If you are looking for a technical drafting specialist, you almost always have a concrete pile of work waiting. Floor plans that still need working up, sections and details nobody on your own team is picking up, or an as-built file that is half drawn by hand. We take that drafting over and deliver it back in your format and to your standard.
Our scope is drafting and modelling; engineering falls outside it. That is a deliberate boundary, because it keeps our team focused on exactly the part of the process where the volume and repetition lie.
Our work is done entirely remotely from our own office, on our own licences and with the latest versions of Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino. You stay in control of the design, and we make sure the drawings are right. Barry, our project manager, is the first point of contact for a new enquiry, after which our team leader Sam takes over the technical side. We start as soon as we have enough information, and we respond to a new enquiry within 1 to 2 working days.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
What we deliver as a technical drafting specialist
Most of our work is 2D drafting. We deliver floor plans, sections, details and schematics in DWG or DXF, built up according to the drawing conventions you give us. If the project calls for a model, we model in 3D and deliver Revit formats or STEP files. As-built drawings are a second steady stream in our work. There is often material that has been updated over the years, printed askew or partly drawn by hand, and we turn it into a legible, consistent set. Revision rounds go hand in hand with that, because a rerouted pipe run, changed dimensions or a detail built differently on site come back on virtually every project.
As a technical drafting specialist, we also build parametric Revit families, in other words smart components that adapt to a different size or a new situation. The material schedule updates with them, so a change to the component automatically changes the schedule. We work with the latest versions of Revit, AutoCAD and Rhino, as well as Inventor, Grasshopper and, to a lesser extent, Dynamo and Vault. In practice, we handle any common CAD format.
We are just as clear about what we do not do: engineering, calculations, structural advice and permit procedures stay with you and your consultants. We draft and model, at high volume, with a lot of repetition and with an eye for the small deviations that prove costly later. Delivery happens in stages, so your project lead can see along the way whether the set is heading in the right direction. If something gets out of step, we correct it before the rest of the drawings carry the same error.
Clients who bring in a technical drafting specialist
The businesses that come to us are engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly companies with technical drafting work. The people we talk to are managers, team leaders and owners, people who have to divide the work and can see the drawing office is at full capacity. The trigger is almost always capacity. There is too little time, there are too few drafters, or a peak comes along that the in-house team cannot handle. A vacancy for an experienced drafter sometimes stays open for months, while the work just keeps coming. We fill that gap without you building up ongoing payroll costs.
Our clients are in the Netherlands and our focus is on the Netherlands. So far we have worked with one client, Firefly, and have delivered more than twenty projects and hundreds of drawings for them. That collaboration began because they asked for it, and since then we have offered outsourced drafting as a standard service. At Firefly, as-built material came in with existing drawings that had been printed incorrectly and partly drawn by hand. It was barely legible and messy. We worked it out ourselves instead of calling the client constantly, and still delivered the set neatly.
That is the type of situation where a technical drafting specialist makes a difference, because it takes detective work as well as drafting. Anyone who approaches us has usually already tried to solve it internally. The question then is not whether the drafting needs doing, but who will pick it up without the rest of the schedule slipping. We pick it up from our own office, with a team that is already in place.
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 delivered drawings
Every project with us starts with a conversation. In it, we go through the project, look at the scope and discuss which documents you will supply. Usually there is already a set of existing drawings that needs revising, plus the details and your in-house drawing conventions. Enough information is our signal to start. We deliver in stages, gather feedback, make adjustments and move on to the next part. That way of working keeps the turnaround manageable, because you do not have to wait until the end to see what is there. The rhythm of our check-ins differs per client. On a tight project we speak every two days; on a calmer one, a weekly check-in is enough. Day-to-day contact runs via email and phone, and we visit you or welcome you at our office.
Files go back and forth by email. On larger projects, for example in greenhouse construction, we work with software you can log into to follow the project. For standalone AutoCAD drafting, we stick to delivery by email, because that is quicker. We work in our own environment on our own licences, so you do not need to free up workstations, seats or extra software for us. The intellectual property of our drawings passes entirely to you. So far we have not signed a non-disclosure agreement, simply because nobody asked, but we are open to an NDA. A short job is welcome too, so a new client can first judge our speed and accuracy.
Three review layers on all technical drafting
We do not manage quality with a final check, but with layers that overlap. A drafter produces the work, a second team member checks it, then Sam reviews it technically as team leader and finally Barry, as project manager, goes through the set. As a result, errors hardly ever occur in practice. A dimension copied incorrectly or a detail that differs between two drawings is caught early this way, whereas such a deviation turns out much more expensive later on site.
Everyone on our team has more than ten years of CAD experience. Sam has over 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 guidance. Combined, the core of our team has around twenty-five years of experience. We hold no certifications and do not claim any, because our technical drafting is better judged by a first set than by a certificate. For you, this way of working mainly means peace of mind.
Your project lead does not have to check every drawing personally to be sure the standard has been followed. When a deadline on a project could not move, our team worked through the evenings and weekends, with days of fourteen to fifteen hours, even during a planned holiday of Sam's. That is not a habit, but it shows how we treat an agreement.
Frequently asked questions about a technical drafting specialist
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.