If you are considering whether to outsource scan to BIM, you are almost always facing a mountain of repetitive drafting work. An existing building or installation has to go into a model, and that means hundreds of walls, columns, openings, pipe sections and connection points that someone has to model and draw one by one.
It is work with a lot of volume and little variation, and that is exactly why an in-house drawing office gets stuck on it. We take that part off your hands. Our team drafts and models, entirely remotely from our own office and with our own licences.
We do not do engineering, we do not run calculations and we do not advise on structures. We leave the on-site surveying and scanning to you. We pick up the work as soon as the material reaches us. Everyone who drafts for us has more than ten years of CAD experience, and the core of our team has around twenty-five years of experience combined. During a peak we scale up with our large, variable team, without leaving you with ongoing payroll costs.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What we deliver when you outsource scan to BIM
When you outsource scan to BIM, it ultimately comes down to the output. We build the model in Revit from the material you supply, and from it we produce floor plans, sections, elevations, details and general arrangement drawings. As-built drawings are often the core of this type of assignment, because they concern existing situations that nobody ever properly recorded. Where a project calls for more form than a Revit model can handle, we model in Rhino, and for components that come off a production line we use Inventor. Alongside the model itself, we supply 2D drafting as a separate set, because many clients simply need a DWG further down their process.
Revisions are included as standard. An existing set that is only half right is the rule rather than the exception for us, and we straighten it out instead of setting it aside. We also build parametric Revit families along the way, smart components that adapt to a different size or situation. Our team draws such a component once, after which it recurs throughout the model without any new drafting.
The material schedule updates along with it, so a change to the component carries straight through to the schedule. What we do not do is just as important to mention. We do not make calculations, we do not advise on structures and we do not handle permits. Our work is drafting and modelling, in high volumes and with a lot of repetition. We agree at the start exactly which drawing types belong in the delivery, so you do not find afterwards that an elevation or a detail sheet is missing.
Software, versions and formats in scan to BIM
The software behind outsourced scan to BIM largely determines how smoothly the handover goes. Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino are our main tools, and we also use Inventor and Grasshopper where they speed up the work. We use Dynamo and Vault to a limited extent, exactly as far as an assignment requires. We always work with the latest versions, so a file our team delivers is not stuck in an older release. We deliver in DXF, DWG, the Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format you need further down the line.
More important than the list of packages is how well we connect with the set that already exists. We usually receive existing material that has passed through several hands. We then first look at how consistently it has been built, where the discrepancies are and whether it makes more sense to clean it up or to rebuild part of it. With a family set that is truly clogged up, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing, and we report that assessment back to you before we get started. We work in our own environment with our own licences, so nobody on your side needs to free up a workstation, a licence or access rights.
For standalone drafting work, files go back and forth by email. On larger projects we use software you can log into to follow progress yourself. That keeps it clear which version is the latest and where the work stands.
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.
Drafting to your CAD standards and layer structure
We do not draft to our own house rules, but to your standards and drawing conventions. We get those from you at the start, and the more concrete that package is, the less correction work comes back later. It covers layer structure and layer names, line types and hatching, the layout of the title block and the way a file is named. In a model, the logic of the build-up comes on top of that. How is a wall put together, which level does a component belong on, which parameters does our team fill in and which does it deliberately leave empty. If there is no written standard, we derive one from the existing set and submit our assumptions to you. That costs half an hour of discussion at the start and saves a complete correction round further on. Everything our team makes then goes through at least three review layers.
A drafter draws, a second team member checks that work, Sam, our team leader, looks at the technical side and Barry, our project manager, gives it a final check. As a result, the number of errors stays minimal in practice, even in sets containing hundreds of nearly identical components. In this type of work in particular, the risk is not one big mistake, but a small deviation that recurs five hundred times. That is why we also check whether the agreed standard has been applied consistently, whether the naming is right and whether the output is in the correct format. Anything that needs a decision from you, we flag. Anything we can work out ourselves, we work out ourselves.
The delivered scan to BIM set and what happens next
A set that comes out of a scan to BIM project has to be able to move on through your process. That is why we do not deliver a single file at the end, but in parts. A first part goes back, your project leader reviews it, we collect the feedback, make the changes and carry on with the next part. That way nobody discovers after six weeks that an assumption was wrong.
The delivery includes the model, the drawing set that comes from it, the families our team has built or cleaned up, and the files in the format needed further down the line. With an as-built file, the revision history is included too, so it remains clear what we changed compared with the material supplied.
The intellectual property of everything we make belongs to you, so there are no restrictions whatsoever on reusing, passing on or modifying the work. We match the meeting rhythm to the schedule. If it has to be quick, we talk every two days. If things are calmer, a weekly meeting is enough. Day-to-day contact runs via email, phone and meetings, and we are happy to visit you or welcome you at our office.
If information is missing along the way, we collect our questions and put them to you in one go. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days, and we can start as soon as we have enough information. If you first want to see how fast and how accurately our team works, start with a small first assignment and assess it before anything more follows.
Frequently asked questions about outsourcing scan to BIM
Let us handle your scan to BIM modelling
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.