How to make quotation on design and drawings?

How to make a quotation on certain design and drawings?
Say, for lines plan, General Arrangement, etc. Is it percentage from the total cost of a project? I do not know how to charge my fees. Need advice from professionals.

 

I searched the forum and found this, looks like what you need:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/designers-cut-32857.html

 

There are many ways to skin the cat.

Yes, a percentage of the total cost ex yard is quite common as your royalty fee. Depending on the complexity of the project, simple dredger barge or megayacht that is widespread from about 2-3% to about 8%, for the complete, detailed design.

You will have to calculate yourself how much of such complete design you provide. A preliminary linesplan and GA is not quite much of that.

Not uncommon is a hourly based fee too.

Regards
Richard

 

Dear Sir Apex1 and Sir Grant Nelson,
Thanks for your quick reply. Actually this is the first project I've received. I'm a final year student, doing a Bachelor Degree of Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding program at Malaysia. During my semester break, I've received a project to design a 175' 3-masted schooner yacht(conceptual and preliminary design stage). Therefore, the owner asked me to make a quotation for the following:
1. hull form
2. lines plan
3. general arrangement
4. preliminary sail plan

This is my first time charging a fees. I do not have any experience on the quotation, but I do have an experience in doing the Naval Architecture and ship design works. So, do I need to charge the fees on the following item respectively(one by one) or just take the percentage of the project? With all due respect sir, any advice and kind of help would be very grateful and appreciated. TQ.

Regards,
Jimi

 

Check e.g. Michael Kasten's plan pricing, and I think he had also an excellent article concerning the price and pricing of a custom design.

 

Send me a check, and I will tell you
Just kidding
Daniel

 

To liki: thanks a ton. the Michael Kasten's page is very-very interesting for beginners like me.

To dsikira: He he. It's OK. But if u have any info to share, please do let me know sir. TQ.

 

If you are just graduating from the University, designing a 175-foot, 3-masted schooner all by yourself is a frightful thing to do. The fees for designing that ship should be hefty enough to hire several naval architects to aid in the project.

I can do the modeling in Rhino

 

Be careful,

the pricing for so called stock plans have no direct relation to the fees for a custom design!

One can buy stock plans of similar quality for 300 or 30.000 € or $ and can have a boat of similar size and quality in the end.

A custom design of the size mentioned will most likely be a very complex one and will be found in the upper end of the percentage I mentioned above.

But then again, too much depends on details in the preliminary GA, lines and rig drawings and calculations.
How deep goes the NA in the weight estimation, weight distribution, performance calculations etc. etc.

All these details can make even a simple looking prelim. sketch a expensive paper.
Only our thread opener can estimate that.

Regards
Richard

 

Yes, cost of the design process can be spread out as more copies are sold. I am a software engineer by profession and quite similar pricing schemes are used for custom software.

But, IMHO, the educational part of the price list are the price proportions between study, estimating, build plans, and cutting files. That should atleast somehow relate with the amount of work required for the different planning stages.

 

To liki: Many thanks!

To PhotoBoatGuy: I do not have any single problem in designing a ship. I am capable doing it alone by myself, in fact I am enjoying it. The only thing I concern about right now is how much am I supposed to charge as my fees for drawing the stock plans (1, 2, 3 and 4, mentioned by Apex1). FYI, I have already completed about 70% of the stock plans. Also, FYI, I have done several designs for various type of ship and vessel for my boss, at AP Marine (my former full time/part time company, located at Perak, Malaysia) previously and even had much more difficult and complicated project compared to this Schooner Yacht project. So, one more time, I can say that, there will be no problem for me to continue the design stage even up to the detailed design if the owner wants it. I know nothing about my fees…

To Apex: Thank You. You have been really helpful. So, I know that the item 1 to 4 is called stock plans right? I know about the custom design but I did not know about the stock plans until you had explained. Now it makes me clear. FYI, I already completed about 70% of the stock plans.

I thank you very much for telling me, "One can buy stock plans of similar quality for 300 or 30.000 € or $ and can have a boat of similar size and quality in the end", but then, can you please advice, what am I supposed to do to secure my income properly for these stock plans?

Since I am the thread opener and I cannot make the estimation, in your opinion how much can I charge them for the so called stock plans?

 

What you are doing / planning has nothing in common with "stock plans".

Those are usually plans a designer did for one custom project, and after being paid once for his effort, he then sells the same plan "off the shelve" (stock), at a much lower price than his first royalty fee was.
When he is successful selling these plans they can get down in price to quite some very low level.

Yours is still a custom design plan.

To find a rough figure how much that could be worth in hard currency we should know how much effort you have done for the stage 1-4 ?

Are hydrostatic, hydrodynamic calculations part of the preliminary plans or not?
Are weight calculations part of it?

Is a rough wiring / plumbing arrangement in your back of the head?

One cannot see from a GA if the designer did such thoughts / calc.s already, having the optimal solution close to the plan, or if that is just the very first thought how things could be arranged.

The difference between the one and the other can be 3 month of hard work! But nothing appears on the drawing.

Do you have a proper SOR to start with?

We have to come narrower to the time and sweat you spent (or will spend) before any serious figure can appear.

Regards
Richard

 

I'll answer here... I think you did not get it exactly right, a stock plan just means a plan that the designer has ready and available for any client, i.e. "in stock". That way the designer can sell multiple copies and spread the development costs of the plan to multiple clients. Meanwhile a custom plan is usually sold for one client only, so that one transaction must provide enough income to cover the whole design work. Unless the designer also gets royalties for multiple vessels built to the same plans from the same client.

The different plan sets hold accumulating amount of information on the design, starting from the "overview" in study plans, ending in the building plans providing all construction details.

 

when I commission a new design and I have done that several times, it is expected that I had over a deposit to get started, i then pay as the NA produces, a set fee we have agreed upon
But these were experienced talented men
In your case if I were an owner I would say, that I would pay you on an hourly rate. It is then up to you to fix a price that you think you are worth, bearing in mind you have little experience so you may produce very slowly So therefore your rate may be quite low How does that sound? To you

 

To PhotoBoatGuy: I do not have any single problem in designing a ship. I am capable doing it alone by myself, in fact I am enjoying it. The only thing I concern about right now is how much am I supposed to charge as my fees for drawing the stock plans (1, 2, 3 and 4, mentioned by Apex1). FYI, I have already completed about 70% of the stock plans. Also, FYI, I have done several designs for various type of ship and vessel for my boss, at AP Marine (my former full time/part time company, located at Perak, Malaysia) previously and even had much more difficult and complicated project compared to this Schooner Yacht project. So, one more time, I can say that, there will be no problem for me to continue the design stage even up to the detailed design if the owner wants it. I know nothing about my fees…

Oh. ok....