Finding a technical drafter for a project usually comes down to three routes: a freelancer, a new permanent employee, or outsourcing the drafting to a team that is already in place. A freelancer is quick to arrange, but drops out as soon as they fall ill or take on another project.
Hiring someone involves a recruitment process, an onboarding period and payroll costs that simply carry on after the peak. We are the third route. We provide outsourced CAD drafting to companies that lack sufficient drafting capacity of their own, with permanent staff and a fixed point of contact.
The work goes through at least three review layers before it comes back to you. In case of illness or holiday we replace the person, so the schedule does not slip. We draft and model, but we do not do engineering. Our focus is on the Netherlands, and the work is carried out from our own office. Once an enquiry comes in, we respond within 1 to 2 working days. This is followed by a conversation in which we go through the project.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
When outsourcing a technical drafter for a project pays off
Outsourcing makes sense as soon as the drafting is predictably high in volume and requires little in-house knowledge. Think of a revision round across an existing DWG set, an as-built file that is still half drawn by hand, or hundreds of sheets that recur with small variations. That kind of work eats up hours in your own drawing office, even though its content is not complicated. That is exactly where we put our people. The reason our clients come to us is almost always capacity: too little time, too few drafters, or a peak their own team cannot handle. There are also situations in which your own team is better off keeping the work in-house.
If a drawing is full of decisions only the designer can make, or if engineering such as calculations and structural advice is attached to it, outsourcing is not a good move. We draft, we do not do engineering, and we keep that boundary sharp. Work that constantly goes back and forth between two internal departments is also hard to split off. In practice, a hybrid approach works best. You keep the design and the substantive decisions in-house and pass the detailing work to us.
We then take on a clearly defined block, for example all the detail sheets or all revisions within one section of the building. That way your project lead keeps an overview without having to track every drawing personally. Hiring a technical drafter for a project is therefore not an all-or-nothing choice. It is a way of taking the volume away from people whose time is better spent on design. If you are unsure, it is best to start with a clearly defined block and then assess whether expanding makes sense.
The cost of a technical drafter for a project
We invoice per hour or per project at a fixed price. Both options are possible, and we decide together which one suits the work. A tightly defined package, for example a fixed number of sheets with a known structure, lends itself to a fixed project price. You then know in advance where you stand and do not have to check a timesheet. If the scope is still moving, as in a revision project where new changes keep coming in, an hourly rate is fairer for both sides. We only bill pure working hours.
As soon as someone takes five minutes for a coffee, we stop the clock. That sounds strict, but it makes a timesheet verifiable and prevents discussion afterwards. We do not offer a prepaid hours card or a monthly hours subscription, because that commits you to buying hours you may not need. What mainly keeps costs down happens at the front end. Complete input saves hours, because every missing dimension raises a question and every question creates waiting time. An agreed drawing standard also helps, because we can then start straight away in the right layer structure instead of converting a set afterwards.
Repetition lowers the price the most, since the more the sheets resemble each other, the fewer hours each sheet takes. In addition, you pay no ongoing payroll costs and no idle time. When the project stops, our involvement stops. Idle time therefore never ends up on our invoice. What does appear on it is the time the drafters actually spent on the work, and we record that time every day.
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.
Which clients this applies to
Our clients include engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly companies with technical drafting work. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners, in other words people who keep an eye on the schedule rather than sitting behind the screen themselves. The problem they bring to us is similar every time. A job has come in, the date is fixed, and the drawing office is already full with ongoing work. At an engineering firm it is often detailing work that has to happen after the calculations, while the engineers have already moved on to the next project. At an architectural practice the focus is on floor plans, sections and details in large numbers, plus updating a set after every round of changes. Contractors usually come with as-built material and drawings that shifted during construction.
Manufacturers tend to have product documentation, components in several sizes and piping diagrams in which the same components keep recurring. In greenhouse construction we see how that plays out. If you need a valve in 90 and the same valve in 110, you redraw it by hand in AutoCAD every time. With a smart, parametric component it is done in a single action, which saves at least seventy per cent of the time on that type of work. So far we have worked with Firefly, for whom we have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings. Those are the situations in which a technical drafter for a project makes a difference, with lots of volume, lots of repetition and a deadline that does not move. The pattern is always the same, and only the drawing types differ per sector.
The process with a technical drafter for a project
It starts with a conversation. In it we go through the project: what needs finishing, which documents already exist, which standard applies and when the deadline falls. Barry, our project manager, is usually the first point of contact for a new enquiry, after which Sam, our team leader, takes over the technical side. That gives you a fixed point of contact, so you do not have to explain the situation again every time.
You and your team then supply the details, usually together with existing drawings that need a revision. We first review that set in full before anyone starts drafting. Once the picture is complete, we put drafters on the job.
We start small where possible, and when the volume calls for it we deploy as many drafters as needed from our large, flexible team. When it is urgent, we add people immediately, because the team is already in place. We deliver in stages. We send a first package, collect feedback, incorporate it and move on to the next part. That way deviations surface early rather than at final delivery.
We agree the meeting rhythm with each client, sometimes every two days and sometimes weekly, depending on how urgent the work is. Day-to-day contact runs via email and phone, and on larger projects via software in which you can follow progress. We are happy to visit you or have you visit us, but the work itself stays remote. A short first job is fine, so you can judge our speed and accuracy for yourself first.
Frequently asked questions about a technical drafter for a project
Let us take on your technical 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.