For most clients, outsourcing machine building drafting means the drafting comes to us, while the engineering and the technical decisions stay in-house. We draw and model parts, assemblies and machines, but we do not do calculations and we do not give structural advice on the design itself. Our large, variable team works in Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino and, where needed, Inventor, and scales with whatever each project requires.
All our work is done remotely, in our own environment with our own licences, and everyone who works on it has more than ten years of CAD experience.
Barry, our project manager, is your first point of contact, after which Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side and the project supervision. That way you remain responsible for the design and the calculations, while we take the drafting itself off your hands. We keep that distinction clear in every conversation, so there is never any doubt about who is responsible for what. On top of that, every piece of drafting goes through at least three review layers before it goes back to you.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
How outsourcing machine building drafting works
A project to outsource machine building drafting always starts with a conversation in which you explain which machine, assembly or part is on the drawing board. Usually you supply existing drawings or a model that needs revising, although sometimes it is an entirely new part with no previous basis. Barry usually handles the request first, after which Sam decides which drafters we deploy and takes over the technical side. As soon as the assignment is clear and we know your drawing conventions, we get to work and deliver in stages.
After each partial delivery we gather your feedback and process it straight away, before we move on to the next part or assembly. The rhythm of our check-ins varies by project, every two days or weekly, depending on how fast the work needs to move. We usually send files back and forth by email, while on a larger, long-running project we sometimes use software you can log in to and follow along. Before we start we need enough information, and we respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days.
That way you stay involved throughout the project without having to keep track of all the drafting yourself. When it is urgent or a deadline cannot slip, we add extra capacity straight away so the project's lead time is not put at risk. Every part we deliver has already been checked, so your feedback can focus on the content rather than on errors that still need fixing.
A real-world example from our revision work
A good example of what goes wrong in practice when revision work is left lying comes from a project for Firefly, for whom we have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings. Firefly supplied as-built material whose existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand. It was hard to read and messy, exactly the kind of file a drawing office often gets stuck on alongside its regular work. Instead of constantly calling the client with questions about what exactly was meant, we worked it out ourselves.
We still delivered a clean result, even though the supplied basis was far from complete. What we take from this is that a messy file is no reason for us to put a project on hold or send it back to the client. Instead, we first work out independently what is correct, before converting the file step by step into a usable, up-to-date set of drawings. We take the same approach in machine building, where an as-built file of an existing machine can be just as messy or incomplete.
There too, we first map out the current situation before basing a revision or a new drawing on it. That way we prevent errors from an old file from carrying over into a new version of the drawing or model. On a similar project with a deadline that could not slip, we worked evenings and weekends to deliver on time.
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.
Working to your standard when you outsource drafting
When you outsource machine building drafting to us, we always work to the CAD standards and drawing conventions you provide. That means the layer structure, part naming and dimensioning style match what you are already used to. For a drawing office that works with several suppliers this matters, because a drawing has to look the same no matter who made it. We discuss and record these conventions in the first conversation, before we draw the first part or assembly. If there is no written standard, we define one together with you based on existing drafting work. Even when drafters change within the same project, the style stays consistent because everyone at our firm follows the same conventions. Sam safeguards that consistency as team leader, drawing partly on more than fifteen years of background in architecture and in leading technical projects.
When a set of Revit families needs to match your standard, we apply that same standard when building new components. That way our drafting slots seamlessly into your existing set, without you having to make corrections first. That applies just as much to a single revision of an existing drawing as to a complete new file for a new machine. Our file formats also follow your wishes, from DWG and DXF to Revit formats and STEP files. That way you never have to translate a drawing that comes back from us into your own way of working before you can carry on.
Quality control in machine building drafting
In machine building drafting, we put every piece of work through at least three review layers before it goes back to you. A drafter draws or models the part, a second team member checks that work, and Sam then reviews it again as team leader. Finally, Barry checks it as project manager before we deliver the drawing or model as final. As a result, the number of errors stays minimal in practice, even with a high volume of repetitive parts.
In machine building, a dimensioning error or a part that does not quite fit only comes to light late and at great cost, often not until it reaches the shop floor.
That is exactly why we value a second and third look at every drawing, especially for an assembly with many parts that have to fit together. Everyone on our team has more than ten years of CAD experience, which helps to spot deviations quickly before they move further down the process. In a revision round on an existing design we do not just carry on blindly, but first work out what is already correct in the current drawing.
We also check any set of Revit families we have built parametrically, so an error in the smart component does not automatically spread to every place someone uses it. This way of working does take time within the project, but it prevents an error from only surfacing once a part has already been ordered or made. That way we keep quality up, even when volume rises during a peak and we add extra drafters.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing machine building drafting
Hand your machine building 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.