CONVERTING PAPER DRAWINGS TO CAD
When I was asked by my client, to arrange for their paper drawings to be redrawn into a CAD format, the task at first seemed a bit daunting.
The client is a large booksellers with a couple of hundred stores around the UK, plus a few in Europe. Their paper drawings, were disorganised to say the least - spread through several offices, some in plan chests and filing cabinets, others rolled or laying around loose. The first job was to collate them all, and it was found there were around 400 drawings that needed converting.
I'd seen some adverts, in the past, in CAD magazines from a company in India, offering a service of converting paper drawings to CAD, and noted that their costs were very cheap, compared to the UK. However when I picked up the latest CAD magazine, there were no adverts for such companies.
A posting on an internet CAD newsgroup, soon brought a number of offers, from around the world. These ranged from a large company, down to an individual in China, with costs in the same range, from expensive to impossibly cheap. The larger companies wanted full payment in advance, which was somewhat off-putting, as there was no way of guaranteeing quality of work, or timescale, when work has already been paid for. Plus if there are any problems, the company is on the other side of the world.
Simsoft Technologies were in the middle ground of the companies. My instinct was that they were a smallish company, but had the ability and capacity to carry out the work. There was also no large payment up-front, in fact they didn't want payment until work was completed. I had to trust them and they trust me, which is how any good business relationship should be.
Drawings were couriered to Simsoft, in batches of 20 to 30, and CAD drawings e-mailed back. This proved a manageable method on both sides. When our client imposed a couple of deadlines for some of the drawings, Simsoft coped well and took on some extra staff to deal with this.
My instinct proved correct, and Simsoft Technologies were able to handle the conversion work, producing quality work on time, and at a very reasonable cost. I would certainly recommend the company, and express my thanks to Saurabh and his team
Chris Edwards	24 August 2004
Line Design 197 Boston Road Hanwell, London W7 2AA England.