Re: Hourly rate for CAD drawings in the US ??

On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:13:37 +0100, "Synapse Syndrome"
<synapse@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>
>"A Troll" <t555hssdrw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>news:t7d3b25jsg6tpf0vq3fe161rm7eneugcv9@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>>Location (ie. competition with local rates), type of drawings and
>>>complexity (residential, commercial, etc.), and other factors.  The US
>>>is rather large and does not even remotely approximate a "market".  It
>>>is comprised of many markets and they all have their peculiarities.
>>>
>>>FWIW, I've seen CAD drawings offered for anywhere from ten cents per
>>>square foot to nearly ten times that.  In other words, why don't you
>>>contact some local drafters in the engineer's neck of the woods and ask
>>>them what they charge.  Then, remembering that the engineer is
>>>outsourcing to save money, and how far outsourcing can go nowadays,
>>>ignore what you learned in the first investigation and just come up
>>>with what you think is a fair price.
>>>
>>>As an alternative, ask the engineer expects to pay, and then act
>>>surprised and ask for triple that.  Compromise at double and you'll
>>>probably both be relatively happy.
>
>>
>> Do you need a chance to show what you can do or not?
>> Are you a known "thing"?
>> $35 per hour is a starting basis.  What constitutes an hour is another
>> thing.  Do you have special skills and timesaving programs or is this
>> routine - copy the pencil trash - is this a finished product or are
>> several reviews by other required?
>
>Thanks for your answers.  I am good with ArchiCAD, and this guy seems to 
>have contacted me through the Graphisoft forums where he could have
deduced 
>that I am quite advanced with it.  My problem is that I am a bit of a 
>perfectionist and take longer than I should to do drawings.  From the 
>examples of the type of drawings that he wants me to do, some of of which

>are complex, I think that in time I can reduce the amount of time
required 
>by building my own library parts.
>
>ss. 
>

To work well with a str eng you will certainly need to have a good
understanding of structures and designs.  Are you good in physics,
trig, vector math and perhaps even a basic structures class.  Not that
you will be doing any of this but you will be able to follow and
correctly detail what is going on - as somebody must do on every
single job.  Perhaps the guy only wants help on the cad side with
automation.
$ and thoughts of $ is for peasants.  If you are really good people
will pay ANYTHING for competence.    If you can't be trusted to do
work by the hour then certainly only a fool would want you for
piece-work or by the job.   An employer wants SOLUTIONS and problems
to go away.   You absolutely never know but this could be the start of
a long happy relation****p.
Good luck,
TT