How contract drafting works
Hiring a full-time drafter takes months and is a fixed cost; freelancers come and go. Contract drafting sits in between. You get the same drafter (or small team) every day, trained on your standards, working through your project management tool, chat or email – but billed only for the hours you use.
The model works best for firms with a steady backlog of production work: architectural and engineering offices, MEP consultants, fabricators and contractors with ongoing shop drawings. We start with a short trial on a real task, agree communication routines and then run day to day. Most clients overlap with our working hours in the morning (US) or the afternoon (UK, Australia).
For one-off projects with a fixed scope, a fixed quote under architectural drafting or MEP drafting is usually better value. For BIM teams, see BIM outsourcing.
Deliverables you receive
- A dedicated drafter or team assigned to your account
- Work in your templates, libraries and file structure
- Daily task updates through your preferred tool
- Timesheets with hours per project
- Backup drafter cover during leave
- Monthly review of output and quality
What we need from you
- Templates, standards and sample projects
- Access to your file share or cloud (or we host files)
- A main contact for daily tasks
- Expected weekly hours
Who orders this service
- Architectural and engineering practices
- MEP and structural consultants
- Fabricators with shop drawing backlogs
- Contractors with ongoing as-built and submittal work
Software and file formats
Whatever your team uses: AutoCAD, Revit, Civil 3D, MicroStation, SolidWorks, Inventor or Tekla. We can work on your cloud platform (Autodesk Construction Cloud, BIM 360, SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox) or remote desktop.
Contract Drafting Services standards in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia
We set up every project on the standard of the country where it will be built or manufactured. These are the references we work to most often:
| Country | Standards and codes we draft contract drafting services to |
|---|---|
| USA | Your company CAD/BIM manual; NCS and BIMForum LOD where you have none |
| UK | Your BEP and ISO 19650 information standards; BS 1192 naming |
| Canada | Your office standards; CanBIM protocols for BIM work |
| Australia | Your office standards; NATSPEC BIM/CAD guides |
How our contract drafting services process works
- 1Send your files
Upload sketches, PDFs, markups, photos, scans or a model through the quote form. Tell us the standard (US, UK, Canada or Australia) and the deadline.
- 2Fixed quote in hours
We review the scope and reply with a fixed price, the deliverables list and a delivery date. Nothing starts until you approve it.
- 3Drafting & modeling
Your project is drawn in AutoCAD, Revit, Civil 3D, SolidWorks or the software you use, on your title block, layers and templates.
- 4QA check
A second drafter checks dimensions, annotations, layer standards, sheet numbering and cross-references against your input before anything is sent.
- 5Delivery & revisions
You receive native files plus PDFs. Comments come back as markups and we revise them quickly until the set matches the brief.
Turnaround and pricing
A dedicated drafter can usually start within 3–5 business days after a short trial task. Every job is priced as a fixed quote after we review your files, so you know the cost and the delivery date before work starts. See how our pricing works, or send your files through the quote form for a quick estimate.
Related services
Contract Drafting Services projects often need BIM outsourcing services, architectural drafting services and AutoCAD drawing services as well. You can order them together on one quote, or browse every option in our design services.
