If you are looking up technical drafter costs, you usually have a concrete pile of work in front of you, from floor plans and sections to detail sheets and part drawings that need to be worked up. Sometimes it is a revision round on existing DWGs, sometimes a model that has to be turned into production-ready sheets.
The type of work determines the hours, and the hours determine the price. We produce those drawings and models from our own office, with our own licences and a team that is already up and running.
We do not do engineering or calculations, because we draft and model. We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and only pure working hours appear on the timesheet. Below you can read exactly what we deliver, how we save time with parametric components and how our checking process is set up. We work nationwide for clients in the Netherlands and respond to an enquiry within 1 to 2 working days. A small first assignment is a perfectly good way to start.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Parametric working keeps technical drafter costs down
The biggest difference in technical drafter costs does not arise on the first sheet, but on the fiftieth. If you redraw every component from scratch, you pay fifty times for the same thinking. That is why we build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components. Such a component adapts to a new situation or a different size, so we place it rather than drawing it again. The material schedule updates automatically, because when the component changes, the schedule changes with it. The clearest example comes from greenhouse construction.
Companies in that sector often work in AutoCAD, and AutoCAD is not smart at building up components such as valves in piping systems. If you need a valve in 90 and in 110, you draw it again by hand every time. A smart family places it in a single action. In that kind of work it saves at least seventy per cent of the time. We can clean up an existing family set or build a new one. Which is the wiser choice depends on the state of the set. If a set is clogged with duplicate and half-working families, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing.
We present that trade-off before we start, so nobody gets a surprise afterwards. For you as the client, this means the first weeks take slightly more hours and the weeks after that considerably fewer. That effect also carries over to the next assignment, because the components are then already in place. We discuss beforehand which part of the set is worth that investment. Components that occur only once we simply leave as they are.
Software and formats our technical drafters work in
Our main software is Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. We also work in Inventor and Grasshopper, and to a limited extent with Dynamo and Vault. We always run the latest versions, so a client's file rarely gets stuck on an outdated installation at our end. We deliver in DXF, DWG, the Revit formats and STEP. In practice every common CAD format comes our way, and we handle it. We work in our own environment with our own licences, not in the client's environment.
That saves your IT department an access request, a workstation and a licence. Fitting in with the existing set is the most important thing here. We ask for the template, the title block, the layer structure and the drawing conventions before we produce the first sheet. That standard comes from you and we follow it, even if we would do things differently ourselves. A drawing that deviates from the house style of the drawing office costs more time later than it saves. In a revision round we adopt the structure of the existing sheets.
If there is no consistent approach, we put forward a proposal and then continue in a fixed format. Files go back and forth by email, and on larger projects such as greenhouse construction projects you can log in to the software we use to track the project. That keeps it clear which sheet is being worked on and which is already finished. If you work with a non-standard export, let us know in advance and we will set up the delivery accordingly.
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.
What drafting work falls under technical drafter costs
With us, technical drafter costs cover drafting and modelling work only. We deliver 2D drafting and, where needed, 3D modelling, as-built drawings and revisions. Specifically, that means floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets, part drawings and overviews. In Revit we build the model and derive the sheets from it. In AutoCAD we work up individual drawings, often in high volume and with a lot of repetition. We bring an as-built dossier back to a legible, consistent set. That is exactly what we did for Firefly, where the material supplied had been printed incorrectly and was partly drawn by hand. We worked it out ourselves instead of calling the client constantly, and still delivered a clean set. We have now completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for that client.
What we do not do is at least as important. We do not produce structural calculations, give design advice or handle permits. That responsibility stays with the firm or the contractor itself. We deliver the output in the format you use, ready to drop into your own set. We deliver in stages, so the project leader can check along the way and nobody is faced with a mountain of work at the end. The intellectual property of all that work belongs to you. The associated files and interim versions are handed over too, so your drawing office can carry on with them. If you want a single point of contact for that delivery, you have one with us from day one. Barry, our project manager, keeps track of the agreements.
Three review layers on every sheet
Every sheet that leaves our office has been through at least three pairs of eyes. A drafter produces the work. A second team member then checks that work in full. Sam, our team leader, then looks at the technical side and at the coherence within the set. Barry, as project manager, goes over it last before it is sent to the client. As a result, the number of errors is minimal in practice.
The errors we catch are rarely spectacular. It is a dimension that does not follow the model, a layer that deviates from the standard, hatching that differs from one sheet to the next. Precisely those things cost the most time later, because someone only discovers them on site or in production.
Sam has more than fifteen years' background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, ran his own design firm in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer. The core of our team has around twenty-five years of experience combined. We only work with people who have more than ten years of CAD experience. We hold no certifications, so we prefer to let the drawings themselves provide the proof.
A limited first assignment shows that checking process fastest. You then judge for yourself whether our accuracy matches your own standard. That checking is included in the hours and is not charged as a separate item. So we do not charge separately for reviewing our own work. That keeps the agreement on technical drafter costs simple.
Frequently asked questions about technical drafter costs
Hand your technical 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.