If you are thinking about renting a 3D drafter, you are usually weighing up three routes. A freelancer who joins you temporarily, a new permanent employee, or a team that takes over the drafting as a whole. We are that third route. We provide outsourced CAD drafting to companies with too little drafting capacity, and we do so with a permanent team that works entirely remotely from our own office.
A freelancer is one person, and if he drops out, the work stops.
A new employee means recruitment, onboarding time and payroll costs that carry on when the order book shrinks. With us, staffing moves with the work, because our large, flexible team scales up or down per project. We draft and model and do not do engineering, so responsibility for the content stays with the client. On this page, we set out what we deliver, how a project runs and when renting a 3D drafter is, or is not, the sensible choice.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What we deliver when you rent a 3D drafter
The focus of our work is 2D drafting. Floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets and long series of drawings that always follow the same structure are what we receive most often. Where the project calls for it, we model in 3D, for example to build up an existing situation or to make a series of components consistent. As-built drawings are a separate category, because they start with working out what is actually there before we draw a single line. We also handle revisions to existing sets, from a single change to a complete pass through an entire dossier.
In addition, we build parametric Revit families: smart components that adapt to a different size or a new situation, with a material schedule that updates along with them. We deliver source files, not flat prints, so DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice any common CAD format the client uses. When you rent a 3D drafter from us, you get work back that your own team can carry on with immediately. What we do not do is at least as important. We do not do calculations, we do not advise on structure and we do not handle permits.
Our trade is drafting and modelling, and that clear scope is exactly what allows us to handle volume. We deliver in stages, so your own team can see early on whether the structure is right, and we are not a hundred drawings further before a deviation is noticed. We stick to this way of working for small assignments and long series alike. If there is any doubt about the structure, we would rather deliver a single test sheet first, so that a deviation does not end up in the whole series.
How a project runs with our drafters
It starts with a conversation. We ask what is waiting, what schedule it is tied to and which CAD standards we need to follow. The client then supplies the details, usually together with existing drawings that need revising. We go through that material before we draw, because an ambiguity spotted in advance costs minutes and afterwards hours. Once we have enough information, we get started. We deliver in stages: a first block of drawings goes back, you review it and we process the comments before the next block is finished.
The meeting rhythm varies per client, from every two days to a weekly catch-up, depending on how urgent it is. For one-off AutoCAD drafting work, we email the files back and forth. For larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we use software you log into to follow progress yourself. Before a block goes out, it passes through our review layers. A drafter draws, a second team member checks that work, Sam, our team leader, then reviews it and Barry, our project manager, gives it a final check. As a result, remaining errors are rare in practice.
At the end of a project, there is a complete set in the client's format, with the structure your own team is used to. We respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days, so the first conversation is rarely long in coming. What you do not have to do with us is check every drawing yourself before you can move on. Your project leader keeps that time for the work that really matters.
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.
When renting a 3D drafter makes sense
Outsourcing pays off as soon as the work has volume and involves repetition. A series of detail drawings with the same structure, a revision round across hundreds of sheets or a piping diagram in which the same valve in 90 and in 110 keeps recurring is exactly the kind of work that slows a drawing office down and that we can take over well. A peak also lends itself to it, because it is a temporary shortage rather than a structural gap. Outsourcing is less sensible when the drafting is still tied to design choices that shift from day to day. As long as your own team is still sketching and reconsidering, we are drawing behind the facts, and that costs both sides money. The same applies if there are no CAD standards at all. We work to the client's conventions and they need to exist; otherwise we deliver neat work that still does not fit the set.
If there is only a single job of a few hours, the handover is often more expensive than the drafting itself. Work in which a calculation or structural consideration is leading is best kept in-house, because we draft and do not calculate. In cases of doubt, a small first assignment helps. That way you can see whether renting a 3D drafter fits this situation, without immediately committing to a long project. Scale also plays a part in that decision, because a series of dozens of sheets yields more than three separate drawings. We say honestly when outsourcing will achieve little in a particular situation, because a misplaced assignment costs both sides time. We are happy to have that conversation before anything is settled.
Renting a 3D drafter or hiring someone permanently
On paper, the routes look similar; in terms of risk, they differ greatly. A permanent employee means recruitment, an onboarding period and payroll costs that continue when the order book shrinks. With us, you pay no ongoing payroll costs and no idle time, because we deploy what the project requires and then scale back down. Compared with an individual freelancer, the difference lies mainly in continuity and quality control.
A self-employed drafter who falls ill leaves a gap that you have to fill yourself. With us, another team member steps in, with the same agreements and the same standard, so the schedule stays on track. In addition, our work passes several pairs of eyes before it goes out, whereas a freelancer checks his own work.
We also arrange our own licences and workstations, so nothing needs to be set up at your end. We keep communication simple. Barry picks up the enquiry, Sam handles the technical side as team leader, and the two of them remain your points of contact throughout the project. Sam 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.
We charge by the hour or at a fixed project price and record only actual working hours. We are not in favour of prepaid hour bundles or monthly hour subscriptions, because such arrangements fit poorly with work that comes in waves. What both routes have in common is that the client keeps responsibility for the content, because we draft and do not calculate. If you want to make the comparison concrete, give us an ongoing package and see what a whole team makes of it.
Frequently asked questions about renting a 3D drafter
Let us take on your 3D drafting
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.