For most clients, production drafting outsourcing means the repetitive, high-volume part of the drafting comes to us, while design and client contact stay in-house. Think of a series of part drawings that keeps coming back in small variations, a set of detail drawings for production or a run of similar assembly drawings that each have to be correct.
We take over that work: we draft and model; we do no engineering and no calculations, and that boundary keeps the collaboration clear.
For this kind of volume we often work with parametric Revit families, so nobody has to redraw a component by hand every time. We deliver in the format you already use, from DXF and DWG to Revit formats and STEP. Every drawing goes through at least three review layers before it goes to you, which matters all the more at high volume to keep errors to a minimum. What you keep in-house is something we agree in the first conversation.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Outsourcing the repetitive part of production drafting
Production drafting is often characterised by repetition: the same kind of component in a different size, the same construction with a small change, or a run of drawings that all look alike but have slightly different dimensions. That repetitive nature is exactly where the time saving lies, because with a dedicated team we build up routine in your type of drafting. Whereas a drafter in your own team constantly has to switch between different kinds of work, we focus entirely for a period on the run of drawings needed for production.
That is also why we set up much of this work parametrically in Revit, building a component once as a smart family and then placing it in any size required without redrawing. A piping layout in greenhouse construction is a familiar example, where someone would otherwise redraw a valve in sizes 90 and 110 by hand every time. With a smart family, we place it in a single action, which saves at least seventy per cent of the time in that kind of work.
If the production drafting cannot be set up parametrically, the time saving lies mainly in working through the run routinely without constantly switching to other work. That keeps your drawing office free for the work that is different every time, such as new design or client-specific adjustments. At the start, we map out together with you what recurs in that run.
What OutsourceCAD delivers in production drafting
With production drafting outsourcing, we deliver part drawings, detail drawings for production and assembly drawings, tailored to what is needed on your shop floor. If a range of components recurs in different sizes, we prefer to build it as a parametric Revit family, so you have us build a component once and can then place it in any size required. The material schedule updates automatically, so if a component changes, the schedule changes with it without any manual updating. If you supply the production drafting in AutoCAD, or ask for it, we deliver in AutoCAD just as readily, supplemented with 3D modelling where that helps production.
We exchange files in DXF, DWG, the standard Revit formats and STEP, and in practice we handle virtually any common CAD format. With a large run of drawings, we often first fully work out one representative part and agree it with you, after which we build the rest of the run in the same way. That prevents us from having to push a change through all previously completed drawings halfway through a run. Every drawing then still goes through our usual checks by multiple team members, even at high volume, so you do not have to verify each one yourself.
Where required, we also supply a list of all drawings per revision, so you can easily keep track internally of which part was changed when. We set out exactly what we will deliver at the start of the job.
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.
Parametric working for high-volume production drafting
In high-volume production drafting, parametric working often makes the difference between a run of drawings that keeps coming back by hand and a run we place in a single action. A parametric Revit family is a smart component that adapts to a new situation or a different size: we build the component once and then place it anywhere again, without redrawing it each time. Companies in greenhouse construction often work in AutoCAD, and AutoCAD is not smart at building components such as valves in piping systems. Anyone who needs a valve in different sizes there redraws it by hand in AutoCAD every time, whereas we place that component in a single action using a smart family in Revit. In that kind of work, it saves at least seventy per cent of the time, and we see that saving grow as the volume increases.
We can both build new families and clean up an existing, clogged-up set when it no longer fits together logically. Which is wiser depends on the state of that set: if it is clear, we build on it; if it is very messy, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing. For production drafting that recurs structurally at high volume, a well-built family set often pays for itself in time within a limited number of projects, after which every new component we create in that run takes only a fraction of the original drafting time. You notice that difference directly on the shop floor.
Software, versions and matching your existing set
For production drafting we mainly work in Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, complemented by Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent Dynamo and Vault. We keep all of that software on the latest version, so you never run into an outdated file format when receiving our drawings back. We exchange files in DXF, DWG, the standard Revit formats and STEP files, and in practice we handle virtually any common CAD format used in your production environment.
We work in our own environment with our own licences, not in yours, which means a project can start straight away without anyone on your side having to set anything up first.
When connecting to an existing set, we first look at how it has been built: which layers, which naming, which components already exist and which stand on their own. If that set hangs together logically, we build on it using the same structure, without changing the existing setup unnecessarily. If the set is not logically structured, we discuss it with you first before continuing with the run.
We always work to your standards and drawing conventions, which you supply as a basis at the start of the job, so our production drafting fits seamlessly with what already exists within your organisation. That way nobody on your side has to spend time afterwards converting or correcting our files.
Frequently asked questions about production drafting outsourcing
Hand your production 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.