Read customer drawings for a quote without retyping them
From a customer's drawing, SpecCapture reads what a quote starts from: the part number and revision, material, stock size, finish and plating, heat treatment, surface roughness and the general tolerances from the title block, and every row of the hole table and the bill of materials, each value with a box on the drawing showing where it was read. The pricing stays in your own quoting tool or spreadsheet: SpecCapture does not price the job, and it does not read every dimension on the sheet.
How it works
With SpecCapture, step by step.
Upload
Upload the customer's PDF or scan, up to 50 MB and 200 sheets a file. Each sheet is read on its own, in the background.
Read
SpecCapture reads the title block, the hole table and the parts list. Rules that work the same way every time check dates, revision letters, material specifications and units.
Check
Select any value to see the box on the drawing it was read from. Values SpecCapture is unsure of are flagged; correct one in place and the export carries your correction.
Quote
Take the checked values into your quoting tool: download them as Excel (XLSX), CSV or JSON, or fetch them through the API. The price, the machine time and the setups stay your estimator's.
What to check
Before you rely on it.
Everything is reviewed at first
A new workspace starts with every value waiting for a person. A field is accepted automatically only after 20 confirmations in a row with no correction, and exports mark whatever is still waiting.
Not a quoting tool
It reads the drawing; it does not price a job or estimate machine time. It reads the general tolerances that apply to every dimension without its own, but it does not read every dimension on the views.
How often it is right
On PDFs exported from CAD, in drawing styles it has been tuned on, SpecCapture read the critical fields (part number, revision, material and finish) right 97.4% of the time. On drawings it was seeing for the first time it did worse: 85.6% on 35 new sheets in styles it knew, and 88.4% on 9 sheets in three styles it had never seen. Your drawings are new to it, so the first-run figures are the better guide until it has been checked on them.
Not for export-controlled drawings
SpecCapture is not for export-controlled drawings, such as those covered by ITAR or the EAR. Check the drawings in a request for quote for those markings before you upload them.
Every fact in one place, with how accuracy was measured: SpecCapture at a glance.
Questions
What people ask.
How do machine shops automate data entry from customer drawings for quoting?
Upload the customer's drawing to SpecCapture: it reads what a quote starts from, such as the material, finish, general tolerances, hole table and parts list, a person checks each value against its box on the drawing, and the values go to the quoting spreadsheet or system as Excel (XLSX), CSV or JSON, or through the API. The estimate itself, the machine time, the setups and the price, stays with the estimator and the quoting tool.
Does SpecCapture price the job?
No. It reads the facts a quote starts from off the drawing; the price, the machine time and the setups stay with your estimator and your quoting tool. There is no built-in connector to any ERP, MRP or quoting system: you load the Excel (XLSX) or CSV export with your system's own import, or your software writes the values in through the REST API, with a signed webhook when each file is finished.
Does it read the dimensions on the views?
Not every one. It reads the title block, including the general tolerances that apply to every dimension without its own, the hole table, the parts list and the general notes; it does not list or balloon every dimension for inspection.
How long does a customer drawing take?
Each sheet is read on its own, in the background: on our test drawings a sheet took 36 to 49 seconds on average.
Can I upload a customer's export-controlled drawing?
No. SpecCapture is not for export-controlled drawings, such as those covered by ITAR or the EAR. Before a workspace's first upload, its owner or an admin confirms this in the app, once for everyone in it.
Early access
Be first to try SpecCapture.
Leave your email and we will let you know when early access opens. Plans start at $79/mo.
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