With us, a technical drafting rate does not start with a number, but with the client's file format and CAD standards. That sounds like a detour, yet in practice it is what saves the most money. We work to the client's drawing conventions: their layer structure, hatching, stamp, sheet numbering and title block layout.
We receive that set from you and adopt it, even when we would have set it up differently ourselves. If you supply DWG, it stays DWG.
If you work in Revit, we plug into your templates and families. If files have to be exchanged with a machine builder, we deliver STEP. Every common CAD format passes through our hands, from DXF to Revit files, and we always run the latest versions. Agreeing these conventions up front prevents the correction rounds where hours usually leak away. Below you can read what we deliver, who we work for and how a project runs.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What we deliver within technical drafting
Our work consists of drafting and modelling, and that is where it ends. We produce 2D drawings and, where the project calls for it, 3D models. In practice that means floor plans, sections, elevations, detail sheets, standard details, piping diagrams and the material schedules linked to a model. We also produce as-built drawings and revision rounds on existing sets, and the latter make up a large share of the volume. Many clients have a project file in which the construction has long since departed from what is on paper. We bring a set like that back into a consistent whole, renumber where necessary and keep the revision stamp up to date according to your conventions.
For repetitive work we build parametric Revit families, smart components that adapt to a different size or a new situation. The material schedule updates with them, so a change to the component carries through automatically. We can also clean up existing families and templates instead of building new ones. Which option makes more sense depends on the state of the set; with a very messy set, rebuilding is sometimes quicker than repairing.
What we explicitly do not do is engineering. Calculations, structural advice and permit procedures stay with the client or their consultant. We keep that boundary sharp, because otherwise a technical drafting rate would suggest something we do not deliver. The output goes back in the format that fits your workflow, with the source files included. The intellectual property of everything we make belongs to the client, including the families and templates we build for you along the way.
Clients who ask for a technical drafting rate
The companies that approach us are engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, as well as anyone with a steady stream of technical drafting. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners who know exactly what needs to be done. The trigger is almost always capacity. Too little time, too few drafters, or a peak the in-house drawing office cannot handle. An order that arrives earlier than planned, a colleague who drops out just before a deadline, or a revision round on hundreds of DWGs that has to be squeezed in.
Recruiting rarely solves that, because finding and onboarding an experienced drafter takes longer than the deadline allows. That is why we deploy people who are already in place and who have all worked with CAD for more than ten years. What these clients are looking for is predictability, not the lowest price. They want to know that a set will come back matching their conventions, without forcing their own team into a round of checking. That is why we ask about the standard beforehand rather than afterwards.
Our clients are based in the Netherlands, and that is where our focus lies too. The work is done entirely remotely from our own office; you are welcome to visit, and we also come to you. So far we have worked with Firefly, for whom we have completed more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings. We started that service last year because a client asked for it, and we have offered it as a standard service ever since. What clients mention most often is that their own drafters can get back to the substantive work.
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.
From first conversation to partial delivery
The process starts with a conversation. Barry, our project manager, is the first to pick up a new request, asks the questions that determine the scope and remains your fixed point of contact from then on. Sam, our team leader, then takes over the technical side; he 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 decides how many drafters are assigned to the job and in which order the sheets are worked through. The client supplies the details and usually the existing drawings that need revising. With enough information, we can start straight away. We then deliver in parts, collect feedback, make adjustments and carry on. That approach is deliberate: by sheet ten it is already clear whether our interpretation of your standard is correct, rather than only at sheet one hundred.
The rhythm of meetings differs per client. Some projects need a check-in every two days, while others are well served by a weekly meeting, depending on how fast things need to move. For standalone AutoCAD work, files go back and forth by email. For larger projects, such as greenhouse construction projects, we use software that the client can log into to follow their project. Day-to-day contact is by email, phone and meetings. If we receive a messy project file, we would rather sort it out ourselves than keep calling you about it. We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days and then schedule the conversation.
Three layers of review on all technical drafting
Every sheet passes through at least three layers of review before it leaves our office. One drafter draws, a second team member checks that work, Sam then reviews the technical side as team leader and Barry takes a final look. That structure costs hours, and those hours are included in the technical drafting rate. We think that is justified, because an error that only surfaces in the workshop or on site costs many times more than a correction in the drawing office.
In practice, this keeps the number of errors to a minimum. What that review delivers in concrete terms became clear with the as-built material Firefly supplied.
The existing drawings had been printed incorrectly and were partly hand-drawn, hard to read and messy, so they could not simply be copied. We worked it out ourselves and still delivered a clean set. And when a deadline could not move, our team kept working in the evenings and at weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours, even during Sam's planned holiday. We only bill pure working hours. If someone steps away for five minutes to get coffee, the timesheet stops.
We charge by the hour or per project at a fixed price, agreed in consultation with the client. We do not offer prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription. A short trial assignment is welcome, so you can judge our speed and accuracy for yourself first. We ask for no minimum order and impose no ongoing commitment. If you are happy with the result, we scale up with more drafters from our large, flexible team.
Frequently asked questions about our technical drafting rate
Get a clear rate for 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.