Paper Integration with CAD and EDM
Keys Business Re-investment

Engineering Document Management (EDM) and Workflow have tremendous potential to improve information handling within each and every business. Key business drivers that now include regulatory pressures of ISO 9000, quality standards of OSHA, rightsizing demands, and improved ECO/ECN processes, create the right climate for companies to address the issue of handling paper and electronic documents more efficiently.

Document management and workflow tools provide a means to improve the process of handling information, and far exceed the productivity that can be realized by CAD/CAM systems. While CAD provided a design automation tool to help improve an individuals productivity, EDM and Workflow tools have the potential to improve information and business processes. Fortune 1000 companies already spend 7-10% of company revenues on document management, according to Xerox and the Gartner Group. This expense is primarily incurred on a manual document management process which typically represents 70-80% of a company's archives.

Scanning these paper archives into compressed raster format is the enabler to help companies meet regulatory, quality, right-sizing, and re-investment strategies. Large format and aperture card scanners can affordably produce high quality compressed raster drawings (images) for integration with EDM, Workflow, and even AutoCAD. This allows controlled and faster distribution, archival, and revisions. These raster archives can be further enhanced or cleaned up to produce a better than original drawing.

Users of document management solutions now have the capability to work with CAD and raster scanned drawings due to viewing and redlining tools capable of reading these and other electronic formats. Viewing tools with redline allow users to electronically mark-up or redline the drawings to facilitate the electronic ECO/ECN process. These tools allow quick and easy access to the drawings under the controls of the EDM/PDM system. Once found, drawings and their redline comments can be quickly output to high quality plotters.

Revisions can be easily made to scanned drawings with tools like the GTXRaster CAD Series. Hybrid environments of raster and vector have provided tremendous benefits to companies by ntegrating both legacy raster archives and intelligent vector based systems. GTXRaster CAD behaves much like CAD allowing complex and accurate modifications to be made in raster. These raster CAD systems allow intelligent selections of raster geometry, raster snaps, and can allow the drawings to be modified as either raster and/or hybrid drawings. Or in situations where more intelligence is desired, they can be converted directly into vector CAD geometry using raster to vector conversion techniques, for further modeling and analysis.

EDM/PDM solutions provide the key engine for companies to reduce drawing life cycle and revision costs, and improve security and control of information assets. Thanks to raster scanning, editing, viewing, and conversion tools, the wealth of paper assets is brought to life within these systems at a fraction of the cost for manual document procedures.

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