The need for a self-employed BIM modeller almost always arises at the same point in the drawing office, namely when the model falls behind the rest of the project. There is a Revit file that has passed through many hands, a family set that has silted up over the years and a series of elevations that no longer matches what is actually being built.
Updating all that takes days nobody has free. OutsourceCAD takes over that modelling work. We provide outsourced CAD drafting and modelling to companies with too little drafting capacity, and that means drafting and modelling, not engineering.
Our core software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, supplemented with Inventor, Grasshopper and, to a limited extent, Dynamo and Vault, always in the latest versions. We work fully remotely from our own office, in our own environment with our own licences. Every model and every drawing goes through at least three review layers before delivery.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What a self-employed BIM modeller delivers with us in model work
Within Revit modelling, we take care of building the model, working up elevations and sections, and generating the drawings that come out of it. We also build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components that adapt to a new situation or a different size. A component like that is built once and can then be placed in the model in a single action, in whatever size the project requires. If the component changes, the linked material schedule changes automatically with it. We can clean up or rebuild existing families and templates, and which is more sensible depends on the condition of the set.
If it is very messy, rebuilding sometimes turns out to be faster than repairing. Alongside model work, we deliver 2D drafting, as-built drawings and revisions, and that combination often occurs within the same project. If you produce schematics in AutoCAD and model in Revit, you get both sides from a single source with us. We deliver output in Revit formats, and also in DXF, DWG and STEP, in practice in any common CAD format.
We always work with the latest software versions, so a model comes back into your environment without a conversion step. That saves your drawing office a clean-up round afterwards. What a self-employed BIM modeller would normally do alone, we spread across our large, variable team that scales with each project. Calculations, structural advice and permits fall outside what we do, and we hold that line even when a model comes close to it.
Working remotely with a self-employed BIM modeller
Remote modelling stands or falls on whether everyone knows where the model stands. That is why we agree at the start who picks up which part and how often we check in. Barry, our project manager, is the first point of contact for a new request, and Sam, our team leader, then takes over the technical side, so there is one consistent line rather than changing personnel. Sam has more than fifteen years of background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, had his own design practice in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer. He leads the CAD team and is responsible for project supervision.
The meeting rhythm adapts to the project. If it is tight, we speak every two days. If there is more room, a weekly slot is enough. Day-to-day contact runs by email, phone and meetings, and we visit you or welcome you at our office, although the work itself is done remotely. We support larger projects such as greenhouse construction with software you can log into to follow the project.
Following along is then not a separate request but simply how things work. For standalone drafting, files go back and forth by email. For a single set, that is simply quicker than setting up an extra environment. What we deliberately do not do is refer every ambiguity back to you. We first work out ourselves whatever can be worked out and only put the real choices to you, because a self-employed BIM modeller who calls constantly costs a project lead more time than they save.
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.
Ownership of model files and confidentiality
You hold the intellectual property of our work. That applies to the model, to the drawings derived from it and to the families we build during the project. Nothing stays with us that you need to keep working, and there is no arrangement around it that forces a follow-up assignment. With Revit work this matters more than with flat drafting, because a model with smart components only remains usable if the families come with it, including the parameters that let them adapt. So we hand those over, in the set-up in which they were built. The templates we adjust along the way are included too, so a next project can carry on from the same basis. We make confidentiality arrangements in the way you are used to.
So far we have not signed a non-disclosure agreement because clients have not asked for one, but we are open to an NDA and will sign one without objection. We treat project material the way your own drawing office would, and we share nothing outside the team working on the project. We work in our own environment with our own licences, so there is no need to grant access to your systems. For many organisations that is actually the simplest route, because nothing has to be opened up and no accounts need to be managed. We agree at the start of the project which documents are exchanged, in which format and through which channel.
Working with a self-employed BIM modeller from start to delivery
It starts with a conversation. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days and then go through exactly what needs to be done. You supply the details and usually existing drawings or an existing model that needs revising. We also ask for your CAD standards and the internal conventions, because we work to those and not to a set-up of our own.
With sufficient information, we can get started straight away. In practice, the material supplied is rarely complete. Firefly supplied as-built material in which the existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly drawn by hand, hard to read and messy.
We sorted that out ourselves instead of calling about it constantly, and still delivered it neatly. After that, we work in stages. We deliver a first batch, collect feedback, make adjustments and move on to the next batch. With model work this is especially important, because a wrong assumption in how a model is set up carries through into every view that is later taken from it. If you want to see how that works out first, you can start with a small initial assignment and judge our speed and accuracy on that basis.
We invoice per hour or per project at a fixed price, and we agree together which option suits. A short assignment is fine, and there are no prepaid hour bundles or monthly hours subscriptions attached. We only bill pure working hours, so time not spent on the model is not billed either.
Frequently asked questions about hiring a self-employed BIM modeller
Let us handle 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.