Architects, designers and local authorities; they can all express the problem with their large format images and the answer's right in this very sentence; large.
The problem with plans, large format drawings and blueprints is that they are ridiculously large. Of course, in their own way, this is pretty justified as they use a certain level of detail to emphasise what is required for those certain projects, however this makes them incredibly inconvenient to handle and examine when it is required. For years people were putting large format drawings onto the likes of microfiche, microfilm and aperture cards in an effort to get something large into a small space. Whilst the fiche and films did the trick a number of years back, they have become something of a niche area with readers becoming increasingly harder to find, difficult to repair and limited in their scope. So it only makes sense that the next step would be to head the way that most document types are going; digital.
Often professional document scanning companies will also offer large format document scanning and CAD conversion services. As well as conventional standard industrial strength document scanning equipment for helping offices to go paperless, they will usually have scanners which can scan documents up to an A0 sizing, plus considerably larger images than these can be taken apart and scanned in pieces before being stitched back together in an image editing program. This gives the added convenience of being able to edit the file as well as view it in its original format on your computer screen with the ability to zoom and pan on the image and losing the need to handle large pieces of paper and less risk of damaging the original files. Alternatively if you no longer wish to keep hold of the large format documents they can be disposed of leading to more space becoming available.
After the initial scanning, you can choose to have the documents converted through CAD conversion. This isn't always a necessity however it is incredibly useful and beneficial if you decide you would like the ability to edit the original documents or extract certain aspects from them to use for brand new projects. This usually involves an initial scan of the images before more accurate manual work is done to ensure that the CAD conversion provides an accurate vision of what the document would be like had it been produced in programs such as AutoCAD, making them as flexible and editable as possible for you. This kind of service can usually take a few days in total but isn't as expensive as you might think with companies typically charging £80 ($100) and up for large format work, which considering the work that goes into the process is very good value. The time that can be saved as well as the already mentioned space saving capabilities makes this all the more interesting as well as the aspect of having a modern system in place, one which will last for many years to come.
The problem with plans, large format drawings and blueprints is that they are ridiculously large. Of course, in their own way, this is pretty justified as they use a certain level of detail to emphasise what is required for those certain projects, however this makes them incredibly inconvenient to handle and examine when it is required. For years people were putting large format drawings onto the likes of microfiche, microfilm and aperture cards in an effort to get something large into a small space. Whilst the fiche and films did the trick a number of years back, they have become something of a niche area with readers becoming increasingly harder to find, difficult to repair and limited in their scope. So it only makes sense that the next step would be to head the way that most document types are going; digital.
Often professional document scanning companies will also offer large format document scanning and CAD conversion services. As well as conventional standard industrial strength document scanning equipment for helping offices to go paperless, they will usually have scanners which can scan documents up to an A0 sizing, plus considerably larger images than these can be taken apart and scanned in pieces before being stitched back together in an image editing program. This gives the added convenience of being able to edit the file as well as view it in its original format on your computer screen with the ability to zoom and pan on the image and losing the need to handle large pieces of paper and less risk of damaging the original files. Alternatively if you no longer wish to keep hold of the large format documents they can be disposed of leading to more space becoming available.
After the initial scanning, you can choose to have the documents converted through CAD conversion. This isn't always a necessity however it is incredibly useful and beneficial if you decide you would like the ability to edit the original documents or extract certain aspects from them to use for brand new projects. This usually involves an initial scan of the images before more accurate manual work is done to ensure that the CAD conversion provides an accurate vision of what the document would be like had it been produced in programs such as AutoCAD, making them as flexible and editable as possible for you. This kind of service can usually take a few days in total but isn't as expensive as you might think with companies typically charging £80 ($100) and up for large format work, which considering the work that goes into the process is very good value. The time that can be saved as well as the already mentioned space saving capabilities makes this all the more interesting as well as the aspect of having a modern system in place, one which will last for many years to come.
