convert paper boat plans to digital ???

sarabande

sarabande

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I have a full set of paper plans (yes, real blueprints!) of my restoration boat, thanks to a forumite.

Does anyone know of a means to convert the lines on paper to a digital format which can then be handled by e.g. CAD program or Visio, so that I can generate wiring diagrams, reference drawings, etc, please ?

Alternatively, a free or v cheap software program into which I can input measurements from the drawings to create lines, sections, layout, etc. I am not into finite stress analysis or hydrostatic balance :) Just simple lines and layout.

I have looked here:-

http://www.boatdesign.net/Directory/Software/Free_or_Low_Cost/

but nothing seems to do a simple job.



TIA
 
A "scanner mouse" will enable you to load drawings into a PC and the accompanying software may enable you to edit the information.

http://www.qvcuk.com/LG-LSM-150-Sma...c=502817-SRCH&cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-1-_-502817

Watch the video to see a demo

0r cheaper here (slightly different model):-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-LSM-100-Smart-Mouse-Scanner/dp/tech-data/B0053T0HNI/ref=de_a_smtd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9OX4krszao

Although it can only scan up to A3 it should be possible to stitch pages together.

Also handy for scanning charts into a PC.
 
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Find someone who can copy the plans and save them as a png file. Most architect suppliers/printers should be able to do this. Maybe try Staples, i know they print plans, maybe they can copy them to disk too.
 
Personally I'd take the plans to a print shop to scan in. Most seem to have scanners that take sheets up to three feet wide with no length limit (they go through on a roller like an old washing mangle). Price around here was about £10 - £15 last time I needed it.

Pete
 
+1 for using a print shop; alternatively there are bureaux that do this sort of thing (at a cost). Stitching smaller scans will certainly introduce inaccuracies of unknown magnitude.

Note that a lot of places will ask for a copyright release; shouldn't be a problem as it is for changing format, and for personal use only.

However, that only gets you half-way. Your diagram is still in raster format, and so not useful in a CAD package, except as a background image. You need some sort of tracing software to convert the raster scan into vectors, which can then be manipulated in a drawing package. Most drawing packages include facilities to do this (the free "Inkscape" is very powerful and has this capability), but you should be aware that you will have to do a lot of manual cleaning up of the resulting drawing, and will also have to add a lot of information to the drawing to give lines the attributes the CAD package expects. It's not difficult, but I've spent enough of my life doing this sort of thing to know that it can be very tedious! In fact, it is often a matter of personal preference whether you use an automatic tracing utility or simply digitize over the top of the scanned image. The former will mean you have to do a lot of editing; the latter a lot of tracing!

It helps to remember that for an engineering drawing, the original author will have generated the curves with very few points, and used splines to join them. In fact, for plans of the vintage you're looking at, it probably was actual wooden splines with ship-weights, or French Curves! So, there's no advantage in having lines with lots of points, which is what an automatic tracing utility will generate by default. However, you do it, the ideal is to reduce the number of defining points on the lines, and use the drawing package's facilites to generate the curves. That will give the fairest line, and reduce computing overheads if you want to try and do things like 3D visualization.
 
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I use TurboCad to produce drawings. You can import an image file then set up a drawing layer to manually 'trace' the lines of the image. It's a faff and difficult to get the scale exactly right but it works and it's free.
If I remember rightly I had to convert the image file to .WMF format in a paint program in order to import it.
 
Drgs

+1 for using a commercial outfit with an "industrial grade" scanner

The most common format for cad compatability is the old Autocad .dwg however it would also be worth while to ask the copy shopy to provide a second .pdf copy so that you can view the drgs on a standard PC or laptop and print on your home printer.

Regards
 
seadog30 said:
+1 for using a commercial outfit with an "industrial grade" scanner

The most common format for cad compatability is the old Autocad .dwg however it would also be worth while to ask the copy shopy to provide a second .pdf copy
Click to expand...

A copy shop certainly won't give you an usable Autocad file. Their scanner will produce a raster image, probably natively TIFF though they may well convert it to the more common JPEG or PNG. These files are (simplified for the purposes of explanation) a grid of different coloured dots - they don't know that this white dot and that white dot and those other white dots over there are together meant to represent a line. Human beings see the line, but most software just sees disconnected dots.

Others have mentioned several ways of getting from a raster picture to a vector file, which consists (again simplified) of a list of descriptions of lines. Either software (with varying degrees of quality) or by human intervention. But your average copy shop isn't going to provide such services.

Pete
 
alahol2 said:
I use TurboCad to produce drawings. You can import an image file then set up a drawing layer to manually 'trace' the lines of the image. It's a faff and difficult to get the scale exactly right but it works and it's free.
If I remember rightly I had to convert the image file to .WMF format in a paint program in order to import it.
Click to expand...

I have done the same using Autosketch. Autocads baby brother.

Make sure you understand how to use layers BEFORE you do this. Make layes visible or invisible as you wish to keep things clear.

Put the base image on one layer then use other layers for things like hull, deck, wiring, plumbing etc.
 
prv said:
A copy shop certainly won't give you an usable Autocad file. Their scanner will produce a raster image, probably natively TIFF though they may well convert it to the more common JPEG or PNG. These files are (simplified for the purposes of explanation) a grid of different coloured dots - they don't know that this white dot and that white dot and those other white dots over there are together meant to represent a line. Human beings see the line, but most software just sees disconnected dots.

Others have mentioned several ways of getting from a raster picture to a vector file, which consists (again simplified) of a list of descriptions of lines. Either software (with varying degrees of quality) or by human intervention. But your average copy shop isn't going to provide such services.

Pete
Click to expand...

There are bureaux that provide digitizing services for plans, but you're looking at serious money per sheet, and the results will still need QA work (the digitizing isn't necessarily done by people who understand what they're digitizing). It's quite a while since I've had that sort of thing done, but it is available. I've used THIS outfit before, but I doubt whether it is a sensible option for a private person. ISTR that in the mid 90s it cost us several hundred pounds for each sheet of a set of maps. Plans would probably be cheaper (they're simpler than maps, and have less complex linework), but then there's set up time and so on...

Incidentally, at that time it was cheaper commercially to pay someone to use a manual digitizer than it was to debug automatically traced outlines.

I'd get the plans scanned - you probably don't need colour - and then use one of the free software options mentioned here to convert them to CAD format.
 
thanks everyone - especially for offers to scan to pdf. (if all else fails... :) )

I've downloaded Delftship (the free version) and will be trying to take a table of offsets from the plans. This should (should) enable me to create plan, profile and section drawings from the one set of data.

I'm not trying to make digital plans for construction quality drawings, but for graphics I can use to show electrical cable runs, tankage and pipework, and location of key items such as fire extinguishers and lifejackets and the corkscrew.


Mayhap I achieve something in a couple of weeks time, I'll post some pretty pics .

many thanks again.
 
If not looking for serious dimensional accuracy take a GOOD digital camera and shoot from exactly overhead.

Import to Autosketch as a jpeg.

Resize drawing page to suit the image.

There are a number of options but the Draw Curve Spline is the one to start with on curves. Lines are easy.

Your second or third go will be worth saving. It is not rocket science I used to teach lower ability students to use. Yes the learning curve is steep and the frustration level can be high but as I said not rocket science.

N.B. Although you are working from a JPEG which is a pixcel based image the drawing you make in Autosketch is a vector based image and can be resized with out losing any clarity.
 
hmm, that's a very useful tutorial with transferable knowledge/skills, but I can't afford AutoCAD ! The last one I had was ver 12 DOS :eek:
 
TQA said:
I have done the same using Autosketch. Autocads baby brother.

Make sure you understand how to use layers BEFORE you do this. Make layes visible or invisible as you wish to keep things clear.

Put the base image on one layer then use other layers for things like hull, deck, wiring, plumbing etc.
Click to expand...

Noah used this for the design of his arc. This and TurboCad is old technology not powerful enough for what the OP is trying to do.
 
raster to vector

If you have cad software that will accept .dxf and can get the blueprints scanned in a large format scanner at a copy/plan printing shop ( probably in tiff format) and send it to me then I will use my conversion software to create a .dxf for you.
Although this is professional conversion software I have found over the years that it is in fact a dam sight better to load the tiff/.bmp or .jpeg image as a layer in to my cad program and to work over it or it is easy to trace it onto a new layer.
It will print if the layer is turned on in either case.
I assume that the blueprint is in larger than A4 size and that you cannot simply add some register marks and scan it in pieces which could be emailed in .bmp form.
Bringing the image accurately to scale is not a problem provided that there is at least one clear and ideally longish dimension e.g.a mast height or a scale bar on the original.
Let me know if I can help.It should be possible.
best wishes,peter
PS Have you considered,in the worst case,buying a pad of A4/A3 trace to make hand-drawn overlays for co-ordination.
 
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sarabande said:
hmm, that's a very useful tutorial with transferable knowledge/skills, but I can't afford AutoCAD ! The last one I had was ver 12 DOS :eek:
Click to expand...

Sarabande,

I use CAD professionally and was surprised recently to find that Autocad 2011 was available for free download from the autodesk website for Students. No proof required - just a declaration that you are a student.

you wouldl be using this project for your own education - right?
 
sarabande said:
thanks everyone - especially for offers to scan to pdf. (if all else fails... :) ) .....

I'm not trying to make digital plans for construction quality drawings, but for graphics I can use to show electrical cable runs, tankage and pipework, and location of key items such as fire extinguishers and lifejackets and the corkscrew. ......

many thanks again.
Click to expand...

If you can get it scanned in as bitmap you can then add lines, shapes, etc. Depending on the size of the drawings, I suspect the file size will be large and that then causes problems.
 
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