I recently migrated to a spanking new Win 7 PC and have been installing all the software that I use onto it (a long job!). Unfortunately, some of my software is an upgrade of an upgrade of an upgrade! Installing it involves finding the CD of a previous version and inserting it into the PC at some stage during the install. This means I have to keep older versions of software, even though they are no longer of any use to me and take up space in my backup box.

With Scan2CAD you can purchase and install an upgrade even if you have lost your previous version – so long as you are on our list of registered Scan2CAD users. Installation of the upgrade does not require you to install an older version of Scan2CAD or to find a previous CD.

Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software supports all desktop and wide format scanners, either directly or indirectly.

Direct support means you can use your scanner to scan directly into Scan2CAD. After scanning, the scanned image appears on the Scan2CAD screen where you can edit it, vectorize it and save it.

Scan2CAD will support your scanner directly if …

• Your scanner supports TWAIN and WIA – see our article, What are TWAIN and WIA? for more information. This means that Scan2CAD supports current models of wide format scanners like Colortrac, Contex and Graphtec as well as popular desktop scanners such as those manufactured by Canon, Epson and HP.
   
• Your scanner is a Colortrac scanner. Scan2CAD includes dedicated drivers for Colortrac scanners. Note that at present it doesn’t support Colortrac’s Ci or Gx+ series, although we will be bringing out an update that does support these models shortly.

If Scan2CAD does not support your scanner directly, it will support it indirectly. This means you use the scanning software that was supplied with your scanner to do the scanning and save the scan in a raster format such as TIFF. You can then load the raster file into Scan2CAD for editing and vectorization.

The sad recent sudden death of Gary D’Arcy, the founder and driving force of drcauto, the pre-eminent Australian developer of add-ons for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, highlights the danger of buying software from small companies who require that it must be re-licensed every year.

Registered users visting drcauto’s website now find that it has been suspended, the only advice being a message which states “DRCAUTO HAS CEASED TRADING”. Worse, no email communication is possible with drcauto. This is a disaster for drcauto’s approximately 5500 licensed users whose software licensing period has ended or is about to end.

So what would happen to your copy of Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software in the unlikely event of Softcover ceasing to trade, for whatever reason?

Scan2CAD is supplied with a lifetime user licence. Provided that you retain the supplied User Name and Registration Key on file along with their accompanying notes and keep a back-up of the Scan2CAD installation file, there is no reason other than the vagaries of future operating systems why you should not be able to continue to install and use Scan2CAD long after we have gone.

However, what will most certainly prevent you from continuing to use Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software (and all other software which requires registration via licence keys) is if you fail to keep your registration data and installation file somewhere safe.

We are constantly re-issuing licence keys to registered Scan2CAD users who have lost them. We would like to think that had drcauto used our more generous licensing method, its users would not be in the trouble they are today. Sadly, however, we know from experience that a high proportion of software users lose their registration details. In such a case, if your supplier has ceased trading, you’re snookered!

No problem!

If you lose the registration key for your Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software, please just email us with your details. As soon as we’ve located you on our user records, we will re-send you your key.

I am sometimes asked whether our Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software will convert to tolerances of hundredths, or even thousandths of an inch.

To get an idea of the tolerances that are possible, I created a drawing of a 1″ square (25.4 mm) in my CAD program. I printed it out onto smooth high quality paper using a laser printer, scanned the printed square at 200, 400 and 600 dpi using a desktop scanner, vectorized it in Scan2CAD, imported it back into my CAD program and measured the results.

Here are the measurements:

The most accurate result I got was exactly one inch. The least accurate result I got was 0.9900000″ (25.146 mm), so the error in this very small experiment varied between +/- 0″ and 0.01″ (0.254 mm).

This indicates that tolerances of thousandths of an inch are out, and even if you want tolerances of hundredths of an inch you are pushing it.

Further, the results above were created under ideal circumstances. In real life, as the proverb says, there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip. Or, in this case, ‘twixt original and vectorized image.

The following are all potential slips:

• The accuracy of the original drawing itself, or of the item being scanned.
   
• If you are scanning a drawing, the state of the drawing. For example, if it has undergone stretching or shrinkage in storage, or has been folded, or if parts of it are obscured by coffee stains, its accuracy will be reduced.
   
• If you are scanning a physical item, shadowing. Shadowing obscures the item’s true boundary. See our Scan2CAD web site for some hints and tips on how to deal with shadowing.
   
• The accuracy of the scanner. Large format scanners are prone to accuracy errors if not calibrated frequently. Further, different paper types pass through scanners at different speeds, resulting in accuracy errors along the scan.
   
• The skill and care with which the drawing or part is scanned. If it is scanned skew, or with an inappropriate settings, accuracy will be reduced.
   
• The threshold setting. The threshold setting you use when scanning will determine the thickness of scanned lines and the exact size of any scanned part in the scan. For example, consider the following:
   
  

  a) A section of a scan of a part.		b) A zoomed in view of the hole outlined in red in (a). The hole has some shadowing and its edge is not cleanly demarcated.
  c) The hole thresholded using a value of 156.		d) The hole thresholded using a value of 250.
  e) Vectorizations of (c) and (d) superimposed over the original scan. The two different threshold settings have resulted in two differently sized vectorizations of the hole.

• The scanning resolution. For example, if you scan at 200 dpi, each pixel in your scan will be 1/200 or 0.005 of an inch. This means that if your scan or vectorization is out by just one pixel, there is already an error of .005 of an inch.

Although my little experiment showed that tolerances of a hundredth of an inch may be within the bounds of possibility under perfect circumstances, raster to vector conversion is not really suitable for high tolerance applications. There are just too many opportunities for error.

No, there is no maintenance fee for Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software.

Minor Scan2CAD upgrades and technical support are free of charge.

However, we do charge for major upgrades. Major upgrades between previous versions have typically cost between $100 and $200. Note though, that upgrading is optional – you can continue to use your existing version indefinitely.

Yes.

Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software has two options for DXF output – Pre-release 14 and Release 14 and Later.

Scan2CAD’s Pre-release 14 DXF can be read into all versions of AutoCAD and into all CAD and CNC programs that we know of.

Release 14 and Later DXF supports entities that versions of AutoCAD before Release 14 did not support, in particular the export of Bezier curves as splines. If you are doing a raster to vector conversion of an image which contains a lot of smooth, flowing curves, it is advantageous to be able to use splines as these offer the best representation of curvy shapes.

Note that if you are using Scan2CAD’s Pre-release 14 DXF version you can export Bezier curves as strings of arcs. These mimic the shape of the Bezier curves but can be read into older versions of AutoCAD and other programs that do not support splines, typically CNC programs.

Yes!

Our licensing agreement states that you can install Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software onto one computer at work, plus your computer at home or your laptop. The idea is that you can use it both at work and at home, or both in the office and in the field.

What is not allowed is for two (or more) people to install and use one copy of Scan2CAD on two (or more) PCs.

Yes, absolutely! If raster to vector conversion did not work, we would not still be in business after 14 years of selling Scan2CAD software. On our main web site, you’ll find a number of user stories from people who find raster to vector conversion very useful.

BUT (and there is a but!) raster to vector conversion does not work for everybody.

For example:

• Some drawing types are unsuitable for raster to vector conversion.
• Raster to vector conversion does not work well on poor quality scans.
• And, of course, you need a high quality raster to vector converter like Scan2CAD to do the conversion!

In future posts, I’ll be examining what makes raster to vector conversion work – or not work – in more detail.

Note that we do supply a free seven day fully working trial of Scan2CAD so that you can make sure that raster to vector conversion will work for you before you spend any money.