Archicad Drafting Services: What You Can Outsource

Quick answer: The Archicad work that outsources most cleanly is bounded and repetitive: modelling existing buildings, producing layouts from a model somebody else designed, building library parts, detailing, and converting drawings into a model. The work that outsources badly is anything requiring design judgement inside your office standards. The practical constraint is not skill but file handover, because Archicad Teamwork projects, version differences and library attachments all behave in ways that punish a casual handover.

What outsources cleanly

Four categories account for most of the Archicad work that external teams handle well.

• Existing conditions modelling. Building the model of a building that already exists, from a measured survey, a point cloud or an old drawing set. The geometry is determined by evidence rather than by design, so there is very little to get wrong once the inputs are complete.
• Layout production. Taking a model the practice designed and producing the sheets: views placed, scales set, dimensions and annotation added, title blocks populated, the layout book assembled. Tedious, high volume, and entirely rule governed.
• Library parts and objects. Building GDL objects or parametric components for products, assemblies or a practice library. A self contained piece of work with a testable result.
• Detailing and conversion. Producing details from the model, and converting 2D drawings or other software files into a working Archicad model.

What these share is that success is checkable without knowing the designer's intent. Somebody can open the file and say yes or no.

What does not outsource well

Design development is the obvious one, and the reason is not that external teams cannot design. It is that design inside an existing practice means absorbing a set of unwritten conventions about how that practice builds a model, and the cost of transferring those conventions usually exceeds the cost of doing the work.

The second is anything requiring live coordination with consultants across several daily exchanges. A supplier working a time zone away handles a weekly issue cycle beautifully and a three times a day conversation badly.

The third is template and standards work. Building the practice template, the attribute set, the favourites and the graphic overrides is the distilled identity of the office. It can be done externally, but only with an unusually involved person inside the practice, and it is rarely worth it.

The file handover rules

This is where Archicad engagements fail, and the failures are predictable enough to list.

Version. Archicad files save forward and never backward. A file touched in a newer version is permanently inaccessible to an older one. Agree the version number in writing before any file moves, and do not let a supplier upgrade a project to be helpful.

Teamwork. A BIMcloud Teamwork project is not a file you email. Either the supplier gets a licensed user on your BIMcloud, with a reservation discipline agreed in advance, or they work on a saved out solo PLN and you merge the result. Both work. Mixing them silently does not, and the usual symptom is two people reserving the same elements and one afternoon of work disappearing.

Libraries. A PLN that references a linked library arrives at the other end with missing objects unless the library travels with it. Use an archive PLA when the file is leaving the office, or send the container library explicitly. Half the reports of a corrupted Archicad file are a missing library.

Attributes. Layers, composites, fills, line types and surfaces are numbered, and merging two files that number them differently produces a mess that is laborious to untangle. Issue your attribute set at the start and require it to be used rather than extended, with any new attribute added at the end of the list and listed in the issue note.

Hotlinks. Modules keep a path. If the supplier works in a different folder structure, the hotlinks break on return. Agree the folder structure, not just the files.

Five paragraphs of discipline. They are the whole difference between an outsourcing arrangement that saves money and one that costs a week.

Archicad and the rest of the project

Most practices using Archicad work alongside consultants using something else, and the exchange format is IFC. It carries geometry and data reliably and loses the parametric behaviour of the objects, which is the expected and acceptable trade. A wall arrives as a wall with properties; it does not arrive as an editable Archicad composite.

For a round trip the discipline is to define a direction. One model is the source, the other receives. Models that are edited at both ends and exchanged repeatedly diverge, and nobody can say afterwards which was right. Where the structural or services model is authored elsewhere, bring it in as a reference and do not edit it.

DWG exchange is still common for consultants who want flat drawings, and the thing to agree is the layer translation. Archicad layers and the recipient's layer standard rarely match by accident, and an untranslated export is technically correct and practically useless. See CAD and BIM file requirements and drafting deliverable formats explained.

Getting visualization out of the model

An Archicad model is already most of a visualization. The geometry exists, the materials are assigned, the camera positions are easy to set, and nothing needs rebuilding. That is why rendering from an existing model is substantially cheaper than rendering a project that has to be modelled first, and why practices who model properly get their marketing imagery almost as a by product.

Published figures on the 3D rendering cost page apply: standard exterior stills $750 to $1,250 and upwards, premium exteriors $1,250 to $2,500 and upwards, interiors $1,250 to $3,500 and upwards per space, and 3D floor plans or site plans $750 to $2,500 and upwards. Walkthroughs and animation run $3,500 to $15,000 and upwards. Those ranges assume usable geometry arrives, which an Archicad model does.

What usually needs attention is not the geometry but the surfaces. Model surfaces are chosen to read well in the viewport and on a printed sheet, not under a photographic render, so the first step is usually a surface pass rather than a modelling pass. See BIM visualization explained and architectural visualization.

How to brief it

A workable Archicad brief fits on one page and contains eight things: the Archicad version number, whether the project is Teamwork or solo, the library arrangement, the attribute set, the folder structure for hotlinks, the layout and sheet list wanted, the drawing scales, and the issue date. Add one named contact on each side and a fixed weekly issue day.

Then do the thing most practices skip: send one small piece first. A single floor, or one layout. It costs a day and it surfaces every version, library and attribute problem before the main volume of work is committed. Every problem in the list above is cheap to find on one floor and expensive to find on forty.

For the comparable Revit scope see Revit drafting services and what you can outsource, and for the wider service architectural drafting services.

The honest summary

Archicad outsources well where the work is bounded and checkable, and badly where it depends on conventions that live in people's heads. The limiting factor is almost never modelling ability. It is version control, Teamwork protocol, library attachment and attribute discipline, all of which are solved by writing five lines down before any file moves and sending one test floor before the rest.

Do that and an external team becomes production capacity you can turn up and down. Skip it and you will spend the saving on untangling a merged attribute list.

What it costs in practice

There is no honest per sheet rate for Archicad production work, because the sheets vary by a factor of ten in content. What there is, reliably, is a shape to the pricing: existing conditions modelling is priced against the building and the quality of the survey behind it, layout production is priced against the sheet count once the template is fixed, and library work is priced against the number of distinct parametric behaviours rather than the number of objects.

The one place where published figures exist is visualization, and the 3D rendering cost page carries them. Drafting and modelling itself is scoped after the inputs are reviewed, for the same reason as every other existing building service: the same floor area can be a week or a quarter depending on how many unique conditions it holds.

What changes the number most is not complexity but the completeness of the inputs. A survey with levels, photographs and a labelled note of what could not be reached produces a model in a predictable number of hours. A survey missing those three things produces a model plus a long list of questions, and the questions are what cost money. See CAD drafting cost and what drives it and drafting fees per square foot.

Who should be doing this in house

A small practice that models well has a genuine reason to keep the modelling inside and push only the layouts out, because the model is where the design thinking lives and the layouts are where the hours go. A larger practice usually has the opposite problem: plenty of production capacity and not enough appetite for existing conditions work, which is exactly the category that outsources best.

The test is not the size of the office. It is whether the work being sent out can be checked by somebody opening a file, and whether that somebody has an hour a week to do it. An outsourcing arrangement with nobody checking is not capacity, it is a backlog with a delay built in. See BIM modelling for smaller practices and as-built drawings outsourcing for architecture firms.

Common questions

What Archicad work is best to outsource?

Existing conditions modelling, layout and sheet production from a model the practice designed, library and GDL object creation, detailing, and conversion of 2D drawings into a model. These share one feature: somebody can open the file and verify the result without knowing the designer unstated intent.

What should stay inside the practice?

Design development, anything needing several consultant exchanges a day, and template or standards work. Not because external teams lack skill, but because transferring the unwritten conventions of how your office builds a model usually costs more than doing the work yourself.

Can an outside team work on a Teamwork project?

Yes, with a licensed user on your BIMcloud and an agreed element reservation discipline. The alternative is a saved out solo PLN that you merge on return. Both work reliably. Mixing the two approaches without saying so is what causes lost afternoons of work.

Why do Archicad files arrive with missing objects?

Almost always a linked library that did not travel with the file. Issue an archive PLA when a project leaves the office, or send the container library explicitly. A large share of reported file corruption in Archicad is simply a library the recipient cannot see.

Does the Archicad version matter?

Greatly. Files save forward and never backward, so a project opened and saved in a newer version is permanently inaccessible to the older one. Agree the version number in writing before any file moves, and instruct suppliers never to upgrade a project unasked.

How should Archicad exchange data with consultants on other software?

IFC for geometry and data, accepting that parametric behaviour is lost in transit. Define one model as the source and one as the recipient rather than editing at both ends. For consultants who want flat drawings, DWG with an agreed layer translation, because an untranslated export is correct and unusable.

Can renders be produced from an existing Archicad model?

Yes, and it is much cheaper than visualization that starts from nothing, because the geometry already exists. The usual preparation is a surface pass rather than a modelling pass, since model surfaces are chosen to read in the viewport rather than under photographic lighting.

How do I start an outsourcing arrangement safely?

Write down eight things: version, Teamwork or solo, library arrangement, attribute set, hotlink folder structure, sheet list, scales and date. Then send one floor or one layout as a test. It costs a day and exposes every version, library and attribute problem before the main volume is committed.

Frequently asked questions

What Archicad work is best to outsource?

Existing conditions modelling, layout and sheet production from a model the practice designed, library and GDL object creation, detailing, and conversion of 2D drawings into a model. These share one feature: somebody can open the file and verify the result without knowing the designer unstated intent.

What should stay inside the practice?

Design development, anything needing several consultant exchanges a day, and template or standards work. Not because external teams lack skill, but because transferring the unwritten conventions of how your office builds a model usually costs more than doing the work yourself.

Can an outside team work on a Teamwork project?

Yes, with a licensed user on your BIMcloud and an agreed element reservation discipline. The alternative is a saved out solo PLN that you merge on return. Both work reliably. Mixing the two approaches without saying so is what causes lost afternoons of work.

Why do Archicad files arrive with missing objects?

Almost always a linked library that did not travel with the file. Issue an archive PLA when a project leaves the office, or send the container library explicitly. A large share of reported file corruption in Archicad is simply a library the recipient cannot see.

Does the Archicad version matter?

Greatly. Files save forward and never backward, so a project opened and saved in a newer version is permanently inaccessible to the older one. Agree the version number in writing before any file moves, and instruct suppliers never to upgrade a project unasked.

How should Archicad exchange data with consultants on other software?

IFC for geometry and data, accepting that parametric behaviour is lost in transit. Define one model as the source and one as the recipient rather than editing at both ends. For consultants who want flat drawings, DWG with an agreed layer translation, because an untranslated export is correct and unusable.

Can renders be produced from an existing Archicad model?

Yes, and it is much cheaper than visualization that starts from nothing, because the geometry already exists. The usual preparation is a surface pass rather than a modelling pass, since model surfaces are chosen to read in the viewport rather than under photographic lighting.

How do I start an outsourcing arrangement safely?

Write down eight things: version, Teamwork or solo, library arrangement, attribute set, hotlink folder structure, sheet list, scales and date. Then send one floor or one layout as a test. It costs a day and exposes every version, library and attribute problem before the main volume is committed.