If you are looking for a production drawing firm in the Netherlands, you mainly want to know who does the work and how it is organised. So that is where we start. Our team works remotely from our own office, with our own licences and the latest software versions. On each project we deploy what is needed, because our large, variable team scales with every project.
Barry, our project manager, picks up a new enquiry and remains your point of contact, and Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side and leads the drafters.
He has well over fifteen years of background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, ran his own design practice and still works as an engineer. Everyone who drafts for us has more than ten years of CAD experience. We draft and model; engineering stays with you. The work passes through at least three review layers before it goes back. That way a project lead knows exactly who has the work and who has checked it. We keep that set-up the same on every project, whatever its size.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Who we make production drawings for
Our clients are engineering consultancies, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers. More broadly, they are companies whose technical drafting structurally requires more capacity than their own drawing office can handle. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners, and the conversation is almost never about whether their own team is good enough. It is about time. There is an order that has to go out, work preparation is waiting for drawings and the in-house drafters are already fully booked with ongoing work.
With manufacturers we often see that a production drawing only gets its turn late in the process, while production is waiting for it right away. With contractors the same applies to construction-ready material. At architectural practices things tend to stall on the detailing, because designers would rather design than fill sheets. That is exactly the part we pick up. The reason is almost always capacity and rarely dissatisfaction with in-house staff. That difference shapes how we position ourselves.
We do not take over control of the project; we provide drafting hours that fit into your schedule. The project lead keeps the substantive decisions, and we make sure the set comes back on time and as agreed. With a client such as Firefly, we have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings in this way. That volume does not come from a single large job, but from a series of packages that keeps coming in. That is the rhythm we are set up for, and we plan our staffing around it.
From production drawing to complete construction set
With us, a production drawing is rarely a standalone sheet. We deliver the set around it: part drawings, assembly drawings, elevations, sections, detail sheets, bills of materials generated from the model and, where needed, an as-built version after completion. In 2D we work in AutoCAD, and in 3D in Revit, Rhino and Inventor, depending on what you use. We extract the sheets from a model in such a way that a dimension change in one place carries through to everything derived from it. That saves the most work in the second and third rounds. Output goes out in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in any other common CAD format.
We deliver in stages, so work preparation can already begin while we work on the next block. After each partial delivery we ask for feedback and process it before we continue. We match the meeting rhythm to the pace of the project: every two days on one project and weekly on another. Files go back and forth by email. On larger projects such as greenhouse construction projects we use software that you can log in to and follow the project. Revisions are part of the job and we do not treat them as a separate project, unless the scope really shifts.
What we keep out is just as clear: no strength calculations, no structural advice and no permit documents. We draw what you have determined technically, in volume and with consistent checks on top. We maintain that division throughout the project. If something changes in the component itself, that change carries through to the sheets derived from it and we tell you what it means for the part already delivered.
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 costs of outsourcing production drawings
Costs are charged by the hour or per project at a fixed price. Both options are possible, and we decide together which suits. For work with a sharp scope, such as a fixed number of sheets in a familiar standard, a fixed project price is the obvious choice. On a project where the scope is still moving, an hourly basis is fairer to both sides. We only bill pure working hours. If someone takes five minutes to get a coffee, the clock does not keep running. That sounds minor, but across hundreds of drawings the difference adds up. We do not work with a prepaid hours card or a monthly hours subscription, so you pay nothing in the weeks when there is no work. There are no ongoing payroll costs either, and in case of illness or holiday we replace someone at no extra cost. In practice, what keeps costs down most is preparation. A complete set of documents, a clear CAD standard and a point of contact who answers questions quickly save more hours than any discussion about rates.
Repetition also lowers costs, because once we have built a component as a smart component, the second variant costs almost nothing extra. With Firefly's material we worked things out ourselves rather than calling all the time, which limited both the lead time and the hours spent on meetings. We only prepare an estimate after we have seen a representative part of the set, because an estimate based on a description alone says little. That first look usually takes us little time. What we are mainly looking for is how many variants the set contains and how many of them genuinely differ from each other. That number says more about the hours than the number of sheets.
Getting started with our drafting firm in the Netherlands
It all starts with a conversation. In it, we go through what is available, what needs to be done and when. We then ask for a few things: the existing drawings or the model, your drawing conventions, a sample sheet to serve as a reference, the required output in format and version, and the name of the person who answers content questions. That last point is often underestimated.
A project rarely stalls on technical issues, but it often stalls on waiting. As soon as we have enough information we can start, because the team is already in place and we do not need to recruit anyone. We respond within 1 to 2 working days of a new enquiry.
When things are urgent, we add people straight away and deploy as many drafters from our large team as needed. We recommend starting small if you do not know us yet. A limited first assignment shows how we work, how fast we are and how accurate the set is when it comes back, without committing straight away to a large project. If that goes well, we move on to the volume your schedule requires. You own the intellectual property of everything we make, and we sign an NDA on request.
You can reach us by phone or through the contact form on the website, after which we go through the project in a conversation. Clients are welcome to visit us, although we carry out the work itself entirely remotely. We also come to you when a project benefits from it, for example to talk through the way of working in your drawing office. After that, day-to-day contact simply runs by email and phone.
Frequently asked questions about a production drawing firm in the Netherlands
Hand your production drawings 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.