How do I use the Plan Splitting Feature?

You can quickly split plans and name and number sheets using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature.

To use Plan Splitting go to Planroom>Drawing. Click + Upload>Upload Files(s) Splitting, Scanning and Linking

The Plan Splitting will take you through 3 steps:

Upload the file(s)
Select the areas you would like OCR to read
Review the results and Publish

Upload

Complete the information on the Upload and Scan screen that appears below:

Set Name – (* Required) Add a new Set/Folder Name or select an existing folder name to add new Versions or Revised documents to that folder.
Files – (* Required) Upload one or more documents in the files area
Set Date – (Optional) Enter a default set date, or you will be able to select the date region after upload if you are scanning. If none is selected, it will default to the date of upload.
Version or Revision Name/Number – (Optional) Enter the version or revision name or you will be able to select the region after upload if you are scanning.

Click Upload Files

NOTE* The screen that is uploading the file to the server must remain open on your screen or the upload will be cancelled!

Once the Upload step is complete, the system will automatically begin to split the file into pages. You will be able to Wait Here for the pages to be split or click Close and Continue if you want to proceed with other work.

You will receive an e-mail and a task will be posted on your Global Dashboard To Do list when the files have been split and are ready for you to select regions to be read by OCR.

Select Regions for OCR to Read

From the Planroom, click on the green Progress Log button to open the Drawing Progress screen.

Next, click on the word Process in the image below to open the OCR selection window.

This will open the OCR Selection Screen view below:

The system will select a page at random. If you wish to use a different page, use the Previous Page/Next Page option in the lower left to change.
To select the region of the plans to read with OCR, click the pencil next to the cell and use your mouse to select the desired region.
Drag or resize the selection box to adjust the text information captured.
The arrows will turn to a green check mark when information has been read successfully.
Click on any double arrows to bypass a cell you do not want to read.
When all cells have either been scanned or skipped, you will be able to click on the Confirm and Go to Review button.

Troubleshooting:

If the date is not recognized by the OCR, the system will switch to the default date selected during upload or the date of upload if no date was indicated.

The OCR Process searches for and reads text areas. If the document has been scanned, if the lines are not clear, or if the text is part of an image OCR will not be able to identify and read text characters. If this happens, you can bypass the cell and edit during Review.

It is important that the files be Vector based and not Raster based content files for the OCR to read. (See More detailed information about this on the upload screen or at the bottom of this section.)

Click Confirm and Review and you will be given the option to Wait or Close and Continue with other work

You will receive an e-mail and the task will be added to To Do list on Global Dashboard when the files are ready for Review.

Review and Publish

To review the results of the OCR read and file naming, click on the Red Progress button and click the Review Link next to the plan set.

Review Screen will open with a list of files on left-hand side.
Click on a file to view details. The information will display and can be edited in New Version section on right.
Sheet Title and Sheet Number will be combined to create the full sheet title.
You can manually correct errors by typing into the cells or you can check the boxes next to a sheet and click the rescan selected option.
This can be done as many times as needed to read all sections.
Sheets can be approved one at a time or in Bulk with check boxes.
Once all files are approved, the Publish button will become active.
You will still be able to edit the files names, and dates from the Planroom folder.
New Versions and revisions can be uploaded via the Upload button and by selecting the same folder name so the system will match revised sheets by Sheet Numbers.

DETAILS ABOUT DRAWING FORMATS FOR OCR

Are my drawings best formatted for uploading?

PDF files need to have Vector based content for text to read successfully. Raster content is not properly formatted for text reading. Please request Vector-Based PDF files from the design team to use with the RedTeam Go text reading feature.

How can I tell if I have Vector or Raster files?

The easiest way to tell which file type you have is to zoom in on file content. If it is a Vector file, the image will remain sharp, while a Raster file will become blurry or pixilated. Another check is to attempt to highlight text on the drawing with your mouse; if you can’t highlight the text, it is Raster file.

What is the difference between Vector and Raster based content?

Vector Files

Vector files are created from a mathematical model which creates links between two points or a series of points and then displays the line segments between them on your computer. The text needs to have these sharp lines to be read successfully.

Raster Content

Raster files have a series of pixels in the form of a grid of color squares rather than lines of letters, so they cannot be read successfully due to the lack of sharp lines. Any file that is scanned will also have raster content.

AutoCAD Files

In order to use the text reading on files created by AutoCAD, the files must be provided in TrueType font with no alteration from the original font and with a Z coordinate value of zero.

The ‘Text as Comments’ feature should also be turned off before the file is published as a PDF to be used with text reading. To turn off the feature, navigate to the command line in AutoCAD. Enter EPDFSHX and change the value to zero (0).