Need Help Selecting a Scanner

[phi...@seanet.com]

I am a new High School teacher in the CAD Drafting area. Last year we
installed 14 workstations with AutoCAD R-14. The kids are picking up
skills rapidly and I am interested in adding one or two low cost
scanners to my lab.

Can anyone recommend a low cost (under $300) flat bed scanner with easy
to use software that can be used with AutoCAD R-14 and Windows NT 4.0 to
scan in drawings? I would also appreciate any info on what all needs to
be considered when choosing a scanner for a CAD Station. Please send
responses to pcou...@renton.wednet.edu. Thanks.

Phil Coulson
Lindbergh High School

[Paul Turvill]

No matter how expensive the scanner, it won't "scan in" AutoCAD drawings.
Scanners produce raster images; AutoCAD uses vector files. In order to
convert a scanned raster image to something that can be edited by
AutoCAD, you'll need a third-party package to convert from raster to
vector. We've used Corel OCR-Trace with some limited success; but be
warned: what you get will consist of a jillion little polylines, not a
very cohesive AutoCAD drawing.

Just about any scanner that will scan a true 300 dpi or better will
provide a starting point. The main difference is speed and high-end
resolution (which mainly just inflates file sizes). They're selling
around here for under $70 in some stores.
__

phi...@seanet.com wrote in message <3645EF...@seanet.com>...

[dantor]

You are going to have trouble finding A low cost scanner with NT drivers

Check out http://www.Dantor.com/ For scanning, And raster to vector
conversion

[Jon Chapman]

Dantor,

First of all, he's asking to buy a scanner for his computer lab to help
his students learn, having an outside source do that for him pretty much
defeats the purpose doesn't it?

Second of all, anyone who offers autovectorization and refers to it as
"dimensionally correct" (quoted right off your web page) should have
their head examined. This service is FAR from "dimensionally correct".
Heads up, on screen digitizing, or interactive redrawing is the only way
to go - period.

To add some information that may help the original poster of this
message, I have had good success with a UMAX scanner (can't remember the
model # offhand), but it is of the parallel connection variety.

Jon
--
Access Technologies Inc.
Technical Service Bureau / Large Format Scanning/Imaging
AutoCad, Microstation, ArcInfo, ArcCad, ArcView
AM-FM/GIS Integrated Solutions

Bridging the Gap between Manual and Electronic Information

http://www.execpc.com/~access
Voice: (414) 542-8830 Fax: (414) 542-8233
Toll Free: 1-800-646-SCAN BBS: (414) 542-8280