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3D CAD to 2D Drawings

Professional Outsourced 3D CAD to 2D Drawing Services

Having a 3D CAD model of your part is only the first step in fabrication. These models are great for fitments within an assembly, checking the overall design, and getting a greenlight from stakeholders — but a 3D CAD model is basically useless to a machine shop. 

To get your parts manufactured, you need a 2D drawing. For many, that means professionally outsourcing your 3D CAD to 2D drawings through CAD/CAM Services. We can optimize this conversion, and ensure your final engineering drawings are perfect for any machine shop.

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3D CAD to 2D Drawings

What Are 3D CAD to 2D Drawing Services?

3D CAD to 2D drawing services are where our team of engineers take an existing 3D CAD model, and create manufacturable 2D drawings. In most major CAD programs, there are some shortcuts to save time, but the general rule of thumb is that it takes roughly the same amount of time to create a 3D CAD model and create a manufacturable 2D drawing from the same part.

Our team is here to cut that time estimate down. With over 100 engineers working staggering shifts, we can provide 24/7 engineering effort, expediting any timeline.

Our team can work with your existing 3D CAD models, or we can create 3D CAD files from scratch. We’ll take those 3D models, and transform them into 2D manufacturing drawings that are optimized for any machine shop.

If you didn’t know, there are a ton of rules, best practices, and expectations when it comes to making manufacturing drawings. Something as simple as using the wrong line weight can cause confusion in a machine shop, slowing down your progress and wasting money. 

With our professional outsourced 3D to 2D drawing services, you don’t have to worry about any of these issues. Our designers will use drafting best practices to eliminate any confusion that might happen on the machine shop floor.

We provide 3D CAD to 2D drawing help in every major CAD program:

  • Autodesk Inventor or AutoCAD
  • SolidWorks
  • PTC Creo
  • CATIA
  • Siemens NX
  • And many more

Why 3D CAD to 2D Drawing Services Matters

Finding the right shop for your 3D CAD to 2D drawing project is just as important as the design itself. A low-quality company will make confusing 2D drawings, they can waste a lot of your time, and the manufacturing process will be more expensive.

With us at CAD/CAM Services, you’ll enjoy faster project completion, faster machining operations, and a lower overall cost for your project. Whether you want one or 100 drawings created from your 3D CAD models, we can help.

CAD/CAM Services promises CAD Perfect CAD Conversions® in every project we take on. For you, that means fewer headaches and more free time for your in-house engineers.

When people choose CAD/CAM Services for their 3D CAD to 2D drawing project, they unlock a lot of benefits. More specifically, you might notice:

Faster turnaround times.

With engineering progress around the clock, we can commit to more aggressive timelines and give you faster turnaround times than you’ll find elsewhere.

A commitment to quality.

Quality is always our biggest focus. Each 2D drawing goes through a series of quality checks and peer reviews to make sure it’s perfect before we send it to you.

Affordability you deserve.

Never overpay for 3D or 2D CAD work when you choose CAD/CAM Services.

Less confusion for the machine shop.

Our drawings are designed to be as simple as possible, leading to less confusion or time wasted once the drawing gets to your machine shop of choice.

Use of ASME and ANSI drafting best practices.

There are hundreds of “best practices” that engineers and machinists advise to save time and money for each fabrication process. Our team uses a majority of these tips and tools to unlock more manufacturable 2D engineering drawings.

What Goes into 3D CAD to 2D Drawing Services from CAD/CAM Services?

While we don’t do any physical machining in-house, we can provide every 2D manufacturing drawing that you need to get your parts made. Our professional part and assembly 2D drawing services will help you achieve lower-cost, faster-turnaround manufactured parts.

It all starts with a consultation. Give us a call and tell us what models you have, what CAD program you use, and what type of manufacturing method you think you’ll be using (CNC machining, 3D printing, injection molding, etc). From there, we’ll tell you exactly what we can provide, and how CAD/CAM Services can help you.

With millions of drawings under our belt and more than 35 years of success in this industry, you can expect a lot of great things when we work together.

Once we get the agreements in place, our engineers will start working. For smaller projects, you can get final 2D drawings in as little as 48 hours. Each drawing goes through a quality check and peer review process to make sure everything is perfect.

We’ll send every digital file to you through a DoD-trusted file sharing website. With that, you have free access to all of the files we created, and you can send them to your machine shops of choice to start fabrication.

Our 3D CAD to 2D Drawing Services Include:

  • 3D CAD Modeling, Engineering, and Drafting
  • 2D Drafting, Designing, and Drawing
  • 3D to 2D CAD Translation
  • Reverse Engineering and 3D Scanning, As Needed
  • Optimized Drawings for Your Manufacturing Method of Choice
  • Design for Manufacturing (DFM) to Cut Costs and Turnaround Times 
  • And Much More (Including Custom Services)

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Regardless of how complicated and big your CAD conversion project is, our team will happily take it on. With our experience and talent pool, you’ll receive 3D CAD to 2D drawings that are faster, more affordable, and higher quality than other outsourced teams can offer. The difference is our CAD Perfect CAD Conversion® process. Choose CAD/CAM Services for the best results, today.

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FAQ's

CAD Conversion FAQs
What do you need to provide me with an accurate quote?

We need to know source CAD and target CAD software. Since large quantity orders can be discounted by us you can provide us with the number of parts you need to be converted.

If you tell us the desired purpose of the conversion we can offer you some conversion options. We can also convert your files into vendor-neutral file types (.STEP, .STL, etc,).

Please email us even cell phone photos, and the rough size of what you wish scanned and converted [email protected].

What do I get?

You get native Cad Perfect™ files with the full-featured model tree (where applicable, since some file types have no trees), and features can be fully parametric. It all depends on your goals.  We prefer to not translate any files. Our goal is to deliver to you a file that you do not have to touch. Our work is exactly as if you had reproduced that work in-house.

Which CAD file formats do you work with?

All the CAD file formats are listed on this page but bear in mind that we also work with exotic and legacy CAD systems.  After 31 years of providing CAD Services, we have run into almost any CAD file format.


Which CAD systems do you work with?

We support all the modern CAD systems including SolidWorks, Catia, Siemens NX, PTC Creo, Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD, and many others.

I have some weird CAD files from the previous century, can you help me?

Yes, absolutely. We can perform legacy CAD conversions.  Just send us some example files, and what CAD system we need to wind up in, and let us design the best solution for you.We have worked with old Computer Vision tapes, Anvil, and many other 1980’s systems.

3D Modeling FAQs
How do you bill 3D CAD services tasks?

Per hour. Hourly rate depends on what CAD software used and typically starts at $75 per hour.  In general, to make this process safer for you, we often provide you a fixed not to exceed the cost as well.  That way, you are protected from an open-ended PO. However, the reality is our fees are based on time. In addition, services in say Catia or NX are more expensive than say Solidworks. Or, simulation services are commonly done by real engineers.

What do you need to give me accurate pricing?

First of all, we need to know the target CAD system and whether you have an existing  template, or set of CAD standards for this project.

The main question is the overall complexity. As each part and assembly consists of different features and elements the best way is to provide us with an example.  Again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you already have a model and need us to improve it or update it in any way we need to know which dimensions and features are critical and which can be modified to achieve your desired result.  Even a before and after example works very well. We started with x, and got to this CAD file.

We can also offer you better options if you provide us with the purpose of your project (demonstration, 3D printing, FEA Simulation, CNC manufacturing, etc.).  This helps us better refine the task.

How do you check your models?

We create 2D drawings from our 3D models for QC purposes. We follow aerospace standards and deliver ±.005” accuracy models for all projects.  All of our QC is done by a different person than the designer. On Catia work, we often use Q-Checker for Airbus.

What is the minimum price for your 3D modeling services?

We have a minimum order fee $150.

Reverse Engineering FAQs
What is the average price for Reverse Engineering?

It all depends on the part’s complexity, size and structure.

What do you guys need to provide me with accurate pricing?

We need to know whether you need your parts to be scanned by us. Or many times we can work with 3D scans provided by third-party companies.  The quality of the scan is everything in our business. Anyway, we strongly advise you to use us for both the scanning and the CAD conversion aspects.  That way, we can control the quality. Sometimes we receive poor quality scans which make it impossible to create truly Cad Perfect™ models for you.  By all means, send us a couple of even cell phone photos, and the rough size of the object.  Most of the time, this will provide us enough information to provide a real bid.

The price depends on the part complexity, size, as well as the target file parametres. We need to know whether you need full parametric models, and your desired accuracy. If you tell us the purpose of reverse-engineered models, we can often provide you with possible solutions. The target CAD software may change the price as well. This includes sophisticated Workstation add-on products such as Composites, Catia electrical wiring, mold design, and others.

What is the quality of reverse-engineered parts?

We can provide ±.005” aerospace quality for every model. CT scanned parts can have even higher precision up to ±.001”.

General CAD Questions
How do I send a sample, in order to get a quote?

Fill out our quote form, attach your files, or simply send us an email. Tell everything about your project, like the model purpose.

For smaller files < 15 MB you can simply email them to us.  For something larger, just drop them in any number of drop boxes like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and others.  Or if you would like, just contact us for a private, hardened link.

It is fine to use most any time of compression such as  *.zip, *.rar, *.tar, *.7z, *.arc, *.LBR, and even *.iso images.

A direct email is [email protected]

We also use a hardened OwnCloud web file sharing platform for unlimited file transfers. We provide unique and very private Web Storage Portals, this also supports file syncing for extreme convenience for you. Because so much of our work is DOD or weapons design work, Security – and confidentiality is very important to us.

Will CAD / CAM Services Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?

Yes. NDAs are a common part of our business. All data is yours – not ours, and treated as proprietary data and not for public consumption or use. Probably 70% of our work is under NDA agreements. We can generally get these signed within the day.

What is the estimated delivery time?

It depends on the scope of work:

  • 2D drawings – small quantity, normally 48 hours.  We have several customers where they contract to us, keeping 4-8 drafters busy full time.
  • 3D models – complexity dependent, but smaller jobs in 2-3 days. Some models we have spent months on.  Again, we have several customers where they contract to us, keeping 6-10 3D CAD designers busy full time.

Simple jobs have a lead time of 48 hours. Larger projects are delivered and invoiced weekly.

Did you really own the trademark Cad Perfect™, Cad Perfect CAD Conversions™ and Cad / Cam Services™?

Yes, we did back in 2008. We started using Cad Perfect™ back in the early 1990s because all of our customers wanted only real Cad Perfect™ work. Back then the buzz words were terms like machine ready, or DXF Traceover and others.

The problem is, nobody wanted that. They all wanted drawings and models that they did not have to touch. Everybody wanted drawings just as if they hand redrew the work themselves.

Thus, Cad / Cam Services™ was the first company to start offering ONLY Cad Perfect™ work.

Do you support the PPD-21 Directive?

Yes we do, and have now for several years. In addition, we also support the industry specific plans as well.