Drafts are a service and must be paid for. Large GÜs and certainly some smaller ones often see this service as part of customer advertising and create modified catalog floor plans for free... unfortunately, the quality is often accordingly. An architect will have this compensated – sometimes a flat rate, sometimes with the offer to credit it upon full commissioning – at least that is our experience.
I actually don’t see it that way, at least not in general. We are building with a prefabricated house provider and I expected that we would get house drafts (floor plans, elevations, perspectives) and that these would also be part of the acquisition. Providers for whom this was not possible were unfortunately out of the running. But that was only one of four. In this industry, you simply have to invest in acquisition.
For my girlfriend, as a teacher, this was also unfamiliar and she felt guilty about the providers who ultimately were not chosen by us. But since I know this process from my own profession (having once worked 5 man-days for free), I was familiar with the procedure.
With an architect, it may be somewhat different, since he has to conjure up a design from scratch, whereas prefabricated house providers use existing floor plans. But even the provider we are building with implemented our desired floor plan, at least on the ground floor, 100%. Therefore, the effort was probably not insignificant. However, it paid off for him in the end, since he was the one chosen.
Regards, Christian