architect

08
Mar
2022
Top 7 Ways AutoCAD Conversions Helps Architect Firms

Top 7 Ways AutoCAD Conversions Helps Architect Firms

DWG Conversions Will Change Your Architect Business

Architects are as busy as ever. If you have your own architect firm, freelance, or are part of a team, AutoCAD conversions can help your company in many ways. Adding AutoCAD conversions to your workflow can increase productivity, and profits. Here’s 7 ways AutoCAD conversions can help you as an architect.

Architects using AutoCAD in office.
Architects looking at plans in AutoCAD

1. It will make your workflow quicker

Ever have a remodel where you are redrawing old plans from 20+ years ago? Have that sheet scanned, and sent to us for a fully-layered AutoCAD conversion. You will receive a vector DWG file, and you can quickly make your changes.

2. Clean up hand drawn plans

Many of our customers hand-draw plans, and they find it easier and has more character than CAD drawn plans. The problem is, often they work with others who only use CAD. We can convert your hand-drawn plans to CAD, so you can collaborate with other industries, including interior design, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and structural engineers.

site plan blueprint to AutoCAD
Scanned site plan blueprint converted to AutoCAD.

3. You can take in more work

Now that you are not drawing everything yourself in CAD, you can take in more work, while we do a much of the AutoCAD work. This is especially useful for remodels, so you can make your changes, additions to the home, accessory dwelling unit (ADU), office, hardscape, landscape, decks, pool, electrical, or plan change. Check out this article on how this saves you time and money.

Get a quote

4. Redline changes

We can make changes to your plans. Simply grab a red pen, or make comments in the PDF specifying the changes you need, and we will make the changes. For example, you can circle walls, doors or windows you would like removed. Curious to how Convert2AutoCAD compares to other services that claim to perform the same service? Check out this article.

Architectural redline changes

5. Friendly customer service

We are located in Del Mar, California. This makes it easier for you to work with us, from the United States. We are easy to communicate with, and you will not have to worry about langue-barriers, or time zones. We are available to you Monday – Friday, 8:00AM to 5:00PM Pacific Time. Feel free to contact us or give us a call at 858-755-5134.

6. Fast turnaround

We are capable of getting your PDF converted to CAD in as little as 24-hours! As an architect, we know sometimes you have tight deadlines. This is why we offer expedited processing, so you can meet your deadlines with your clients, contractors, or municipalities.

7. Your architect competitors are using it

We have been offering this service for more than 20 years, and have amassed over a thousand customers and have converted over 100,000 pages. It’s a very good chance you could be bidding against another architect that will be using our services for the project. This lets them bid lower, and have a faster completion time. We want you to remain competitive as well.

Architect with paper plans working on laptop

Conclusion

Architects have much to gain, and nothing to lose by having Convert2AutoCAD in their workflow. It can save you money and time, and help you take in more work. Send us your plans for a quick quote to convert to AutoCAD.

Posted by Michael Mellor in AutoCAD tips
28
Apr
2020
Architects – Stay Safe and Work from Home

Architects – Stay Safe and Work from Home

Stay Home, Stay Safe

Work from home, they are telling us. These are times unlike any that we have seen in recent memory. There is a global pandemic, that has forced the world economy to come to a screeching halt. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives. Stay at home orders, social distancing rules, face-covering requirements and business closures. Many are not working, and many are working from home. If you are a designer, it may no longer be difficult to work from home.

Have a Remodel? We Can Help

Plans to CAD
Converting architectural, engineering, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and landscape plans to CAD.

PDF to CAD

Send over your PDF plan to have it converted to fully layered vector CAD file.
Send Your PDF

Many times, we have clients who want changes to their existing home or business. An addition, second floor, updated electrical, more water efficient landscape. You could go to the site, take measurements, redraw the building in CAD, and make your changes from there. You could also get the original plans from the client, or local building department, and have the plans scanned, and sent to us to give you a fully layered CAD file. That way you can make your changes directly to the original plans. We can have the the plans back to you in as little as 24 hours.

Skilled CAD Drafters

CAD drafters team
Our team of highly skilled drafters can complete your drawing quickly and accurately.

Our team of over 100 skilled 2D and 3D designers are efficient and accurate. Delivering sharp, accurate design, for you to present to homeowners, builders or subcontractors. The Convert2AutoCAD team uses the best practices for layer names and colors.

Serving More Than Just Architects

Serving all design industries
We serve more than just architects.

Architects make up the majority of our customers, but we also serve many other industries. Some examples are health care, fabrication, engineering, construction, education, public works, government, defense, biotech, craft beer and wine, fashion, and tech. We are located in the United States, but we serve clients worldwide.

Posted by Michael Mellor
17
Apr
2019
We offer bulk discounts!

Bulk discounts are given to our customers who order 8 or more AutoCAD conversions in a single order. Send us an order of at least 8 sheets, and we will give you 15% off your entire order!

We know sometimes you have a lot of plans to have converted at a time. This is an even bigger reason to send them all into us, and receive a discount. Do you have a major project of at least 100 pages to convert? We can offer an even deeper discount for you. Our team of skilled drafters can create accurate, and professional AutoCAD DWG files for you to work with.

Who works with us?

At Convert2AutoCAD, we have worked with general contractors, architects, engineers, city, state, and federal government, healthcare, education and home owners. We can convert from PDF, TIF, Microstation, JPG, PLT, and just about any file format you can think of.

Get a free quote!

Send your files to us for a free same day quote! We will give you a price and estimated completion time. Order 8 or more AutoCAD conversions, and you will receive bulk discounts. Give us a call us at (858) 755-5134.

Posted by Michael Mellor
11
Sep
2018
American Architects Listings at the AIA

A listing of all architects in the AIA (American Institute of Architects)

Finding an architect in your area just got easier. The AIA has a complete searchable listing of all of its members by name, zip code, city, state, and building type. This makes it easy to find any architect in the United States.

About the American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects has been around for over 150 years and has over 90,000 members, making it the largest architect organization in the United States. We are proud supporters by sponsoring events from local chapters AIA Palomar, and San Diego. To read more about the structure and history, check out the their Wikipedia page.

About Convert2AutoCAD

We convert paper or PDF plans to fully layered AutoCAD DWG files. For a free quote send over your files. Convert2AutoCAD is part of the Del Mar Blue family. We are a small business located in California.

AIA The American Institute of Architects logo

Posted by Michael Mellor
14
Jun
2018
Converted tattered old site plan to AutoCAD

This old blueprint was converted to a AutoCAD DWG file

This service is a difference maker

We had a customer come to us with a very old, tattered blueprint that he wanted to have converted to AutoCAD. This happens a lot, and many times, the customer is unsure if it can even be done., well, it can be done! I took the old plan, and scanned it on our black and white scanner, and had one of our expert drafters redraw it in AutoCAD to a DWG file. As you can see in the image above, the plan on the left is the original scan of the blueprint. The image on the right is the resulting AutoCAD file. The customer was very pleased with the result, and was able to start his design project right away.

Fast

This service is normally a 3-business day turnaround. We also offer 24-hour turnaround for only an extra $30 per sheet. You will not be able to hire a drafter for less than our prices. Our service is fast, and accurate. We guarantee our work, if the result is not what you expected, we will make the changes for free. We do more than residential, we also do commercial, retail, government, medical, municipal, utility, golf courses, hotels, parks, roads and bridges.

Money and time saved

Our customer was very happy with the result. He was able to start the remodel design on the home, and sent the AutoCAD file to his landscape architect to begin designing the new landscape. Using the topography lines, he was able to add in trees, a deck, and retaining walls. Instead of redrawing plans, you can send the work to us, giving you more time to design. If you would like to use this service, contact us today. We can answer your questions, and get you a fast quote.

Posted by Michael Mellor
04
Apr
2018
Archispeak Podcast is worthy of your time

I came across the Archispeak Podcast while browsing my LinkedIn feed. Architect Neal Pann is a connection of mine, and had posted about it. I checked out their most recent episode at the time, and it was very fascinating, planned out, without feeling scripted. If you are an architect nerd, I recommend checking out Archispeak.

Posted by Michael Mellor
06
Jun
2017
Converting to AutoCAD can save you a lot of money

Converting to AutoCAD can save you a lot of money

Hiring a draftsperson or architect to convert your plans can take 8 to 24 hours, at $100 to $130† per hour.  That’s a total of $800 to $3,120! Typically, we can do the same for $100-150 for the whole page, and can return the file to you in 24-hours!* This can end up saving you lots of money, and many thousands of dollars over a year.

†drafting service costs from costowl.com
*rush 24-hour service available for an additional $30.

Posted by Michael Mellor
05
Apr
2017
How do we convert to AutoCAD?

How do we convert to AutoCAD?

How do we convert to AutoCAD?

Hint: it’s not just done in seconds with software

One of the most common questions is, “how do you do it?” We take your file and redraw each line in AutoCAD.  This is much much more complex than simply using software to convert the the image to vector.  This ensures a quick, and accurate AutoCAD file, that can be manipulated just as it was designed by an architect or engineer. We can convert any type of plan, including architectural, landscape, interior, engineering, plumbing, electrical, and schematics.  This is also a good way to clean up hand drawn plans.

How this saves you money

Some people will say, “well I can do that on my own”, and that is true, but we do it for only $85 to $150 per page. That rate is very affordable for a project that can take you many hours. You cannot hire a drafter to redraw your plans for the price that we charge. This gives you more time, and higher profits. We can also do this for large jobs. We can have them done in batches of 100 for you, every month.

We convert the following types of plans:

  • Architectural
  • Structural
  • Engineering
  • Plumbing
  • Electrical
  • Grading
  • Landscape
  • Mechanical
  • Shop Drawings
  • Topographic Maps

We work with the following industries:

  • Construction
  • Building
  • Surveying
  • Health Care
  • Government
  • Education (Universities, K-12, Colleges)
  • Biotechnology
  • Software Development
  • General Contracting
  • Defense
  • Coastal Commissions
  • Airports

We work in all Autodesk applications. Convert2AutoCAD is a small, independently owned company located in Del Mar, California. No job is too small or too large. Contact us for a fast quote today.

Posted by Michael Mellor