2016
Drafting since
1,500+
Projects delivered
Online
Every state & territory
Fixed-fee
No hourly billing
Architectural Drafting Services in Australia
Permit-ready and build-ready drawings for owner-builders, builders, renovators and developers — delivered entirely online, in every state and territory.
Draftee is an Australian online architectural drafting firm working with owner-builders, builders, renovators, and developers in every state and territory. Since 2016 we’ve drafted more than 1,500 projects — from single-storey homes and granny flats through to townhouse developments, commercial fitouts, and shed-to-dwelling conversions. Because we operate entirely online — supported by our own in-house client app — we deliver the same drafting service to a regional Tasmanian owner-builder as we do to a developer in inner Melbourne.
This page explains what architectural drafting actually involves, how our process works, and how to decide whether drafting (rather than architecture) is the right service for your project.
What is architectural drafting?
Architectural drafting is the discipline of producing the technical drawings a project needs to obtain permits, satisfy councils and certifiers, and be built on site. It sits between design and construction: a draftsperson takes a brief, a sketch, or an existing concept and translates it into a precise, dimensioned, code-compliant set of documents that a builder, engineer, energy rater, and council can all work from.
In Australia, the distinction between an architect and a draftsperson (or building designer) is important and often misunderstood. Architects are registered professionals — usually members of a state architects board and frequently of the Australian Institute of Architects — who carry out design-led work, often on bespoke or high-end projects, and charge fees that reflect that. Draftspeople are not registered architects, but are highly skilled in building documentation, the National Construction Code (NCC), and the council and certifier processes that actually get a project approved and built.
For the majority of Australian residential and small-commercial projects — extensions, granny flats, townhouses, owner-builder homes, fitouts, multi-unit developments — full architectural services are not required and not cost-effective. What’s required is a clean, well-coordinated set of architectural drafting services: planning drawings, building permit drawings, and construction drawings that hold up to council scrutiny and let a builder price and build the job accurately. That is the work Draftee does.
If you already have a concept in mind (or even just a hand sketch), and you need it turned into a permit-ready and build-ready set of documents quickly and affordably, you’re looking for a draftsperson, not an architect.
The Draftee drafting process
Most projects move through six stages from first contact to handover — a matter of weeks rather than months, because we focus on documentation rather than extended design exploration. Every project runs through our in-house client app: a single place to upload moodboards, reference photos, site documents and sketches, and to talk directly with the drafting team on your job.
1
Initial Brief
You tell us what you’re trying to build: project type, site address, rough scope, budget range, and any constraints (overlays, easements, existing plans, builder already engaged). We confirm scope and provide a fixed-fee quote within 1–2 business days. Once you’re on board, you upload your moodboard, inspiration images, surveys, title documents, soil reports or hand sketches straight into your project workspace — everything in one place, no email chains.
2
Concept and preliminary drawings
We produce concept floor plans and preliminary elevations for your review — room layouts, orientation, rough setbacks, key dimensions. You review drafts in the app, leave comments directly on the drawings, and we iterate until the concept is right. Typical turnaround: 1–2 weeks depending on complexity.
3
Town planning drawings (where required)
If your project triggers a planning permit, we quote and prepare the full submission set: site plans, floor plans, elevations, sections, shadow diagrams, site coverage and permeability calculations, and any reports the council requires. You lodge the application with council (or your appointed planner does); we provide everything needed for the submission and assist throughout.
4
Building permit and construction drawings
The detailed, dimensioned set a private surveyor or council certifier needs to issue a building permit — and the same set your builder uses to price and construct. Includes structural setouts, window and door schedules, joinery and wet-area details, and section drawings.
5
Coordination with engineers, energy raters & surveyors
We coordinate with the consultants your project needs: structural engineers for footing and framing design, energy raters for six-star NatHERS reports, and land surveyors for feature and re-establishment surveys. We can recommend trusted partners if you don’t have one.
6
Handover
You receive the final coordinated drawing set as high-resolution PDFs, ready for permit lodgement and construction. We remain available for revisions, council RFI responses, and construction-stage clarifications — all managed through the same project workspace.
What's included in our drafting service
Our standard scope covers everything most projects need to move from concept to construction. Specific inclusions are confirmed in your fixed-fee quote.
Concept and preliminary drawings
Floor plans, elevations and initial site plans used to lock in the design before formal documentation begins.
Building permit & Construction drawings
The detailed documentation a building surveyor or certifier needs to issue a permit, prepared to NCC standards.
Simple 3D views
Greyscale 3D images straight from our BIM model — useful for understanding the building's form, sharing with stakeholders, or supporting council submissions.
Coordination with energy raters
We work with NatHERS-accredited assessors to produce your seven-star (or higher) report, adjusting drawings to hit the target rating.
Liaison with land surveyors
Where a feature, re-establishment or contour survey is required, we coordinate the brief and integrate the data into our drawings.
In-house client app
A purpose-built project workspace for uploading moodboards and reference material, reviewing drawings, leaving comments, and talking directly with your drafting team.
Town planning permit drawings
The full council submission set, including shadow diagrams, neighbourhood character responses and overlay assessments where relevant (quoted separately).
Construction Specification
A written specification of materials, finishes, fixtures and build methods that accompanies the drawings in a building permit application (optional).
Coordination with structural engineers
We provide engineers with our architectural set and incorporate their structural drawings into the coordinated package.
Council and certifier support
While the property owner lodges permit applications, we assist throughout — preparing all required documentation, responding to RFIs, and providing whatever the council or surveyor asks for.
Revisions and amendments
Drawings can be revised after submission to address council comments, design changes or builder feedback. A variation may be required.
2D drafting vs 3D BIM — and why we model everything
Both produce a permit-ready, build-ready drawing set as the final deliverable, but they’re built differently. Draftee documents every project in BIM — specifically Autodesk Revit — and exports the final drawings as 2D PDFs for permit lodgement and construction.
THE FINAL FORMAT
What 2D drafting is
Traditional 2D drafting produces flat, dimensioned drawings: plans, elevations, sections. It’s the format the construction industry has worked with for decades, and most builders read drawings in 2D regardless of how they were authored — which is why our final deliverable is always a clean 2D PDF set.
The limitation of working only in 2D is that each view is drawn separately: a change to a window in plan must be manually reflected in the elevation and section. There’s no underlying model keeping everything in sync, and no way to check for clashes.
HOW WE WORK
Why we work in BIM
We build a full 3D model in Autodesk Revit, and the 2D plans, elevations and sections are generated from it. Change one view and every other updates automatically — fewer coordination errors, faster revisions, and a more reliable set on site. It also lets us produce simple greyscale 3D views straight from the model. BIM is particularly valuable for:
- Multi-unit residential & apartments — unit stacking, service risers, acoustic separations.
- Commercial developments & fitouts coordinating mechanical, electrical and hydraulic services.
- Complex residential — split-levels, sloping sites, unusual roof geometries.
- Anything coordinating with consultants modelling in Revit themselves.
For simple residential projects, working in BIM doesn’t add cost over traditional 2D drafting at our scale — it just produces a more reliable result. For complex projects, it’s the only sensible way to work.
Project types we draft
Across nearly 1,500 projects we’ve built deep documentation expertise in the categories we work in every week.
Single & double-storey dwellings
New homes for owner-builders and small builders, typically 150–400 m². Efficient floor plans, NCC compliance, and a clean permit set through quickly.
Townhouses & multi-unit dwellings
Two-, three- and four-unit developments on subdivided lots. Handles ResCode (or state equivalent), shared services, and acoustic and fire separation.
Apartments
Walk-up and mid-rise buildings, documented in Revit for unit stacking, services coordination and BCA Class 2 compliance.
Extensions, pergolas, carports & granny flats
Smaller-scope additions — measure-ups, matching rooflines, tying into existing services. Granny flats are an area we’ve specialised in heavily for owner-builders.
Commercial fitouts
Office, retail, hospitality and medical fitouts: partition layouts, reflected ceiling plans, joinery details, and mechanical/electrical coordination.
Commercial developments
Warehouses, mixed-use buildings and small shopping precincts — almost always involving services coordination and clash detection through the BIM model.
For city-specific availability — including draftsman services in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Canberra, and Hobart — see our location pages below.
Frequently asked questions
Fees vary with scope, but as a rough guide: a granny flat or simple extension typically costs $2,000–$6,000 to draft through to construction drawings; a single-storey new home $5,000–$12,000; a double-storey home $8,000–$18,000; multi-unit and commercial projects are quoted individually. We work to fixed fees, not hourly rates, so you know the total cost before we begin.
For a typical residential project, expect 2–4 weeks from initial brief to concept sign-off, then a further 3–6 weeks to produce a full building permit and construction set. Town planning submissions add council assessment time (often 8–16 weeks) outside our control. We’re consistently faster than architect-led workflows, which often run 4–9 months for documentation alone.
If your priority is design-led, bespoke work — usually on a budget that comfortably absorbs 8–15% of build cost in design fees — an architect is the right choice. If your priority is getting a sensible, compliant, build-ready drawing set produced quickly and affordably, a draftsperson is what you need. The vast majority of Australian residential and small-commercial projects fall into the second category.
Yes. Most of our projects involve coordination with a builder, structural engineer, energy rater, and sometimes a town planner or land surveyor. We’re happy to work with consultants you’ve already engaged, or recommend trusted partners where you haven’t.
Final drawings are delivered as high-resolution PDFs, suitable for permit lodgement, builder pricing and on-site use. PDF is the universal format every council, surveyor and builder works with, and it’s the format we standardise on for all final deliverables.
Permit lodgement is the responsibility of the property owner (or their appointed agent) — we’re not able to lodge applications on your behalf. What we do is prepare everything the council or private building surveyor needs, walk you through what to submit and where, and respond promptly to any RFIs that come back. In practice, most clients find lodgement straightforward once the documentation is ready.
Owner-builders are our core client base. We’re set up specifically to support owner-builders through the documentation, permit and construction stages — including providing the drawing sets you’ll need for owner-builder permit applications in your state.
Yes — and it’s where we particularly shine. Because Draftee is an online drafting company, regional and remote clients get the same level of service, turnaround and senior drafter attention as anyone in a capital city. Roughly half our work is regional. We service every state and territory in Australia, with no travel charges, no in-person meetings required, and a client app that makes working with us from a remote site just as easy as from inner-city Melbourne.
We work exclusively in Autodesk Revit, the industry-standard BIM platform used by major Australian architectural and engineering practices. Working in Revit means cleaner coordination, faster revisions, and the ability to produce simple 3D views from the model alongside the standard 2D drawing set.
Yes. Revisions during the permit and construction stages are a normal part of any project — council RFIs, builder requests, client design changes. Minor revisions are typically included in the original fee; substantial scope changes are quoted as a variation before any work is done.
Concept (or Preliminary) drawings are the initial design exploration — floor plans and elevations used to agree on the design direction. Planning drawings are the formal submission set used to apply for a town planning permit from council (where one is required). Construction drawings (working drawings) are the fully detailed, dimensioned set used to obtain a building permit and to actually construct the building on site.
We provide simple greyscale 3D views generated directly from the Revit BIM model. These are clean, accurate representations of the building’s form — ideal for client review, council submissions, and helping owner-builders visualise the design before construction.
Every Draftee project comes with its own project workspace in our in-house client app. You upload moodboards, reference photos, site documents and sketches in one place; review drawings as they’re produced; and chat directly with our team assigned to your project. It replaces the back-and-forth of email and keeps the entire project history in one searchable place.
Where we work
Draftee is an online drafting company servicing every state and territory in Australia. We have offices listed in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Canberra and Hobart.
Because we operate online, regional and remote clients are a particular focus. We’ve drafted country builds in western Victoria, rural extensions in north Queensland, regional commercial fitouts in Tasmania, and remote owner-builder projects across New South Wales — without the travel surcharges or scheduling friction that come with engaging a local drafter.
