Every sheet we produce passes through at least three review layers, and that is exactly what keeps working drawings costs predictable. A drafter produces the work, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, then reviews the technical side and Barry, our project manager, gives it a final look.
That sequence is fixed and built into our process, not added as a separate line on the invoice. The reason is simple. An error that only surfaces on site or in the workshop costs many times the time it would have taken to correct at the drawing board.
We would rather run an extra review round than see a set come back halfway through construction. As a result, errors are kept to a minimum in practice and your in-house team does not have to check the sheets line by line. On this page we explain how we scale up, how we differ from a single freelancer, and how we set up the collaboration.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Scaling up without your working drawings costs spiralling
We have a permanent team and scale up per project. An assignment can start with one drafter, and when the volume calls for it we deploy as many drafters from our large, variable team as are needed. The key point: the team is already in place. We do not need to recruit anyone before the first sheet goes into production, and when things are urgent we add people straight away. For a drawing office in a peak period, that is the difference between meeting a deadline and explaining why it was missed. For working drawings costs this set-up has a welcome effect, because you only pay for the capacity that is actually in use.
When the volume drops again, we scale back and the invoicing drops with it. There are no ongoing payroll costs that someone has to justify later. We cover absences ourselves. If a drafter goes on holiday or falls ill, we bring in another team member so the work continues. You will hardly notice this in the schedule, because we handle the handover internally and the drawing conventions are already agreed.
Everyone who works for us has more than ten years of CAD experience, so a replacement does not need to learn the trade first. Combined, the core of our team has around twenty-five years of practical experience. Together with your project lead, we decide which staffing level makes sense for the required lead time, and we prefer to have that conversation up front rather than halfway through, when pressure is already mounting and there is little room to manoeuvre.
Outsourcing working drawings or hiring someone
Many clients weigh up three options: hiring a freelancer, taking someone on permanently or handing the drafting work to us. A freelancer is quick to arrange, but it is still only one pair of hands. If that person drops out, the work stops, and your in-house team still has to check whatever is delivered. We, by contrast, supply a complete team with its own review line, so you do not have to organise that checking alongside your own work. A new permanent employee solves a structural shortage, but not next month's shortage.
Recruiting, onboarding and building up take time, and after that the salary keeps running in months when there is little drafting work. That makes working drawings costs less predictable rather than more. We are the right fit when the problem is mainly one of capacity: a peak, a project that turns out bigger than expected, or a revision round that has to be squeezed in. We draft and model; we do not do engineering, so the design content stays with you. That suits firms that want to keep their expertise in-house and only outsource the drafting hours.
We also work in our own environment with our own licences, so no extra workstation or licence is needed. We ask for no long-term commitment and no minimum monthly volume. A short assignment is fine, and a small first batch of sheets is enough to judge whether our speed and accuracy suit you before more work follows.
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.
A fixed point of contact throughout your working drawings project
You have one fixed point of contact with us. Barry picks up a new request and stays involved afterwards, and Sam, the team leader, takes over the technical side once the project is running. He directs the CAD team, oversees the technical aspects and guides the project from start to finish. His background helps here: more than fifteen years in architecture, seven years of work experience in Iran, his own design practice in the Netherlands and ongoing work as an engineer. That means we can place a technical question quickly without turning it into a separate advisory process. We adjust the frequency of meetings to the pace of the project. Some clients speak to us every two days, others are happy with a weekly check-in. Day-to-day contact runs via email, phone and ordinary meetings, and we visit you or welcome you at our office.
The drafting itself is carried out entirely remotely from our own office. For one-off drafting jobs, files go back and forth by email. For larger projects we use software you can log into to follow progress yourself, which saves a lot of status questions. We deliver in stages, gather feedback and process it before the next batch follows. For working drawings costs that is an advantage, because a misinterpretation stays limited to a few sheets rather than an entire set. Our clients are in the Netherlands and our focus is on the Netherlands too, so meetings take place in the same language and within the same working day.
Getting started with a first set of working drawings
We do not need much to get started. We ask for the existing drawings or model, your drawing conventions and layer structure, a description of exactly what needs to be produced and the required output. If a template is already in place, we use it as it is and change nothing. If there is no documented standard, we derive one from a few existing sheets and present our proposal for your approval first.
We respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days. This is followed by a conversation in which we go through the project, and as soon as we have enough information we can start.
We agree straight away whether the work will be charged by the hour or at a fixed project price, because that choice determines how the working drawings costs appear on the invoice later. When working by the hour, we only charge net working time, so interruptions do not count. We do not offer prepaid bundles of hours or a monthly subscription for hours. A small first assignment is an excellent way to start. It shows you how we handle your standard and how quickly the work comes back, and it shows us how your files are put together.
You retain the intellectual property of every drawing we make. We have not signed a non-disclosure agreement so far because nobody has asked for one, but we are open to an NDA. A phone call or the contact form on our website is all it takes to schedule that first conversation.
Frequently asked questions about working drawings costs
Let us handle your working drawings
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.