Working with Plans

Some museums will offer 8 x 10 photographs of plans while others will offer line prints. Either way you can
work with both types. When ordering line prints it is advisable to order them at a small scale of 1/16 or 1/8 to
the foot. You will need to either scan the plans into the computer or trace them on a digitizing pad. The average
scanner will only scan up to 8 x 10 so this requires scanning the plans in sections. Small scale plans have less
images to assemble.

The first image is a line scan at 600 dpi of a photograph. As you can see there are missing areas where the lines
began to fade below the threshold the scanner can pick up.
The second image to the right is the same scan this time a gray scale at a low
res of 75 dpi. This causes the image to be much smaller. The same gray scale
scan at 600 dpi will produce a larger image. When an entire 8 x 10
photograph is scanned it will produce a large file from 18 to 20 megs. In
order to trace a plan from a scanned image it will require you to zoom way
in, a gray scale scan at 600 dpi produces a sharp image filling in all the gray
areas missing on the line scan. The image below shows zoomed in on a high res scan. The red line is the tracing
line. Below the high res image is a low res 75 dpi scan. When zooming in on the low res its impossible to
accurately trace the original lines.

The examples above are working with photographs of plans. The next two samples are scanning line prints. If
you get a nice, clean, crisp print there is little difference between a line art scan and a gray scale scan. It is
advisable to scan at a high resolution of 600 dpi.

This scan is a sample of a gray scale scanned at 600 dpi. The next sample is the same scan done as a line art at
600 dpi. Notice there is very little difference in detail between the scans. The gray scale is a 10 meg file while
the line art scan is 1 meg.

Working with large plans

The advantage of scanning a photograph of a plan is the fact you can get the entire plan in one scan. Line prints
of plans will require you to scan them in sections. Plans will be distorted from age, from the photographic
process, paper shrinkage or distortion from scanning. All these problems are worked out in the drawing
program once we have the tracing. Some ship plans can be on sheets 6 feet long in scale, this is why it is
better to request the plans in a smaller scale. You can always scale the plans once they the traced.
The following example is a plan of a gunboat scanned in sections. Looking close at the cannons in the scans you
you will see an overlap in each scan. This is done to create references points so the tracing can be assembled.
The drawings under the scans are the individual tracings. Once you have the tracings first level them and in auto
Cad you can move them together to produce the final drawing.