Cost depends on scope: building size, disciplines involved, condition of source files, detail level, and file formats. A detached ADU set is a different job from a multi-floor tenant improvement. Send your materials and we quote against them.
Drafting Services - California
California asks a drawing set to answer questions that other states leave to the field: how the structure resists an earthquake, how the envelope meets Title 24 energy rules, whether an ADU clears local setbacks, and how a hillside home approaches wildfire hardening. Drafting Buddies provides drafting services in California for architects, engineers, contractors, developers, and property owners who need those answers documented clearly.
We prepare 2D CAD sets, permit drawings, Revit models, MEP and structural drafting, shop drawings, as-builts, and 3D models from the design information your licensed professionals provide. Based in Austin, our 100+ drafters have delivered 500+ projects since 2014, and qualifying projects can be turned in 48 hours.
Permitting
A plan check comment in San Francisco rarely resembles one in Fresno. California is a single state with one code cycle, but the documents that clear review depend on what and where you are building.
Dense urban work lives on tight lots and existing buildings. Drawings must show how new work meets old, often in structures whose original plans are incomplete or missing. Coastal parcels may bring extra review through the Coastal Zone, so site plans, heights, and setbacks need to be exact. Hillside and wildland-adjacent sites raise fire-hardening details for eaves, vents, and exterior materials. Every site carries seismic requirements, which turn into shear walls, holdowns, foundations, and connection details that must agree across structural, architectural, and mechanical sheets.
Energy compliance adds a layer. Title 24 documentation comes from a qualified energy analyst, and the drawings must match the assumptions behind it: window sizes, insulation, and equipment. California's 2025 code cycle took effect January 1, 2026, and local governments may adopt amendments, so we work from the edition and rules your jurisdiction applies. Decisions on compliance stay with your design professionals. We draft; we do not stamp, certify, or promise approval.
Drawings must show how new work meets old, often in structures whose original plans are incomplete or missing.
Coastal parcels may bring extra review, so site plans, heights, and setbacks need to be exact.
Hillside and wildland-adjacent sites raise fire-hardening details for eaves, vents, and exterior materials.
Shear walls, holdowns, foundations, and connection details must agree across structural, architectural, and mechanical sheets.
Drawings must match the energy analyst's assumptions: window sizes, insulation, and equipment. We draft; we do not stamp, certify, or promise approval.
Service Index
Stage
Description
All stages
Plans, details, and schedules in editable DWG, the base layer that every other trade builds on.
Design
Floor plans, elevations, and sections for new homes, remodels, and commercial interiors, with wall types and details resolved for the builder.
Coordination
Coordinated models for multifamily and mixed-use projects where a change in one view has to appear in all of them.
Construction
The full set a contractor prices and builds from, organized by discipline and sheet index.
Permitting
Plan check sets arranged to a city's submittal list, plus fast turnarounds on correction comments.
Construction
Shear wall schedules, holdown callouts, foundation plans, and framing details drawn from the engineer's design.
Coordination
Ductwork, panel layouts, and plumbing risers laid out to fit within seismic bracing and ceiling heights.
Fabrication
Steel, stair, railing, and millwork detail for the fabricator, with dimensions ready to cut from.
Renovation
Field data, photos, and older records reconciled into accurate existing-condition sets for renovations and conversions.
Design
Visual models for design review boards, neighbors, and owners who need to see a project before it is approved.
Renovation
Point cloud data turned into Revit models for historic or irregular buildings where accuracy matters most.
See also: architectural CAD drafting, construction and permit drawings, and scan-to-BIM services.
Project Types
A 1950s ranch addition starts with an existing-conditions plan, then adds new framing that ties into old framing, all of which must be drawn clearly for plan check.
Detached units, garage conversions, and junior ADUs each need a site plan, utility routing, and consistent floor plans, elevations, and energy notes.
Repeating units, podium levels, and stacked systems reward typical details and strict revision control across long sheet lists.
Ground-floor retail beneath housing means separate occupancies, fire separations, and accessibility paths all shown clearly.
Dense mechanical, electrical, and equipment coordination makes multi-discipline sets essential.
Slab, racking, dock, and equipment layouts drive these sets, and expansions need as-builts that match the building on the ground.
Office-to-lab or warehouse-to-housing conversions begin with accurate existing drawings, then map new uses onto old structure.
Coverage
We work remotely, so the whole state is in range. The region shapes the drafting focus, not the workflow.
Region
Cities
Focus
Southern California
Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Riverside, San Diego
A mix of residential remodels, ADUs, tenant improvements, and multifamily, with coastal parcels near the shore and older stock inland that often needs as-builts.
Bay Area
San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose
Urban renovation, multifamily, and commercial interiors, including technology-related office fit-outs where MEP coordination drives the schedule.
Capital region and North Bay
Sacramento, Santa Rosa
Residential and commercial documentation, plus hillside and wildland-adjacent sites where fire-hardening details matter.
Central Valley
Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton
Warehouse, distribution, and agricultural-related facilities, along with residential growth areas that need standard, repeatable plan sets.
Coordination
Most drawing errors are coordination errors. A window resized in the plan but not the elevation. A shear wall added by the engineer but missing from the mechanical layout. A revision that reaches one sheet and misses six.
We handle coordination with a single change log per project and a review that compares sheets against each other, not only against the source.
For existing buildings, we separate what was measured from what was assumed, so nobody builds from a guess.
The result is a construction-ready set the contractor can price without a stack of RFIs.
How We Work
Teams use us when their own capacity runs short: a permit deadline, three projects landing at once, or a stack of legacy PDFs.
We add drafters quickly for a permit deadline, three projects landing at once, or a stack of legacy PDFs, and release them when the work clears.
Architectural, structural, and MEP drafters share one organization, so updates carry across disciplines.
You get direct answers to questions, a list of assumptions, and a clear record of every revision.
Engagements can be a single set, overflow help, or ongoing production.
We start with a conversation about the goal and the deadline.
We review plans, sketches, surveys, and plan check comments, then confirm scope and deliverables in writing before drafting begins.
Drafting or modeling follows your standards where you have them.
A second person reviews dimensions, callouts, and cross-sheet consistency.
You send feedback, we revise, and final files arrive in the agreed formats: DWG, RVT, IFC, PDF, plus the sets themselves.
California drafting questions
Cost depends on scope: building size, disciplines involved, condition of source files, detail level, and file formats. A detached ADU set is a different job from a multi-floor tenant improvement. Send your materials and we quote against them.
Next step
If plan check comments, incomplete existing plans, or a crowded schedule stand between you and a clean set, send what you have. From Austin, Drafting Buddies supports projects across California and throughout the United States.