Scanning Paper Drawings

Hi,

Is it possible to scan a drawing into an electronic version and have the
scan be a .dwg file?

I have some drawings that I need to have this done to, and all the CAD shops
I've called so far tell me that they can scan into just about any format BUT
..dwg.

I need .dwg for obvious reasons - the drawings need editing. HOWEVER, the
scan output can be a single layer, and the edits will be made with 3rd party
software used for designing networks. Our engineers are familiar with this
3rd party software but they in no way are CAD folks and we don't run CAD at
our company. The 3rd party stuff requries .dwg files though.

Anyone ever done this?

Thanks in advance.

Bruce

 

See scan2cad.

 

I have done conversion of paper plans to DWG for years. I use Autodesk
Raster Design that runs inside AutoCAD.
There are two methods I offer my customers.

Method 1 is to use Raster Design to convert the entire scan to a DXF
file, then save that as a DWG and give it to the customer who then
uses their own inhouse CAD staff to clean up the DWG to get the proper
linetypes, text styles, layers, etc. For this straight conversion I
charge $40 per sheet.

Method 2 is use Raster Design to convert the scanned file to an
accurately scaled and sized background image that I then trace over
using all the correct linetypes, text styles, dimension styles,
layers, etc to create an accurate, well structured 2D DWG file. For
this I charge $35 per hour. A typical architectural plan, 24x36 or
30x42, will take from 10 to 20 hours depending on the size of the
structure. Residential plans are usually faster than commercial
buildings. Obviously, the more detail in the original drawing/picture
equates to more hours to create an accurate DWG file.

There are no software packages out there that do a one click, one
button conversion of a picture to a vector (CAD,DWG) file that will
have all the correct linetypes, layers, etc.

Daryl Stockton

 

Yes it can be done.
The scanned image would have to be georeferenced and then saved in .dxf format
which can be edited in AutoCad.

 

Gordon,
The drawings Bruce needs converted will not need georeferencing since
they do no have anything to do with any geography, topology, or site
work.
You should probably read the entire thread before answering questions
that have been answered much more completely already.

Daryl