Drafting Prices

[TotalDesain]

As we had known, drafting services had different price at each countries. This case should being bussiness opportunity while we could and wishes to take the benefit. Through this forum, I have wishes to knowing more about drafting prices in your side. Who knows, we will have possibility to take partnership in bussiness and have future prospect.
In my side, drafting price is around of 3 USD - 7 USD per hour, if this calculated base on work time which depend on difficulty design. If we calculated base on paper size, we can reckon the price by our self about the work which we will do. It's would be depend by our skill too. But, we have crude reference to reckon at least.
If you go into this thread, please post the drafting price in your side. Thanks.
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totaldesain@yahoo.com

Posting your Drafting Order Procedure at
http://www.autocadeverything.com/phpBB/sutra2893.php#2893

[architech]

In New Mexico, USA .... a company "CAD conversions" charges $35 per sheet with autovectorization. Autovectorization is just using a software to automactically trace an image.

In India ... a company "Dimensions Interactive" charges $48 per sheet for manual tracing of an image.

In California, USA ... a company "GreatCAD" charges $200 per sheet for manual tracing.

In California, USA ... another company "Q-CAD" charges $80 per sheet for manual tracing.


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Hope that gives you an idea of price range.
Later guy.
:mrgreen:

(NOTE: The prices above are only for converting paper "Scans" to DWG.)

[csiarch]

For what it's worth, expect a completed CADD drawing sheet with all revisions made to cost between $1,200 and $1,800 USD.

[TotalDesain]

wow...

great cost... but I think you have great cost of live too.

:D

[Eddie]

8) Holy hole in the wallet with those prices CADMEN..... 8)

[csiarch]

Okay, okay, I get the point, people!

The costs I mentioned are from start to finish, going from concept to completed, signed-off-on drawings.

The drawings are detailed architectural sheets containing a lot of information.

These prices may seem excessive to some but you also have to consider that the cost includes starting with a blank drawing, deciding where to initially put stuff (a whole topic unto itself), deciding what blocks are to be used, creating blocks (if needed), manipulating layer names, colors and line weights (not everything is answered in a .dwt file), coordination with other disciplines, error checking, revisions from changes in scope, revisions because the designer can't visualize properly, revisions to reduce cost, revisions because things don't plot the way you expected, revisions because things didn't plot the way the boss expected, etc., etc., etc.. :roll:

When you consider all the possibilities, I don't think the cost is that far out of line IMO.

Comparatively speaking (again IMO), tracing other drawings is a relative no-brainer. Not to belittle services that do this for they are needed but an intangible factor that many seldom consider is decision-making time charged to the project -the time the user sits there staring at the screen deciding what should be done next -and how best to do it.

All these things count in the cost.

It would be interesting to see what some other actual costs are; anyone want to keep track and report back? :D

[wmiller]

csiarch,

If it makes you feel less defensive, in our business (offshore deepwater) our design dwgs, start to finish, bill out anywhere from 4,000 to 5,500 dollars. (USD of course) If working OT, which we usually are, multiply that by 1.5

[architech]

Wow ....

I forgot about this post ... 8)

To answer what happened ...

We went with GreatCAD. $250 each sheet. 3 floor plans

turnaround time was 4 days versus 2 days.

mistakes were found and they fix it and turned it around 2 days later.

some more mistakes were spotted and they fixed it ... turn around time wa 6 days....


Moral of the story is ... it was still worth the money paid .. provided the project was in no rush for accuracy.


The provided a backgrounds for the electrical engineers here.

And we (the architects) updated the backgrounds as the NEW versions came in. Simple SAVEAS .... :P

I would not recommend this is .. if accuracy and time would be an issue.

So that's my experience.
:wink:

[csiarch]

wmiller: If you interpreted my "plain speaking" approach as "defensive", can't help it. That's the way I write and talk.

The point I was trying to make was that I think many people don't consider decision-making time -only time spent actually sending information to the program (commands, etc.). There are certain built-in intangibles associated with drafting whether it pencil and paper or cadd and they often get shut out of the formula. That's All! :wink:

To: architech: Greatcad must have low overhead, perhaps? Or coolie labor. I'm a registered architect with many years of experience and I think my time is worth something. I cannot guarantee "perfect" first-time drawings even with that experience simply because it's highly unlikely that you get a drawing exactly correct the first shot. No point to make; simply stating how it is. 'Bye :P

[architech]

I hear ya' guy! :mrgreen:

My time too is worth more than GreatCAD $$$$ And this is why I advised my management team to go with GreatCAD. My time manage the file transfer is minimal so between that and the flat fee from GreatCAD the architects came in budget.

And "CSIarch" your comments are always welcomed here. :P

later guy

[csiarch]

Architech: Thanks for the support. :)

I would like to bring up only one point about outside cadd help.

In the scenario where things go wrong and everyone starts looking for someone to point the finger at for "errors and omissions" adjudication, just make certain that your firm's professional liability insurance covers cadd outsourcing. Also determine that the outsourcing firm has insurance. Sometimes there's another reason besides competition why drafting prices are cheap.

Have you firm's legal council read the fine print very carefully. If you meet your production budget but lose the savings (and more) in a lawsuit ......well, you get the picture.

[shelly]

My boss charges $40 per hour for my time. It generally equals out to be about $10 per square foot to do a typical residential house