working hours. A five-minute coffee break means the clock stops immediately. That is no detail on work that runs across hundreds of drawings, because structural rounding up adds up considerably there. What keeps costs down is the quality of what comes in. A clean DWG set with a consistent layer structure and documented naming takes noticeably less time than a set in which three generations of conventions are mixed up.
Repetition also keeps costs down. The first series costs the most, because we are getting to grips with your standards. After that, things go faster. Where a component keeps recurring, a parametric set-up pays for itself in the hours. What drives costs up is detective work on unclear material and a scope that keeps shifting during the work. That is why we only make an estimate after we have seen part of the material, and not on the basis of a number of sheets alone. A small first assignment is the quickest way to substantiate that estimate. A short assignment is fine, because we set no minimum size.
One fixed point of contact and an agreed meeting rhythm
The collaboration runs through one fixed point of contact. Barry, our project manager, picks up new requests and stays involved in the coordination. The technical side then goes to Sam, our team leader, who directs the CAD team and is responsible for project supervision. He has more than fifteen years of background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, ran his own design practice in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer.
So you do not have to coordinate with a changing cast of drafters. We set the meeting rhythm at the start, and it differs per client. With a file that needs to move fast, we catch up every two days.
On a calmer project, weekly is enough. Day-to-day contact runs by email, phone and a short meeting whenever something needs deciding. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, files go back and forth by email, because an extra environment saves no time there. On larger projects, including greenhouse construction projects, we use software you can log into to follow the project. We deliver in parts, gather feedback, make adjustments and carry on, so progress is always visible.
The drafting itself is done fully remotely from our own office, and we work in our own environment with our own licences. You are welcome to visit, and we also come to you when that makes consultation easier. We have not signed a non-disclosure agreement so far because clients have not asked for one, but we are open to an NDA. All the drafting work we deliver remains your intellectual property.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing DWG drafting
Hand your DWG 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.