The Ease of Digital Blueprints

For contractors, paper blueprints have always been a staple of the construction business.

Recently, a trend has emerged that would potentially replace paper blueprints with digital blueprints. The savings in reproduction and distribution costs alone would be substantial.

In the construction industry, most blueprints are still provided on paper. The general contractor or developer must take the original images provided by the architect and reproduce them into multiple sets of paper blueprints that are then distributed to subcontractors.

In the early 1990s, several companies tried to find a way to make the process more efficient. The idea was to distribute the plans to the contractor in a digital format, rather than on paper. Paper blueprints would be converted into digital images using large format scanners and then distributed over the Internet. It was determined that the technology at the time would not support the scope of the project.

By the late 1990s, technology had advanced greatly. Computers were much faster. Data was being shared on CD rather than floppy disk and most companies had high-speed Internet connections. With all the advances, there was still one large issue, how to collect blueprints for all of the major projects throughout the Untied States, scan them and then redistribute them to the contractors. Organizations like the Associated General Contractors and the Builders Exchange have recently begun offering digital blueprints to their members. Plans are submitted, scanned and then distributed by CD, or they can be downloaded over the Internet.

Now that plans are begging to show up in digital format, the contractors are now struggling with how to measure the blueprints. Many software companies have developed CAD-like software applications that allow the contractor to measure directly from the digital image on the screen of their computer. Even with the development of such technology, most contractors take the digital images to their local blueprint shop and have them printed to paper where they can be measured by scale or digitizer. One problem solved and another created.

Within the next ten years, it is possible that digital blueprints will be the most common way to receive prints. The reduction in reproduction costs and the efficiency of distributing blueprints without leaving the office will eventually outweigh distributing plans on paper. For the old school estimator, paper, pencil and scale will be the only thing they will accept. For those thirsty for new technology, the future looks bright.

Construction Business Owner, November 2006