From old blue prints to CAD files

My parents own a brick house that is over 70 years old. What I would like to do is to get the Blue prints from the local building department (about $40), and then convert these to CAD format. What is the best way to do this ? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you Regards,

-DJ

Have them scanned, insert the scans into AutoCAD and use them as a backdrop to draw the linework manually. May or may not be the 'best' way but it has worked for us on hundreds of jobs.

AlgoLab, ArborImage, DesignWorkshop, DrDWG, Scan2CAD, TracTrix RasterServer are all raster to vector converters that each have their own pro's and con's.

I'd google each one to find their websites and see if they all still exist...

PL

Have you already contacted the building department about the drawings? 70 years is a long time to hold residential drawings. As an example, the Ohio Historical Society recommends building departments keep the drawings for only 3 years for residential.

Sincerely,

Donald L. Phillips, Jr., P.E. Worthington Engineering, Inc. 145 Greenglade Avenue Worthington, OH 43085-2264

(remove NS to use the address) 614.937.0463 voice 208.975.1011 fax

Have you considered paying somebody to draw them in AutoCad, a lot of drafters do this and it doesn't cost to much, for a simple drawing it might cost you around $80. I have done this for many builders, and I am not drumming up business, just offering advice.

You'll draw a set of old plans in AutoCAD for $80?

M.G. Moran:

More like $80 per hour per man including the time for two guys for on-site measuring of the interior and exterior of the building and the CAD drafter's time at the office. Laser or tape measurements are appropriate. (One guy cannot measure a building contrary to the expectations of many architect employers and lackey supervisors who never did that type of work.)

I use MicroStation, however, the overall time for the work is approximately the same for AutoCAD as it is for MicroStation.

Get an upset figure for the total job time and expenses. Plotfiles, paper plots, and electronic file ownership copies should be included in the total. Explain your goals and the scope of your project to the surveyed guys for they have several ways to make more detailed or simpler drawings that are appropriate to the task. The existing conditions drawings should be part of the contract documents. They should not be part of the construction working drawing set except insofar as they are used as base drawings for demolition work or new work.

The existing conditions drawings (plans and elevations) produced as needed are the base drawings for subsequent design and working drawings.

Your designer will be as happy as can be to have dimensional existing conditions information from which to make accurate drawings. These costs have been part of architectural work since well before CAD came on the scene. Given real measurements CAD can make the matter of design revisions and corrections a matter of considerably less time. Revision work is where CAD really saves schedule time and money.

Even if you get copies of old pencil drawings, the copies will have shrunk or stretched. The TIFF files (or other formats) loaded into CAD as backgrounds, over which new drawing work must be placed, must also be dimensioned. The raster file backgrounds must be stretched in the computer, and a lot of data must be re-created. The existing building must, in all events, be measured in order to scale the raster files or to do precise design work.

If you do get copies of plans, borrow the originals or best quality prints in order to have them scanned. Conversion to vector files is possible, however, it may still be less expensive to measure the building and make new CAD drawings. The CAD drawings would still have to be made even if you had good raster file backgrounds and good measurements.

Having done a lot of that type of work, I suggest that you not convert the old drawings or prints to CAD except for intricate work, for example, for stone floor pattern designs, and to make the CAD base drawings from field measurements on sketched plans.

Ralph Hertle Blue Star House, LLC.

Ralphie is full of s**t as usual

Horse s**t

Gee......I guess that all that work I've billed for the last twenty years could not have been done.

Who cares

<snip>

Isn't it time for your monthly medication

I won't turn on the computer for $80.

I charged $200 to do a single sheet retaining wall...

I would take exception to that... We quite commonly create drawings that are hybrids of scans and vector.