From paper drawings to documents you can question
Yellowed cabinet schematics, folded drawings, binders of manuals: we scan them, convert them into DXF or DWG vector drawings, link their tags to a database and put everything into a web portal. You search it, click from one sheet to the next, and an agent answers your questions.
A scan is only a photo
You cannot search it for a tag, you cannot edit it, and nothing links a device to the sheets it appears on. So everything depends on the file you have in hand.
PDF, DXF, DWG: three files, three uses
A fixed document, identical on every screen and on paper. Made from a scan, it is still an image in a different wrapper. Exported from CAD software, its lines and text are vector: you can search for a word and zoom without loss, but you cannot rework the drawing.
The same vector drawing as a DWG (lines, arcs, text, layers, blocks), written in an exchange format whose specification is public. Almost every CAD package reads it: it is the file you pass from one software to another. It is larger.
AutoCAD's working format: binary, compact, owned by its publisher. It is the file you open every day to draw and update. Other CAD packages open it too.
We deliver your drawings as DXF or DWG, as you prefer: lines and text you can edit. At this point there is no intelligence in the file yet: it is built in the steps that follow.
Six steps, from paper to agent
Intelligence does not arrive all at once: it is built layer by layer. The first two steps give a clean drawing that is still mute. The next four teach it what it is made of.
First, a clean drawing
No intelligence yetAt this point the file holds only lines and text. The CAD software does not know that a circle and two lines form a pump, or that a piece of text is the tag of the device next to it.
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Scan
We scan your paper originals, or start from your files: existing scans, PDF, DWG, CAD exports.
You get: a faithful image of every page.
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Vectorize
Strokes become lines, lettering becomes text again. The drawing opens and can be edited in AutoCAD or another CAD program.
You get: one DXF or DWG file per sheet.
Then intelligence, layer by layer
Intelligence starts hereWe start structuring the drawing into intelligent blocks, then link these blocks to each other and to your other documents.
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Structure
Each symbol becomes a block: a named object that knows what it represents. The text that goes with it becomes its attributes: tag, description, characteristics. Two pumps drawn the same way share the same definition.
You get: a drawing whose devices can be listed, counted and extracted.
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Link
We build the intelligent database of your installation. The blocks and their attributes go into it: one tag, one record. Each record knows every sheet the device appears on, from the electrical schematic to the process diagram and the manual.
You get: the list of your devices, measuring points, cables and terminals, with all their occurrences.
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Browse
A web portal displays your documents. You search for a tag or a word, click a device to open its record and move from sheet to sheet. An administration area is used to upload and file documents.
You get: a web portal and its administration area.
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Ask
An intelligent agent that has understood your installation answers your questions: it knows your equipment, its tags and the links between sheets. Example: “Which sheets show pump P-101?” Also available as a Copilot Studio agent, in your Microsoft environment, on your SharePoint.
You get: an agent you question in plain language.
An intelligent block, in practice
In CAD software, a block is a group of lines saved under a name and reused wherever the same symbol appears. Its attributes are text fields attached to the block. This pair, block and attributes, is what makes the drawing usable: a query returns the list of pumps, where a drawing without blocks only knows circles.
- Tag
- P-101
- Description
- Feed pump
- Sheet
- 7
- Other sheets
- 3 · 12
Good to know This work is gradual: a symbol that has not yet been structured stays a set of lines. The links between devices (wires, piping) stay lines: it is the database that tells on which sheets each tag appears.
Four families of documents
Electrical schematics
Cabinets, terminal strips, wiring diagrams, instrument loops.
Process diagrams
P&IDs: equipment, piping, measuring points.
Mechanical and building drawings
Layouts, general arrangements, isometrics.
Documentation
Manuals, data sheets, certificates, binders. It becomes searchable text the agent can read.
On your premises or on ours
Installed on your premises
The platform runs on your server. Your documents never leave your network.
Hosted by us
We host the platform. You reach it through a browser, with nothing to install.
Secure access
Access goes through a personal account. Data can be encrypted.
And the agent? It follows the sensitivity of your documents: ordinary documents may go through an online model under contract, sensitive documents stay on a local model. If you work in the Microsoft environment, it can also take the form of a Copilot Studio agent, on your SharePoint. Read the article on digitalization, data and AI
To get started: what we need
- A few representative pages of each family of documents, to measure the starting quality.
- Your tagging convention: how you name devices, measuring points, cables and terminals.
- Your CAD software and the expected format: DXF or DWG, and which version.
- Where it is hosted: on your premises, on ours, or in your Microsoft environment.
Let's talk about your documents.
Tell us what you have: type of documents, volume, paper or files. We call you back to see what can be done.
Or describe your need here
A few lines are enough: we come back to you with specific questions.