will only be bringing the client into the 20th century. As much as I
have been known to rail against BIM as it applies to my practice, this
may be the right time to suggest the client consider building a model of
the building in 3 dimensions using one of the popular BIM packages. It
will provide a great deal more flexibility in future work on the
building to have as much of it in solid form as can be made.
Most conversion programs I've seen (there used to be a dozen services
advertised in Cadalyst) are just line sements - there's very little
clean up and no adherence to a set of customized drawing standards. If
simple on-line storage is the goal (i.e. to be able to bring up and
either electronically transmit or print out portions of files) then
there are a couple of solutions. Steel Dynamics in Roanoke, VA has done
with their plant drawings though the scans may be in a proprietary
format. You might also see if your local university has done the same
with their old hand drawings. VT has a system, but - thanks to my
architect friends - I have not had to use it much.
Scanning is cheap if you can get the right shop or cut a deal. I was
getting scans at $1/sheet (D or E) in Roanoke, and for $1.25 in
Blacksburg (had to negotiate that one). For $15k I picked up a laser
plotter/scanner/copier this spring that does up to 36" wide sheets, and
does a pretty good, fast job (5-6 second D size scan, 15 second D size
print).
You might also check the forums on AUGI.com - they're are people there
who have transitioned from paper to digital.
Jordan
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