I have been offered a chance to do project for an engineer i know..... he has a model already but it needs some work to finish I have know idea what to charge him. is there a rule of thumb by the hour...by the part etc....
I have been offered a chance to do project for an engineer i know..... he has a model already but it needs some work to finish I have know idea what to charge him. is there a rule of thumb by the hour...by the part etc....
You might consider a couple of other things as well:
We out source CAD services once in a while and the rate will depend on a few different things. Are we providing the workstation and software or are you? If it's us, then the rate is lower. Are you working at our office or off site? If you are willing to work at our space the rate is higher. What about mileage? Included or not? Are you simply detailing a design or taking a rough concept and making it manufacturable? A Designer is more expensive than a Detailer.
To establish your rate, see if the Engineer is willing to call a local contract house for a bid and then under-bid that by 10% or so since your overhead is less. Something else for you to consider is your current employer. Will they have any issues with this? Are you using their resources (SW license, PC, etc)? Some care, some don't. You could find yourself looking for clients fulltime if they care a lot!
Good luck!
Down in Florida I generally charge $30-$35/hr for under the table work. If i'm on the books, it's usually $40-$50/hr. This is with 7 years experience with Solidworks and using my own machine and software out of my house. I'll go on site when needed to discuss the project, but this is usually after my 9-5 is done or on weekends. I also provide revision histories and back them up on my own vault and will do minor tweaks for free (Changing a hole size, screw location, boss location, etc...). File wise, I provide a CD with the native Solidworks file, native Solidworks drawing (where applicable), IGES file format, PDF of drawing (where applicable), and usually a photorealistic rendering.
As a design service company, we charge $50/hour. If you are "moonlighting" I suppose you could charge something less because you don't have the overhead to pay for (i.e. building, maintenance, health care, etc...)
As a single person contractor you have to consider how much work you can book during the year. For example if you spend 20 hours per week finding work and 20 hours doing the work you are working at a 50% billable rate, but you worked 40 hours. At that rate, assuming you take a couple of weeks per year off, you end up with 1000 billable hours per year. If you want to make (gross) $50,000 per year you need to have a rate of $50/hr. Of course this does not take into consideration overhead, taxes and other non-billable expences. Know what it is that you want to make, figure out your cost of doing business and do the math. Resist the tendency to "low ball" yourself. In house (full time) employees are expensive and the employer has to keep paying them all year. Good hunting!
Then what would you charge if the customer wants a PDF of there part with some minor changes. Given that they sent me the SW file and want me the address a ribbon and then put it in a PDF file.
Robert Walker wrote:
Then what would you charge if the customer wants a PDF of there part with some minor changes. Given that they sent me the SW file and want me the address a ribbon and then put it in a PDF file.
I don't know what you mean by the highlighted portion of your question, but if it's minor and wouldn't take over an hour I'd think maybe $50.00.
John,
I used to moonlight so I know what this is like.
First of all it depends on what part of the contry you are from.
Where I am from (Western NY) I have personally charged both by the hour
and flat rate. First I believe you have to ask your self, how good are you at estimateing
time? If you are good and you know this job is a pretty straight forward job and once you are
done, you are done wil no trailing little tweaks or changes then do a flat rate.
If you are not good at estimating hours, and you do sense there might be straggling tweaks
and changes then charge an hourly rate.
Going back to what you would charge, What I personally would charge if I was doing the job
would be $30 / hour. But again it goes back to where you are from and what the going
rate is in your area.
I hope this helps you.