.Fit APPLICATION BRIEFS. A: Navy Contract Brought Them. Scanners and Shipbuilders-X. i.n I':

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1 APPLICATION BRIEFS a Scanners and Shipbuilders-X A: Navy Contract Brought Them.Fit a i.n I':. I Figure 1. Ships under construction for the US Navy at the Peterson Builders Inc. shipyard in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin. 18

2 Figure 2. George O'Keefe of Peterson Builders Inc. with one of the mine- sweepers that PBI builds for the US Navy. With the Skantek SK-1010 automatic digitizing scanner PBI was able to improve productivity significantly in the digitization of naval drawings. An established shipbuilding corporation and a young digitizing scanner company recently cooperated to respond to a challenge extended by the US Navy. The Navy needed a series of ships built within a tight deadline. They also wanted the entire set of construction drawings turned over to them in digital data form. Peterson Builders Inc. of Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin agreed to meet both Navy demands. As an experi- Attacking the problem PBI needed an innovative solution to its drawing-conversion problem and turned to its CAD/CAM manager George O'Keefe for a pragmatic approach. O'Keefe (shown in Figure 2) realized that exact duplication of existing drawings must be his goal. "What we wanted" O'Keefe said "was a device that would give us an accurate one-to-one representation within the CAD system of an origi- nal hand-rendered drawing." enced shipbuilder PBI knew it could make use of many drawings already in its archives by pulling the standardized data in the drawings and individualizing it according to Navy specifications. But an important problem existed when it came to digitizing the drawings. The earlier drawings had been created manually; re-creating them in digital format would require thousands of hours of computer work by experienced CAD operators. More than 750 assembly drawing sheets would have to be converted to a CAD database in less than eight months to meet the Navy deadline. Using conventional digitizing approaches would impose a severe strain on PBI's CAD resources and staff. August 1985 Figure 3. The SK-1010 automatic digitizing scanner can easily be operated as a stand-alone office machine. 19

3 Figure 4. The color monitor touch screen of the Skantek Figure 5. Another view of the SK-1010 color touch screen scanner showing the master control menu. The scanner is showing a simulated keyboard ready for entry of the name of controlled by touching the appropriate spot on the screen to the drawing to be digitized. The touch-screen keyboard works activate the scanning process. the same as a manual keyboard. He knew PBI had a few choices available: It could invest from $ to over $1 million in an elaborate document-scanning system; it could have its draftsmen retrace each drawing's lines and figures with a digitizing stylus; or its draftsmen could re-create each drawing from scratch at a CAD/CAE workstation screen. All these options proved prohibitive in both time and money. O'Keefe remembered he had heard of a new firm that was looking for a beta test site for its new product. Skantek Inc. of Warren New Jersey was producing the SK-10I0 digitizing scanner. This young company (founded in 1982) offered a lower priced ($ to $140000) more productive solution to digitizing drawings. Its scanner was based on advanced fiber-optic and computer technology developed by its founders at AT&T Bell Laboratories. (The scanner is shown in Figure 3.) 20 Skantek designs manufactures and markets digitizing scanners for computer-aided design and engineering workstations and computerized information storage and retrieval systems. A Skantek scanner equipped with Unix-based software could help electronically convert and edit PBI's large engineering and design drawings. The device reads and translates document text numbers graphics and formats; the scanner's software changes this information into digital data. The scanned document file could then be transferred to PBI's workstation or terminal screen for editing and revisions. Figures 4 and 5 display the scanner's touch-screen capabilities. O'Keefe appro4ched Skantek with his problem and asked if it would be interested in using PBI for its beta test site. When Skantek agreed and PBI satisfied itself that the scanner could help it complete the Navy contract and make the drawing conversion without cost overruns or delays PBI ordered the scanner's delivery. Installation In preparation for the added work PBI decided to establish a second shift of CAD operators to begin entering new and revised drawings. This extra shift permitted PBI to carry on with its regular CAD activities while it tried out the new scanner. Scanning and editing of the scanned files began with the arrival of the SK Installation of the scanner went smoothly. "It was the easiest installation of CAD equipment I've been involved with" said O'Keefe. The SK-1OI0 proved to be so easy to operate that most of the drawings could be scanned by first-shift clerical

4 5 -i; ;53 INPT : -1 ':--?=: --- :;tr s ftis 21s 15. 'Eir - $':. XorK.~1 Is; -C3"" SE A-A I'GS~ /: l.. ^c _ v. _ f d '-e ""A' _j.. j nf:cco C.'\ *SI Figure 6. A hand-rendered engineering drawing before digitization. workers. "In two hours it was up and typical drawing before it is introrunning and within three hours we'd duced into the scanner. Figure 7 trained some operators. We were shows a section of the same drawing after it was scanned. Drawings were scanning drawings that same evening" added O'Keefe. fed into the scanner by the width The typical PBI design drawing is dimension and cut off as the desired 30 inches wide and 12 feet long aver- length was reached. After scanning a drawing the SKages three sheets per drawing and 1010 converted optically read data contains many densely packed lines and symbols. Figure 6 shows a from raster to vector format wrote it to tape and prepared for the transfer to PBI's CAD system. Once the converted drawing was loaded onto the CAD system it was put through the editing process. (See Figure 8.) The number of steps necessary to complete editing varied depending on the quality and density of the original drawing. A finished drawing can be seen in Figure 9. Figure 7. A section of the same drawing shown in Figure 6 after scanning. The drawing section is being viewed on the color monitor touch screen during the preview phase and prior to actual digitization. August

5 Figure 8. Once the drawings are scanned and digitized they are edited on a CAD workstation. Figure 9. A view of the same engineering drawing shown in Figure 6 after digitization by the SK and editing at a CAD workstation. 22 Working closely with the Skantek team Peterson Builders developed its own techniques and procedures to use the converted data fully on its own CAD system. By using the scanned data as a template PBI's CAD operators were readily able to separate acceptable data from the data requiring further attention. O'Keefe says that even in cases where the density and quality of scanned drawings required extensive editing the SK-1010 scanning process continued to be cost effective. Once a drawing was fed into the scanner the scanning process required little active supervision thus further reducing personnel costs. Before the Skantek scanner was introduced into the process recreation time at PBI averaged 44 hours for each roll drawing. Once scanned each drawing at first required 10 to 20 hours of editing on the CAD system. This time was quickly reduced to an average of two to three hours per drawing sheet on all drawings including A- B- C- and D-size and roll-type documents. A formidable job well done PBI feels the SK-1010 produced just what the Navy ordered. It also found that the Skantek device gave it a technological edge helping PBI to meet the Navy's requirements without having to expand its CAD staff. Future plans for expanded SK-1010 use at PBI include the capture of design sketches and graphics for technical reports. Skantek for its part feels the PBI project provided the challenge it was looking for: to test the SK- 1010's capabilities a challenge the scanner proved well-suited to meet. -