Manual redrawing services providing paper to CAD conversion seldom say anything positive about the benefits of automatic raster to vector conversion software which provides many AEC, CAD, CAM, GIS and CNC users with a fast and affordable vectorization solution.
Why do most paper to CAD conversion services ignore the positive benefits in automatic raster to vector conversion software solutions?
The answer is quite simple. Both automatic raster to vector conversion software and paper to CAD manual redrawing services compete for your business with different solutions to the same problem. The former uses software to immediately convert a scanned technical drawing or outline into a CAD vector file format. The latter requires that you send your paper drawings or scans of them to a manual redrawing service provider specializing in paper to CAD conversion. This takes longer and costs more.
Results aside, fast, simple and affordable automatic raster to vector conversion is what most CAD and CNC users want. Automatic raster to vector conversion offers them the promise of a relatively inexpensive PC-based software solution that can be used as many times as needed once purchased. It is often the more attractive option to CAD users understandably reluctant to send valuable and competitively sensitive technical drawings to a manual redrawing service who will outsource them to who-knows-where.
As a result, most AEC, CAD, CAM, GIS and CNC users wanting to quickly get paper drawings converted into a CAD file format will generally consider buying an inexpensive raster to vector converter before finding the bigger budget for a manual redrawing service.
This puts many CAD CAM services providers offering CAD outsourcing of CAD conversions on the defensive. To improve their chances, the more aggressive among them target automatic raster to vector conversion products through a variety of unethical practices, for example copyright theft. But by far the most common way to target automatic raster to vector conversion is to exaggerate its shortcomings. This is not difficult. Automatic vectorization is invariably imperfect and must be tidied up in CAD, unlike manual redrawing which should produce a perfect CAD file.
Most CAD users who buy vectorization software test the available demos and know that automatic raster to vector conversion will require some degree of tidying up in CAD, some conversions more than others. The test of just how useful raster to vector conversion is in a particular situation – and which are the better converters – lies in the degree of tidying-up – and the amount of time taken up to do so. Too much time spent editing and you will feel that it would have been quicker to redraw from scratch. This is the attraction of manual redrawing services and their offer of a perfect paper to CAD conversion into a DWG or DXF or other vector file format.
Up until about 10 years ago, Western CAD CAM drafting services did this redrawing work. Today, however, with the growth of the internet and the globalization of the CAD CAM drawing office, almost all paper to CAD redrawing work is outsourced to the growing economies of Asia, mostly to India where legions of low-paid engineers toil in modern day CAD sweat-shops to redraw your scanned drawings into CAD CAM perfect files. These will be drawn to size and scale in color on named layers with dimensions, symbols and fully editable text, etc. The cost can be anything from US $50 to $200 or more for one A0 / E-size drawing, depending on turnaround time.
With India and China producing almost 1m engineers every year, there’s a huge pool of graduates with basic CAD skills looking for work, especially in India where the majority of today’s CAD outsourced redrawing work now takes place. The success of India in developing a paper to CAD redrawing services market has forced many Western CAD CAM drafting service providers to become mere agents or proxies for these outsourced, offshore redrawing operations. With the exception of one man bands working from home, almost all UK and US CAD CAM drafting service providers now outsource their CAD CAM redrawing work abroad despite web sites which make it appear that the work is being done locally in the UK or US. Others, aware that you may have reservations about your redrawing being done offshore, promise that your drawings will be checked by a locally qualified professional on their return.
If, as a Western engineer, you are worried about losing your job to globalization and the economies of the East, the slippery slope to decline and CAD redundancy quite possibly starts with you taking advantage of these offshore manual redrawing services.
In recent years the number of redrawing service providers offering paper to CAD conversion has exploded. Today CAD operators from Argentina to Zimbabwe are getting in on the act whichever way they can. All are competing in an increasingly cut-throat industry for your lucrative Western redrawing work. Asian redrawing services are responding to the challenge by offering their services direct, cutting out the UK and US middleman. As a result, anything may be said by some under pressure to win your business. It is not in the interests of manual redrawing services to offer you objectivity about the genuine benefits of raster to vector conversion software.
Inappropriate drawings (for example, those with too much overlapping detail) and poor scanned image quality are the cause of most automatic raster to vector conversion failures. In these cases, manual redrawing is the only solution. However, the great majority of our Scan2CAD users, and probably those of some other raster to vector convertors, will point out that for the accumulation of images on which vectorization software does work well it represents better value for money as it can be used again and again. As such, automatic raster to vector conversion software is an inexpensive, immediate and practically helpful desktop tool.
As the developer of Scan2CAD automatic raster to vector conversion software we offer objective advice about the results you can expect to get. In enquiring after Scan2CAD, potential buyers are given every opportunity to determine exactly what it can or cannot do. We recommend that every serious raster to vector conversion enquirer download and use our fully-working Scan2CAD Trial. We encourage those with the Trial to email us with any problem images they encounter. You can’t get a more objective test than that!
Fast, simple and affordable automatic raster to vector conversion can be achieved when certain basic criteria are met. A one-off purchase of Scan2CAD can be many times more affordable than using a manual redrawing service. However, with some types of drawings and poorly scanned images, manual redrawing represents the only practical solution. There is a case for both automatic raster to vector conversion and manual redrawing services.
