Outsourcing the Print of Drawings without Problems

Many design organizations outsource the printing of their work to specialized printing centers. In this case, there are worries not only about protecting the drawings from unwanted changes during the transfer to another computer, but also concerning the safety of one’s intellectual property. The simplest and most elegant solution for both tasks is the program Universal Document Converter. The developers of computer software regularly update their products, improving their functionality and making them more convenient to use. This is of course very good. However, in some situations the product lacks backwards compatibility. This means that a document created by a new version of the program cannot be opened in the previous variants. Similar problems are encountered by the majority of partial-service project and design companies, i.e. those whose works are printed by outside companies. It is by transferring completed files from one computer to another that many problems arise, both technical and those concerning copyright protection. The main technical problem is the incompatibility of versions. When using expensive automated design systems, such as AutoCad for example, the majority of companies are very conservative when it comes to updating programs. It is not unusual for such systems to not have been updated for years, especially since new versions often do not introduce cardinal improvements. In addition to this, in transferring drawings from one computer to another, the main limitation of the vector format can arise – the dependency on the system. Small differences in the configuration of computers can lead to unwanted alterations in drawings. Anyone who has encountered such a situation knows that the correction of this problem is extremely time-consuming But even if technical difficulties are avoided, the unsolved task of copyright protection remains. A serious drawing made with a CAD system is a complex document consisting of numerous comparatively simple blocks allowing one to quickly “assemble” practically any construction, mechanism or system. Libraries of these are built up over the years and are real assets of the company enabling them to successfully compete on the market. And naturally nobody would want them to be illegally shared. Protection from this is possible – you can personally oversee each step in the process of printing your drawings, but of course this defeats the whole point of outsourcing in the first place. The most obvious solution to all these problems is to convert into a full-service bureau in one fell swoop. In other words, purchase a wide format printer or plotter and print all of your drawings independently! In practice, such a variant is not always the most optimal. Few can buy equipment with extra features as this is very expensive. The majority of organizations are limited by equipment that is needed at the moment. For example, if today the A3 format is sufficient for printing drawings, the prudent director is not likely to buy a plotter for the A0 format. However, if the company unexpectedly receives an order for the development of a packet of large format drawings, all the abovementioned problems will require an effective solution. To the rescue comes an extremely convenient and inexpensive program – Universal Document Converter. It presents itself as a virtual printer that “prints” drawings, documents, and charts in bit-mapped graphical files such as TIFF, PNG or JPEG. Thus, any program that is able to print documents on an office printer or plotter is automatically ready for use with Universal Document Converter. The advantages of such an approach are highly reliable. Bit-mapped graphical formats are a great way to “freeze” a vector drawing, preserving it from unwanted changes on a different system. After all, images in no way depend either on platforms or on programs that are used for viewing or printing. High resolution TIFF files printed on paper are indistinguishable from the vector originals printed on the same AutoCAD system, while monochrome drawings can be compressed dozens of times which enables them to be transferred over the Internet. The problem of copyright protection is also solved. In order to copy drawings, one would have to redraw them by hand, which is not so simple. Naturally, you don’t have to worry about it being illegally shared piece by piece. Universal Document Converter turns out to be really convenient for those who prepare for printing books with drawings as illustrations. Redrawing them over again in graphical editors is a long and complicated process even if the drawings already exist in the format of some CAD system. Universal Document Converter makes it possible to transform any drawing or chart into an illustration for a book with two clicks of the mouse.