CAD / CAM Wins Bid to Provide High-Accuracy CAD Scanning Services to Tinker Air Force Base

Proprietary Electronic Calibration Method Provides Digital Files

 with Boeing-Certifiable Tolerance for Aircraft Drawings

We’ve been very busy here at CAD / CAM Services, Inc.  As one of only a few companies in the world who is certified for Department of Defense  large format scanning and CAD conversion work, we were  recently awarded a $1,400,000 contract by Tinker Air Force Base to scan 45,000 aircraft drawings dating from the 1950’s to the present day.  We started the project in September and we expect to deliver 2,000 calibrated images each month via a secure FTP site.  A local scanning office that is close to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma will be doing the scanning  

The Tinker Air Force project requires a tolerance of +/-.005” accuracy over any five- or ten-inch area for the digital scanned files.   The drawings are on Mylar, which is a plastic sheeting material that may be affected over the years by changes in temperature.  This means that the older drawings may have stretched or otherwise changed in size, affecting the accuracy of the drawing itself. 

CadCam Services has a proprietary method that electronically compensates for error within each five- or ten-inches to restore original drawing accuracy.  This is a Boeing and Lockheed certifiable tolerance for aircraft drawings.   We’re one of only a few firms world-wide who is able to generate calibrated digital files of this accuracy.   Our approach is unique and it enables us to specialize in tough jobs like this. “

Frank Maschino, Engineering Data Manager, at Tinker Air Force Base told us that, “The accuracy of the final digital file is of paramount importance to us.  These digital files are stored in Tinker Air Force Base’s electronic repository as a permanent archive for all of our drawings.   If we need to refer to these digital drawings, or print out a new paper drawing, it is essential that the measurements be as accurate as, if not better than the original Mylar drawing when it was new.”

We beat our competition with this unique process, which is not only more accurate, but also one-half of the cost of other methods. 

If you have a backfile conversion project, contact us for a price quote.

CAD Translations

What is a CAD translation, and how does that differ from Raster to Vector conversion? 

As discussed in our previous blog, raster to vector conversion means taking a scanned raster file, and changing it to a vector file.  However a CAD translation means taking a vector file that is in one format, usable in a particular CAD software application, and changing it, into another vector file that is in a different format, and understandable by a different software application.  In this regard it is similar to translating a document in one language, for instance German, into another language, for instance English. 

Doing CAD translations requires technicians who are fully trained in various sophisticated CAD software packages, and who are able to make the corrections that need to be made when going from one software package to another.  If we continue our analogy from the previous paragraph about translating from one language to another, we can compare to the fact that sometime a word in one language can have several different translations in another language, each with a slightly different meaning.  Only an expert linguist can choose the correct translation to convey the meaning intended in the original manuscript.   It is much the same with CAD translation…only a knowledgeable CAD technician can choose the right interpretation of the drawing in one CAD package to provide a reliable representation in another CAD package. 

We’ve done many successful CAD translations, for instance:

• Autodesk – AutoCAD (any release)
• Bentley – MicroStation Intergraph
• E.S.R.I. – ArcInfo
• IBM – Catia
• IBM – Cadam Pro E
• Computervision – CAD 4 & 5
• Unigraphic
• Autodesk – Step translations (Mechanical Desktop)
• Gerber
• Adobe – PDF
• In addition:  IGES, DXF, HP-GL2, HPGL

And, as we discussed in a previous blog, we support nearly any scanned raster file as well.  If you have specific questions about CAD translations, request information at our website www.cadcam.org