DWG
- What it is
- Layered CAD, organised so layers can be turned off and worked over
- Typically used for
- Design teams continuing the drawing in AutoCAD
CAD Drafting · Metro Vancouver
CAD drafting services in Vancouver
Most CAD drafting starts from something unreliable: a scanned PDF, a lease exhibit, or a drawing set that stopped matching the building several tenants ago. Ours starts from a measurement of the building as it stands today.
- Layered DWG
- Drawn from ±10mm data
- Metro Vancouver & Fraser Valley
What a drafting service in Vancouver actually does
"Drafting services" covers several different jobs, and the search results for it mix them together. Some drafting firms draw new designs: a house plan, an addition, a proposed office layout. Some prepare the drawing set that goes in with a building permit. Some turn paper or scanned drawings into live CAD. And some, like us, draw the building that already exists, measured as it stands today.
We do the last two, and only from measured data. We are not architects and we do not design. We do not prepare, seal or submit permit drawings. What we draft is the existing-conditions set: the plans, ceiling plans, elevations and sections of the building as it is, which the architect, designer or contractor then draws their proposal over.
That is the first drawing almost every renovation, tenant improvement or addition needs, and it is the one most often skipped or approximated. If you are looking for someone to design the new work, you need a designer or architect. If they need an accurate drawing of what is already there to start from, that is us, and the table below sorts out which is which.
Which kind of drafting you are looking for
Five jobs that all get called drafting. Most projects need more than one of them, drawn by different people, in this order.
| Kind of drafting | What it shows | Usually drawn by | Do we do it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of draftingExisting-conditions drafting | What it showsThe building as it stands: walls, openings, columns, ceilings and levels, measured and drawn to scale | Usually drawn byA measuring and drafting service working from a site survey | Do we do it?Yes. This is the service, drawn from a LiDAR scan of the building |
| Kind of draftingRedraw of a legacy set | What it showsAn old paper or scanned PDF drawing rebuilt as layered, editable CAD | Usually drawn byA drafting service | Do we do it?Yes, and where accuracy matters we scan first so the redraw does not carry the old errors forward |
| Kind of draftingDesign drafting | What it showsProposed work: a new layout, an addition, a suite, a new house plan | Usually drawn byThe architect, interior designer or building designer on the project | Do we do it?No. We do not design. We supply the measured base the design is drawn over |
| Kind of draftingPermit drawing set | What it showsThe proposal as submitted for a building permit, with whatever the municipality asks to see | Usually drawn byThe designer or architect, to the authority having jurisdiction's requirements | Do we do it?No. We do not prepare, seal or submit permit drawings. Our drawing is the existing-conditions part the set is built on |
| Kind of draftingShop and fabrication drawings | What it showsHow a specific trade will build its piece: millwork, steel, glazing, ductwork | Usually drawn byThe trade or fabricator | Do we do it?No. A measured existing plan is what those trades check site dimensions against |
This describes who usually draws what, not what a particular project needs. Whether a project requires an architect, an engineer or a permit is a question for your designer and your municipality.
Drafting is only as good as its source
A drafting job has two halves that rarely get talked about separately. There is the drawing itself — layers, lineweights, annotation, standards — and there is the question of where the geometry came from. Firms shop hard on the first half and almost never ask about the second.
That is backwards. A beautifully drafted plan built on a bad measurement is a beautifully drafted wrong answer, and the error does not surface until someone is on site with a tape measure wondering why the millwork does not fit. Redrawing is cheap. Rework in the field is not.
We draft from LiDAR. The building is captured at ±10mm with an iGUIDE PLANIX before anyone opens CAD, so every wall, opening and column in the finished drawing sits where the scan found it. The drafting standards are ordinary and unglamorous — that part should be. The measurement underneath is the part worth paying attention to.
What we draft
Commercial, industrial and residential buildings. Every drawing below is produced from measured existing conditions.
Floor plans
Dimensioned plans of the space as it currently exists, including the partitions that were never drawn and the ones that were removed without anyone updating the set.
Reflected ceiling plans
Ceiling grid, fixtures, diffusers and devices located from the scan rather than assumed from a standard layout.
Elevations and sections
Interior elevations and sections cut from the same dataset as the plans, so the two cannot disagree with each other.
Site and roof plans
Building footprint, roof geometry and site context where the scope calls for the exterior as well as the interior.
Demolition and existing-conditions sets
The base set a design team works from at the start of a tenant improvement, showing what is actually there before anything is proposed.
Redraws of legacy drawings
Paper or scanned PDF sets rebuilt as live, layered CAD — and verified against a scan, so the redraw fixes the drift instead of preserving it.
How the file arrives
The deliverable list is agreed before the scan, because it changes nothing about the site visit and everything about the drafting effort.
- What it is
- Dimensioned, printable plan sheets
- Typically used for
- Circulation, markup, permit-set backgrounds, the building file
RVT
- What it is
- A Revit model of existing conditions, modelled against the point cloud
- Typically used for
- Teams designing and coordinating in BIM
iGUIDE 3D tour
- What it is
- A navigable capture of the space, linked to the floor plan
- Typically used for
- Checking a detail without booking another site visit
Floor plans and the 3D tour usually land in one to two business days. Full CAD and Revit deliverables take about a week for a typical commercial scope.
How a drafting project runs
Scope the drawing list
Which sheets, which level of annotation, which formats, and whose CAD standards the file has to land in. This is settled first because it drives everything after it.
Capture the building
LiDAR capture at ±10mm. Occupied spaces are worked around; the scan does not require the floor to be cleared or the tenant to leave.
Draft against the data
Geometry is drawn from the registered scan, then annotated and layered to the agreed standard. Nothing is placed from memory or from the previous set.
Review and hand off
You get the drawings to look over. Corrections at this stage are part of the job, not a change order.
Working to your CAD standards
Most firms of any size have a layer convention, a titleblock and a set of habits their drawings are expected to follow, whether that is an in-house standard or something closer to the AIA layer guidelines. Tell us what yours is when you book and the file arrives in it.
If you do not have a documented standard — which is common, and not a problem — we deliver in a clean, conventional layer structure that a drafter can pick up without a legend. Either way the goal is the same: the file should be immediately workable by your team, not something they have to reorganise before they can start.
Common questions
Not the design. We are not architects and we do not design, so the proposed layout, the addition or the new house plan comes from your designer or architect. What we draw is the existing building, measured as it stands, which is what they need before they can start. If you do not have a designer yet, the as-built gives whoever you hire an accurate starting point.
No. We do not prepare, seal or submit permit drawings, and we do not advise on what an application needs to include. The permit set is your designer's or architect's work, to the municipality's requirements. Our existing-conditions drawing is often the part of that set that shows what is already there.
We can, and sometimes it is the right call — for example when a recent, trustworthy set simply needs to be rebuilt as live CAD. But we will tell you what that file is and is not: it inherits whatever the source got wrong. Where accuracy matters, scanning first is the honest answer.
Yes. Send the standard, a template file, or an example drawing when you book, and the deliverable comes back in that structure rather than in ours.
It depends on area, how many sheet types are in scope, the level of annotation, and whether a Revit model is included. The booking calculator gives an instant estimate for a defined scope rather than a number that changes after the site visit.
Yes. Most of our drafting is commercial and industrial — offices, warehouses, retail, flex space and tenant improvement work across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley — but we take residential projects too. Send us the details and we will scope it.
Floor plans and the 3D tour are typically back in one to two business days after the scan. A full layered CAD set for a typical commercial scope takes about a week. Larger or more detailed scopes take longer, and we say so before you book rather than after.
Keep reading
Get drawings built on a real measurement
Book online with an instant estimate, and tell us which sheets and formats your team needs.