If you want to understand Revit modeller costs, start in the drawing office itself, where modelling work piles up while the schedule is already fixed. A project lead sees the sections, floor plans and detail sheets being left undone simply because there are too few hands. At that point, the conversation is not about software, but about hours and what those hours deliver.
We take over that modelling work from our own office, with our own licences and a team that is already in place.
We charge by the hour or at a fixed project price, exactly as you want to manage it. We only charge net working hours, and if someone steps away for five minutes for a coffee, the clock stops. There are no ongoing payroll costs, because you do not pay for holidays, sick leave or idle time between two projects. On this page we set out how we build up the costs, what makes the work cheaper and where the time savings lie. We work nationwide in the Netherlands and respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
When an external Revit modeller makes sense
Outsourcing pays off when modelling work structurally requires more time than your own drafters have available. A peak lasting a few weeks, a revision round on an existing set or a vacancy that simply will not get filled: those are the triggers we hear most often. In that situation, a team leader looks at Revit modeller costs and weighs them against the cost of doing nothing. Work that is left undone also costs money, it is just that the amount never appears on an invoice. We take over the volume work and leave the thinking about the structure to you, because we draft and model and do not do engineering.
If your own team is better off keeping the work, we simply say so. With a small number of unique models requiring a lot of coordination per component, the handover of information does not outweigh the gain. If, on the other hand, there is repetition, the calculation quickly tips the other way. Think of hundreds of sheets that follow the same structure, or a dossier that has to go from model to drawing without anyone needing to come up with anything new. We start as soon as we have enough information and, if you wish, begin with a small first assignment.
That way, you can judge our speed and accuracy before handing a larger part of your drawing office over to us. A short assignment is fine; we do not use prepaid bundles of hours or a monthly hours subscription. Everything that comes out of our hands is your intellectual property. So far we have not signed a non-disclosure agreement because clients have not asked for one, but we are open to an NDA. If you want to test Revit modeller costs, that low entry threshold is usually the point at which doubts disappear.
What you get for the cost of a Revit modeller
With us, Revit modeller costs cover concrete drafting and modelling work, not advice or calculations. We build models in Revit, derive floor plans, sections, elevations and detail sheets from them and keep to the sheet layout you use. We also do 2D drafting in AutoCAD, 3D modelling, as-built drawings and revisions to existing sets. We use Rhino where the form is freer, and add Inventor and Grasshopper when the work calls for it. We use Dynamo and Vault to a limited extent.
We deliver in DXF, DWG, Revit formats and STEP, and in practice in any common CAD format. We always work with the latest versions and in our own environment with our own licences, so you do not have to free up a workstation or licence. The drawing conventions and standard come from you. If we are given a template, a title block and a layer structure, we follow them down to the details of line weights and hatching. If there is no such set, we agree with you what the output should look like before we deliver the first sheet.
At Firefly, we received as-built material that had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand. We sorted it out ourselves instead of calling the client every day, and still delivered it neatly. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for them. So what determines the cost of a Revit modeller with us is mainly the number of sheets, the degree of repetition and the quality of the material supplied.
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.
Repetitive modelling work and where costs come down
Most of the work that comes to us is repetitive, and that is exactly where the gains are for you. A facade sheet that recurs fifty times with different dimensions does not need a new design, but it does need many hands and a lot of discipline. We build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components, and then place them throughout the model. Such a component adapts to a new situation or a different size, so nobody has to draw it a second time. The material schedule updates with it, because if the component changes, the schedule changes automatically. We see this most clearly in greenhouse construction. Companies there often work in AutoCAD, and AutoCAD is not smart at building up components such as valves in piping systems. Anyone who needs a valve in 90 and in 110 redraws it by hand every time.
With a smart family, placing it takes a single action. In that kind of work, it saves at least seventy per cent of the time, and time is exactly what the costs consist of. We also clean up or rebuild families and templates. Depending on the state of the existing set, one approach is wiser than the other. If a family set is very messy and clogged up, rebuilding is sometimes faster than repairing. We look at this in advance and present the trade-off, so you know what you are paying for. In this way, we reduce Revit modeller costs without compromising the quality of the model. A properly built model also remains usable for years, including at the next revision round.
A fixed point of contact throughout the project
Barry, our project manager, is usually the first point of contact for a new request, after which Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side. So you have one fixed line of contact and do not have to explain to a different drafter every week how the project fits together. 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.
He directs the CAD team and is responsible for the technical side and project supervision. The project starts with a conversation in which we go through the details and the existing drawings. We then deliver in stages, gather feedback, make adjustments and carry on.
The meeting frequency differs per client, because one wants contact every two days and another weekly. That mainly depends on how hard the deadline is pressing. Files go back and forth by email. On larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we work in software that you can log into yourself to follow the project. For one-off AutoCAD drafting, we stick to email, because an extra environment only costs time there. Day-to-day contact runs via email, phone and meetings, and we visit you or you come to our office.
The work itself stays remote, because our team works together in one place and serves clients across the Netherlands. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days and then schedule a conversation about the project. If you first want clarity on the cost of a Revit modeller, put the scope on the table in that conversation and we will give you a substantiated estimate.
Frequently asked questions about Revit modeller costs
Let us take on your Revit 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.