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Every shop has the same shelf: manila blocks, taped repairs, a marker pen note about which size it really is. Digitizing that shelf usually means a table you do not own, or a studio invoice for every single piece.
A shelf of 40 blocks: about $18,000 quoted, $200 here. Files come out on AAMA / ASTM layers and open in AccuMark and Optitex.
Three things that keep paper blocks out of your CAD, and what happens to each of them.
Hand digitizing in the US runs to a few hundred dollars a piece, so an archive of forty blocks never gets quoted, let alone approved. Here the cost per piece is small enough to digitize the shelf a few pieces at a time.
A digitizing table is a fixed cost and a floor space argument. A phone and a browser are already in the room, and nothing gets installed on the shop computer.
Sending blocks out means a courier, a queue and a week. Shooting them yourself means the marker maker has the DXF the same afternoon.
Real photo · real trace · nothing retouched
The DXF is written the way apparel software expects it, not as a flat drawing you have to rebuild.
Cut line, notches, grain and internal lines each on their own layer, with piece names you can edit.
Print at true size on Letter sheets and lay the paper proof over the original block before you trust the file.
Standard HPGL with clean pen-up and pen-down moves for a plotter or a cutting table.
One person, one phone, one afternoon. Nothing leaves the shop.
Dark surface, good light, a stack of blocks and a pad of paper for the scale sheet.
One piece per photo with the sheet in frame. A slight tilt is fine, we straighten against the sheet.
Each piece is traced separately so you can accept the good ones and redo the rest.
Print the PDF proof, lay it over the block, then take the DXF into grading.
About ±0.06 in on a large piece when the photo is taken straight down with the sheet in frame. Print the tiled PDF and lay it over the original before you commit the file to a marker.
Notches are detected and written to their own layer with angle and depth. The grain line is placed automatically and can be moved by hand in the editor. Without a grain line some CAD systems refuse to import notches at all, so we always write one.
We digitize the piece as it is on the paper. Adding or removing allowance and grading the nest stays in your CAD, where your rules already live.
Yes, a piece at a time. For a large archive tell us how many pieces and we will quote a flat price and a turnaround rather than charging per piece.
Free until you download. If the trace is wrong, you fix it yourself and pay nothing.
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