What are my options when considering how to get from paper to CAD?
There are several methods that will help you take a paper drawing or print into CAD. You could simply redraw from scratch in a CAD program, you could create a vector file from the drawing on a digitizing tablet, you could scan the drawing, open it in a ‘Head-up’ digitizing program on your monitor and digitize to vectors with a mouse much like the digitizing tablet or you can use an automatic raster-to-vector program like TracTrix. Tablet and head-up digitizing is subject to the skill and eye-hand coordination of the operator. Studies have shown that as digitizing operators tend to wander off the original lines by as much as 1/32 of an inch as they progress through a days work. Automatic raster-to-vector conversion will provide you with editable vectors in a fraction of the time of other methods.
