Paper to CAD

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone.

I am considering setting up a part time business offering a paper to CAD
conversion service. I think this is the best place to do some research into
the subject. I have some questions for y'all. Your input would be much
appreciated.

1. Would you / do you use this type of service ?



2. Would you look for this type of service if you didn't know it existed ?



3. Would you use the service for specific jobs (eg 15 drawings now and
again) or for
converting all your old paper drawings to CAD in order to free up
office space ( I'm
thinking this one would mean several hundred drawings at a time)?


4. How much would you expect to pay per sheet ? Say for an A1 sheet.



5. D'you think I should stick to the discipline I know, which is structural,
or should I be
multidiscipline? I know I'd feel comfortable doing architectural.


6. Any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks a bunch


Graeme

[Anonymous]

Good luck - there are remote agencies (India usually) that will do a complex d
size architectural floor plan for about $100 - this includes custom layering,
dimensional verification, etc.

The only niche that might work would be a specialized area - like structural -
where the content is valued more than the cost.

_____________
Karl M. Fuls PLS
AEC Training and Consulting
Assistant Moderator - Autodesk Discussion Forums


Graeme Hyslop wrote:

> Hi Everyone.
>
> I am considering setting up a part time business offering a paper to CAD
> conversion service. I think this is the best place to do some research into
> the subject. I have some questions for y'all. Your input would be much
> appreciated.
>
> 1. Would you / do you use this type of service ?
>
> 2. Would you look for this type of service if you didn't know it existed ?
>
> 3. Would you use the service for specific jobs (eg 15 drawings now and
> again) or for
> converting all your old paper drawings to CAD in order to free up
> office space ( I'm
> thinking this one would mean several hundred drawings at a time)?
>
> 4. How much would you expect to pay per sheet ? Say for an A1 sheet.
>
> 5. D'you think I should stick to the discipline I know, which is structural,
> or should I be
> multidiscipline? I know I'd feel comfortable doing architectural.
>
> 6. Any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks a bunch
>
> Graeme

[Anonymous]

I can be your first new hire...

Go wide. If you are doing a straight conversion why limit yourself to only
one discipline. Here at work we are constantly redrawing the paper stuff
into MDT. You might also want to think about raster to vector conversion
software. Charge per sheet. There is a site for a company called "dart"
and they list prices. Use that as a base to build from. If you find
clients it could very well be profitable considering most companies are
using CAD now.

Have fun.

AW


Graeme Hyslop wrote in message
<2C580917D3F6F3E33A8E8372BF6741AB@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb>...
>Hi Everyone.
>
>I am considering setting up a part time business offering a paper to CAD
>conversion service. I think this is the best place to do some research into
>the subject. I have some questions for y'all. Your input would be much
>appreciated.
>
>1. Would you / do you use this type of service ?
>
>
>
>2. Would you look for this type of service if you didn't know it existed ?
>
>
>
>3. Would you use the service for specific jobs (eg 15 drawings now and
>again) or for
> converting all your old paper drawings to CAD in order to free up
>office space ( I'm
> thinking this one would mean several hundred drawings at a time)?
>
>
>4. How much would you expect to pay per sheet ? Say for an A1 sheet.
>
>
>
>5. D'you think I should stick to the discipline I know, which is
structural,
>or should I be
> multidiscipline? I know I'd feel comfortable doing architectural.
>
>
>6. Any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
>Thanks a bunch
>
>
>Graeme
>
>
>

[Johanna]

I have to agree with Karl - there are a lot of off-shore companies doing basic paper to CAD conversions.
More depends on what your local market needs are. There could be clients who want more than what
the off-shore companies offer i.e. field verification / as-builting. If the drawings are to be used for purposes
other than record / reference drawings the client may want a higher level of detail / quality. Some
clients have had higher expectations from the off-shore (cheap) route, than what was actually delivered.
Personally, I think it's a pretty good deal overall. The problem sometimes lies with the decision makers,
who either don't know enough about CAD, can't define their needs accurately, have their eye only
on the bottom line, don't recongnize that any savings they realize up-front may be spent later, when
the conversion drawings require a lot of conditioning to their own requirements. The best clients
IMO would be the ones who have tried the "cheap" route and know it's not cost effective for their
needs in the long run.

Also, a warning regarding copyright - there are people out there who might regard this type of
reproduction as copyright infringement, depending perhaps on the intended use of the finished
CAD drawings. I'll let someone else fill you in on these hazards and self-protection clauses you would
have to employ to reduce your liability.

[Anonymous]

Don't try to compete on price with offshore companies doing paper-cad
conversion. Offer your expert services (structural/architectural.) i.e..
field investigation, existing condition analysis, etc.

> 5. D'you think I should stick to the discipline I know, which is
structural,
> or should I be
> multidiscipline? I know I'd feel comfortable doing architectural.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies. I'm thinking that maybe I didn't give the right
idea about the scale of work I'd be looking to do. Basically I'm looking for
a small amount of drawings per month, 10 to 20 tops (to start with anyway).
I'm only going to be working part-time since I'm already a full time head
drafter for a structural engineer. It's just gonna be me and my partner
making some extra money.
My idea was based more around making CAD drawings from old paper drawings
when a consultant is going to be making additions to an existing building.
Basically the consultant outsources and pays less than the rate they pay
their own drafters for the boring work I intend to send flyers to
structural engineers first of all and see what happens. I have no intention
of competing with the big boys.

I know of one company called Q-CAD in the states that offers a paper to CAD
(by drafting) service and they seem to be doing pretty good for themselves,
so .... who knows !!!

[Anonymous]

Yeah ... we (in the autodesk newsgroups) got spammed by the president of one
these remote agencies a year or two ago.

Andy

[Johanna]

So you're talking about a couple of drawings for one client , a couple more for another if I understand
your post correctly. Your idea may work as the off-shore people usually deal with large quantities of
drawings from a given client (last time I checked it out for a client anyway). WIth large numbers of
drawings you CAN'T compete with them. But, when you are just hired to provide say base drawings
for renovations /additions from paper the scope will likely include some field verification as well (or
should) and the Consultant will likely have some CAD standards you are to adhere to. Sounds like a
reasonable endeavor to me. Don't price yourself too low though - outsourcing the CAD work isn't
neccessarily less expensive - the benefit to the Consultant is often not about $$ - it's to free up
in-house personnel for design work without having to take on permanent employees. It helps the
consultant deal with the ups and downs of workload without all the hiring/layoff/payroll issues.
You could sell yourself as an "CAD overload" resource - not neccessarily cheaper than in-house
but there when they need you - no burden when they don't.

[Anonymous]

Thats pretty much the idea.I wouldn't be doing
field verification though, just drafting.I know that structural companies
wouldn't require that. I'm also thinking of offering a service for cleaning
up drawings. I see so many drawings come into this office (and also drawings
done in this office) that are way too big. We usually use architects layouts to
set up our layouts and sometimes their plans are as big as 5 meg and the drawing
is virtually empty. Generally, a structural framing plan should never be more
than 1 meg and that is a very full plan.  Most of the drafters that I
know dont know how to reduce the size of drawings other that by purging. I'd
charge a small amount per 100k of reduction.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">