2 min read
Drawing archive
Search, read and measure in building drawings and technical documentation, with title fields read straight off the sheet.
A drawing archive that catalogues itself: sheets go in, title fields are read off them automatically, and the result is searchable — including a measuring function that works out an area directly from the drawing.
Availability: this is a bespoke deployment, set up per customer rather than switched on from the integrations list. Talk to your Customer Success Manager about what it would take for your archive.
What it is
Section titled “What it is”A digital archive for architectural and technical drawings with automatic cataloguing. It reads drawing sheets, extracts the title block — building, floor, drawing type, drawing number — and makes the archive both searchable and answerable.
It has two halves: an ingestion pipeline that processes incoming sheets and classifies them, and a query side that searches, retrieves and measures.
Use it for
Section titled “Use it for”- “Which drawings exist for this floor of this building?”
- “Find the drawing with this number and show it to me.”
- “What is the area of this room, measured from the drawing?”
- “Search for drawings about this, even if the wording differs.”
- “How many sheets are in the archive, and what has not been processed yet?”
Fifteen tools across two halves:
| Area | Answers |
|---|---|
| Usage guide | How ingestion and querying relate — the assistant reads this first |
| Archive statistics | How much is catalogued, and what is still waiting |
| Ingestion | List what is waiting, process a single sheet as a sample, process a batch, and collect the results |
| Reclassification | Correct a title-block reading, or a visual classification, when the automatic pass got it wrong |
| Search | Find a document, search the catalogue by field, or search semantically when the exact wording is unknown |
| Retrieval | Get a drawing, or a preview of it |
| Measurement | Work out an area directly from the drawing |
Data and permissions
Section titled “Data and permissions”- Your drawings stay yours. The archive is deployed for one organisation and holds that organisation’s material.
- Reclassification is a write, but only to the catalogue — the drawings themselves are never altered.
Getting started
Section titled “Getting started”This one is set up rather than switched on. It needs your drawing material, a decision about how title blocks are structured in your archive, and a processing run before it answers anything. Talk to your Customer Success Manager.
Limitations
Section titled “Limitations”- Automatic cataloguing is not perfect, which is exactly why reclassification tools exist. A title block that is handwritten, rotated or non-standard is the common failure, and it fails visibly rather than silently.
- A measured area is a measurement from the drawing, inheriting the drawing’s own scale and accuracy. It is not a survey, and it is not a basis for a contract without checking.
- It reads drawings, not models. A BIM or CAD model is a different kind of source and is not covered.
- Search quality depends on the title blocks. An archive with inconsistent title blocks is harder to search, and the catalogue reflects that rather than fixing it.