Drafting Outsourcing: The $50,000 Decision Nobody Tells You About

I'm going to save some of you a lot of money right now. If your firm spends less than $50,000 a year on CAD drafting, close this page. Outsourcing offshore drafting services isn't for you, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. The maths doesn't work, the training investment won't pay off, and you'll waste six months discovering what I'm telling you now. Still here? Right, let's talk about when outsourcing your architectural drafting, engineering drawings, or BIM modeling actually makes sense—and the costs nobody mentions until you're already committed. I'm Stephen Atcheler. Spent fifteen years watching Australian, American, and Kiwi firms either nail offshore staffing or completely cock it up. Most of the failures come down to unrealistic expectations and hidden costs that conveniently never make it into the sales pitch.

The Advertised Rate vs. The Actual Cost

Here's what every offshore CAD drafting provider tells you: "Our experienced drafters are just $15-20 per hour!" Here's what they don't tell you: that $15/hour drafter costs you $32/hour in year one. The real cost breakdown for a full-time offshore drafter in their first year: Base salary: $15/hour × 2,080 hours = $31,200 USD Platform/agency markup: +20-30% = $6,240-9,360 Your CAD software licenses (they need YOUR version): $1,500-2,000 Training time (60 hours of your senior drafter's time): $4,500 Management overhead (5 hours/week of your time): $19,500 First 90 days of mistakes and rework: $3,000-5,000 Project management tools, file sharing, communication: $1,000 Total year one: $66,940-70,560 USD Effective hourly rate: $32-34/hour Compare that to hiring a local CAD drafter in the USA at $26.50/hour ($55,120/year), Australia at $50-60/hour, or New Zealand at similar rates to Australia—suddenly that 70% cost saving looks more like 30-40% in reality. By year two, once they're trained and productive, your costs drop to around $23-25/hour effective rate. That's when the savings actually materialise. But you've got to survive year one first.

The 90-Day Training Reality

"Experienced CAD professionals" is the phrase every offshore drafting provider loves to use. And they're not lying—these drafters absolutely know AutoCAD, Revit, or whatever software you're using. What they don't know is YOUR standards. Your layer naming conventions. Your template files. Your typical project types. How you like dimensions placed. Which details you always use. The quirks of your regular clients. Here's the actual timeline I've seen work across firms in Brisbane, Denver, and Auckland: Weeks 1-2: Learning your file organisation, layer standards, and templates. They're producing work, but you're spending 2-3 hours daily reviewing and correcting. Weeks 3-6: Understanding your project types and standards. Output is acceptable but slow—about 40-50% of a local drafter's speed. Weeks 7-12: Building efficiency and confidence. You're still managing closely, 5-8 hours per week. Speed improves to 60-70%. Month 4+: Finally productive at 80-90% speed. Management time drops to 2-3 hours weekly. This is when ROI actually starts. I worked with a mid-sized architectural firm in Melbourne who hired an offshore team through one of the big Indian providers. Brilliant technical skills, proper training, good English. Still took three and a half months before they stopped needing daily video calls to clarify standards. The firm nearly gave up at week 10 when they were still doing extensive redlines on every drawing set. They stuck with it. Eighteen months later, they're saving $127,000 annually with a team of three offshore drafters. But that first year? Break-even at best.

Where Geography Actually Matters

For American firms, the Philippines and India cost roughly the same—$15-25/hour all-in. The difference is the 12-16 hour time zone gap that cuts both ways. The overnight work cycle sounds brilliant in theory: you send a project at 5pm Friday, wake up Monday to completed drawings. In practice, you send the project Friday afternoon, they start Monday morning their time (your Sunday evening), and by the time you review Tuesday, you've burned three days. Add a revision cycle and suddenly your "overnight turnaround" took a week. Now flip to Australian and New Zealand firms. The Philippines is only 2-4 hours different from Sydney or Auckland time zones. You can have actual real-time conversations. Schedule a 2pm meeting and both sides are awake, alert, and collaborative. This is why Philippines-based drafting services work better for Aussie and Kiwi firms—not cheaper, just more practical. One Sydney-based structural engineering firm I know switched from an Indian provider to a Manila-based team specifically for this reason. Same quality, same cost, but project timelines improved by 20% because they could have revision discussions immediately instead of waiting for the next business day. Eastern European drafters—Ukraine, Poland—cost 30-40% more than Asian teams ($25-35/hour) but sit in a more manageable time zone for USA firms. Seven to nine hours' difference means some overlap for real-time collaboration. Higher cost, better communication, faster iterations. Sometimes worth it for complex projects where back-and-forth matters.

What Works Offshore vs. What Doesn't

Not all drafting work should leave your office. I've seen firms try to offshore everything and end up with expensive disasters. Perfect for outsourcing:

• Repetitive floor plan variations (apartment buildings, tract housing)
• 3D model creation from your approved 2D drawings
• Sheet set assembly and standardised annotation
• Drawing cleanup and file organisation
• Quantity takeoffs and schedules
• As-built updates from redlines you've marked up Keep in-house:
• Initial concept sketches (too collaborative, too iterative)
• Client-facing renderings where your brand reputation is on the line
• Permit-ready construction documents (your professional liability)
• Anything requiring site visits or local building code expertise
• Last-minute rush jobs where time zones kill your deadline
• Highly proprietary or sensitive designs A commercial construction firm in Texas tried outsourcing their permit drawings to save money. Three projects came back with code violations the offshore team missed—because they didn't know the specific county requirements for fire egress in that jurisdiction. Cost them $18,000 in resubmission fees and delayed starts. They now keep permit-ready docs in-house and outsource the background work.

The Freelancer vs. Agency Question

Upwork and Fiverr look tempting. $12/hour CAD freelancers with great portfolios and five-star reviews. Why pay an agency $25/hour when you can hire direct? Because 70-80% of cheap freelancers fail within the first 2-3 projects. They're juggling five clients. Your project sits in a queue. Communication is sporadic. They ghost you mid-project because a better offer came along. You've got no backup, no quality control, no accountability. I've watched firms hire four consecutive Upwork freelancers before giving up and going with a proper agency. Total cost of those failed attempts: $4,800 plus four months of wasted time. An agency charges more up-front but includes project management, quality control, backup resources, and someone to yell at when things go wrong. That said, if you need a one-off project—a single 3D model or a set of shop drawings—a skilled freelancer can be brilliant. Just don't try building an ongoing relationship with someone who's incentivised to chase the next highest bidder.

Real Numbers from Real Firms

ShoreAgents places full-time offshore staff at $1,200-2,500/month depending on role complexity and experience level. For CAD drafters and BIM modelers, you're typically at the $1,400-1,800 range. Compare to local costs: USA: $3,500-6,000/month for equivalent roles Australia: $4,000-7,000/month New Zealand: $3,800-6,500/month One Queensland construction company we work with—Gallery Group—hired a full-time estimator and drafting assistant through us. Annual savings of $73,000 AUD, with performance reviews consistently rating the offshore team member 5/5. But they came in knowing exactly what they needed, had documented processes, and committed to proper training time. That's the pattern I see work: firms that prepare properly, set realistic timelines, and treat offshore staff as actual team members rather than disposable vendors.

When This Doesn't Work (And You Should Walk Away)

If any of these apply to you, outsourcing offshore drafting will cost you more than it saves: Annual drafting spend under $50,000 – The training investment won't pay back. Use project-based freelancers or hire part-time locally. No documented CAD standards – You can't outsource chaos. If your layer systems and templates aren't written down, you're not ready. Under 10 employees total – You don't have the management bandwidth. Someone needs to oversee offshore staff 5-10 hours weekly in the first six months. Highly specialised or proprietary work – Defence contractors with ITAR restrictions, pharmaceutical facilities, anything with serious IP concerns or regulatory complexity. Project-based work with long gaps – If you need drafters for three months, then nothing for four months, then two months, you'll spend all your savings on constant retraining. No appetite for 90-day ramp-up – If you need someone productive next week, hire locally. Offshore teams need proper onboarding.

The Honest Path Forward

Look, offshore CAD drafting and BIM outsourcing works. I've seen it save Australian engineering firms $100,000+ annually. American architectural practices cutting overhead by 40%. New Zealand construction companies scaling up without adding local headcount. But it's not magic, it's not instant, and it's definitely not as cheap as the hourly rate suggests. You need consistent volume ($50,000+ annual spend), documented processes, realistic timelines (90 days to productivity), and genuine commitment to training and management. Get those right, and by year two you're seeing legitimate 40-50% cost savings with quality work. Skip the preparation, expect immediate results, or treat offshore staff as disposable resources, and you'll burn $20,000-30,000 discovering this doesn't work for you. If you're spending serious money on drafting, have your standards documented, and can commit to a proper 90-day onboarding process, offshore drafting services make excellent financial sense. We place CAD drafters, BIM modelers, and technical support staff for firms across the USA, Australia, and New Zealand at $1,200-2,500/month full-time. But if you're not ready—if your annual volume is too low, your processes aren't documented, or you need someone productive immediately—I'd rather tell you now than have you waste six months discovering it yourself. Sometimes the honest answer is: not yet. Get in touch if your numbers work and you're ready to do this properly. We'll talk you through what realistic success looks like—including the bits that aren't fun to hear.