CAD drafting services
AutoCAD-based drafting for fibre, EV, and infrastructure projects — permit drawings, construction packs, and as-builts where DWG is required.
CAD drafting covers the work that ends up as AutoCAD drawings — permit submissions, construction packs, traffic control plans, as-builts. We work in CAD where the deliverable demands it: permit authorities (DOT, city engineering, railway, tribal) that require DWG, contractors that mark up drawings in the field, project teams whose own systems are CAD-native.
Most projects don’t need everything in CAD. We default to GIS-native (QGIS, ArcGIS) where lighter delivery is enough, and switch to CAD where the downstream user requires it. Where a project needs both, we run them in parallel rather than producing two disconnected sets.
When you actually need CAD drafting
A common mistake on infrastructure projects is producing every deliverable in CAD because that’s what the engineering team is used to. CAD output is heavier to maintain, slower to revise, and often less useful for spatial analysis than GIS-native data. The honest answer is that CAD is the right choice in three specific situations:
1. Your permit authority requires it. State Departments of Transportation, many city engineering departments, railway operators, tribal authorities, and federal agencies require DWG submission. They reject PDFs from GIS exports because their internal review process needs AutoCAD layers, blocks, and annotation in a format their teams can mark up and return.
2. Your construction team works in CAD. Civil construction crews often work from printed drawings and mark them up by hand. They want clean, well-annotated CAD drawings — not GIS exports rasterised onto paper. Foremen need to see clearances, dimensions, and standard symbols at a glance.
3. Your downstream design partners are CAD-native. Subcontractors, structural engineers, and electrical engineers often work in AutoCAD or Civil 3D. Handing them GIS data forces a conversion step, with attendant data loss. Working natively in CAD avoids that friction.
If none of these three apply, GIS-native delivery is usually the right call — faster, lighter, easier to keep in sync with the network of record.
What we draft
We deliver CAD drawings across three project types:
Fibre / FTTx projects
- Construction packs with route plans, splice diagrams, and asset placement
- Permit drawings for DOT, city, railway, and tribal submissions
- Pole loading and make-ready engineering drawings (in formats the pole owner accepts)
- As-built redrafts from field markups
- Civils detail (trench cross-sections, chamber layouts, duct routes)
- Splice closure and cabinet detail drawings
EV charging projects
- Site layout drawings showing vehicle access, charger placement, and pedestrian routes
- Electrical schematics and single line diagrams
- Civils detail (charger foundations, ducting, drainage)
- Permit drawings for planning consents and grid connection applications
- Construction packs ready for the installation contractor
Cross-cutting civils work
- Standard drawing template setup (title blocks, layer standards, line types)
- Drawing register and version control
- Hand-drawn-to-CAD conversion
- PDF-to-CAD conversion for legacy documentation
- Drawing standards consulting (e.g. moving an organisation onto consistent symbol libraries)
Drawing standards we work to
CAD drafting that lands on a permit authority’s desk needs to match that authority’s drawing standards exactly — title block format, layer naming, line weights, symbol libraries. We work to:
- NESC for US pole attachment and clearance drawings
- State DOT standards (per state — California, Texas, Florida, New York and others have distinct requirements)
- City and county engineering standards for ROW and permit submissions
- Railway operator standards (BNSF, Union Pacific, Network Rail) for crossings and adjacent works
- RUS loan design standards for US rural fibre projects
- BS 7671 and IET standards for UK electrical work (EV charging)
- Building regulations (UK and US) for any built-environment overlap
If your project requires standards we haven’t listed, we’ll adapt — most authority drawing standards are public documents and the work is in following them, not knowing them in advance.
How a CAD drafting engagement runs
A typical engagement moves through five phases:
1. Brief and scope. You send us the project — what’s being built, what authority is approving it, what the construction team needs, what timeline you’re working to. We come back with scope, price, and any clarifying questions before we start.
2. Standards setup. Where you have an existing CAD standard (title blocks, layer naming, symbol libraries), we adopt it. Where you don’t, we set one up consistent with the authority’s requirements.
3. Drafting. We work in AutoCAD (or Civil 3D where the project warrants it). For fibre and EV projects, the drafting often runs alongside design — we’ll integrate with whoever’s producing the underlying design data, whether that’s an in-house team, a separate contractor, or our own design service.
4. Review and revisions. First-pass output goes to you for review. We expect at least one round of revisions — drafting that doesn’t get redlined the first time usually means we missed something. Authority feedback is its own revision cycle.
5. Handover. Final delivery in DWG format, with PDF copies for distribution. Where the project benefits from GIS-native data alongside CAD, we provide both.
File formats and handover
We deliver in AutoCAD DWG as the primary format, currently working in 2018 and later versions. PDF copies are produced for every drawing as a quality-controlled distribution format.
Where downstream teams need other formats:
- DXF for interoperability with non-AutoCAD CAD systems
- DGN for MicroStation environments
- PDF for review and distribution
- GIS exports (Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoJSON) where the data needs to flow into a GIS system after CAD work is done
Common pitfalls in outsourced CAD work
Most CAD outsourcing doesn’t fail on technical capability. It fails on three operational issues, all avoidable:
Layer chaos. A drawing produced without consistent layer discipline takes longer to revise than it took to produce. We set layer standards before we start a project, and we hold to them.
Title block drift. Authority submissions get rejected when title blocks deviate from required format. We build a project-specific title block at standards setup phase and use it on every drawing.
Lost context between revisions. When draftsmen rotate between projects, drawing context gets lost between revisions. We work with stable assignment per project — the same draftsmen run the project from start to finish.
If any of these have bitten you on a previous CAD outsourcing engagement, ask us how we handle them on a scoping call. We’ll tell you in concrete terms, not slogans.
How we deliver
CAD drafting work runs on an integrated UK-and-offshore model. Production drafting happens within our offshore team, and review and quality control happens onshore in the UK before any deliverable goes back to the client. The arrangement keeps cost competitive while preserving the engineering review layer that catches issues before they reach a permit authority’s desk.
For projects where the client requires onshore-only work, we offer that too — the model is selected to fit the project, not the other way around.
Talk to us about a CAD project
Tell us what’s being built, who needs the drawings, and what timeline you’re working to. We’ll come back with scope, price range, and a proposed approach — typically within two business days for projects under 200 drawings. Larger programmes warrant a scoping call.
Typical deliverables
- AutoCAD drawings (DWG) for permit and construction submission
- Title block and drawing standards setup
- Permit-authority-ready output (DOT, city, railway, tribal)
- Construction packs in CAD format
- As-built redrafting from field markups
- Civils detail drawings (trench, chamber, pole, duct)
Who buys this
Project owners working with permit authorities, construction crews, or contractors that require AutoCAD-format drawings rather than PDF or GIS-native output.
Talk to us about delivery options
Tell us what you need delivered, what your timeline is, and what format the downstream team needs the output in. We'll come back with scope, price range, and proposed approach.