Scanned drawings and decades-old plant records hold operational knowledge that isn't available anywhere else. Archive Digitizer recovers what it can into a structured starting point — ready for professional review and verification. How much gets recovered depends on the drawing itself: a clean scan recovers well, a degraded one won't.
Regulatory context: Mandatory emissions reporting under GGIRCA and B.C. OBPS, aging infrastructure reviews, and modernization programs are creating demand for accessible, structured plant data. Archive Digitizer helps engineering teams get legacy documents into a reviewable format — it does not replace professional engineering review or certify compliance with any regulatory standard.
Archive Digitizer is designed for situations where the data exists — but it's trapped in a format that's slow to work with.
Plants that pre-date digital drafting often have no structured equipment list. Digitizing P&IDs creates a starting point for inventory reconciliation and maintenance planning.
Emissions reporting, audit preparation, and regulatory submissions go faster when data is structured and searchable — rather than buried in scanned PDFs or printed binders.
Brownfield projects need an accurate picture of what's already installed. A digitized starting point reduces the time engineers spend manually transcribing tag data from old drawings.
When acquiring an existing facility, understanding the installed equipment quickly matters. Structured extraction from available P&IDs supports faster technical review.
As-built drawings from completed projects — especially older ones — often need to be reconciled against the final design. Digitizing creates a traceable record.
When experienced staff retire, institutional knowledge lives in paper documents. Structured digitization makes that knowledge more accessible to newer team members.
Results depend heavily on drawing quality and resolution. This section is direct about what to expect.
Think of the output as a first-pass recovery — it reduces the manual transcription workload for your engineers, but it requires professional review before use in any technical, operational, or regulatory context. The strength of that recovery is only as good as the drawing it came from: a clean, legible scan recovers most fields; a faded, low-resolution, or heavily annotated one recovers less, and leaves more blank rather than guessing. All output is flagged with confidence indicators and requires independent verification by a qualified engineer. PID Intelligence does not certify, validate, or approve extracted data.
Flat-fee per project. No monthly subscription required.
Email your scanned P&IDs to hello@pidintelligence.com with your drawing count and a brief description of the project. We'll confirm scope and turnaround before starting.
We process your drawings through the Archive Digitizer pipeline — optimized for scanned and low-resolution documents. You receive structured Excel or CSV with tag numbers, valve types, NPS, and available spec data.
Your engineers review the output against the source drawings. Confidence flags and blank fields identify where review effort is most needed. Output is ready for import into your EDMS or piping list.
Each row is one instrument or valve. Recovery isn't uniform across a drawing set — legible areas come back complete, degraded ones come back with gaps. This sample mixes both on purpose: blank fields are always better than a wrong number.
| Tag Number | Valve Type | Line Number | NPS | Spec Code | Confidence | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MV-00101 | Gate | 2101-CS-150 | 4" | V6S0TB | HIGH | — |
| PSV-00210 | Relief | 3050-SS-300 | 2" | — | REVIEW | Spec Code on rotated stem |
| FV-00315 | Globe | — | — | — | REVIEW | Missing: Line Number, NPS, Spec Code |
| BV-00440 | Ball | 1800-CS-150 | 1½" | — | REVIEW | Spec Code annotation faded |
| CV-00512 | — | 1800-CS-150 | — | — | REVIEW | Missing: Valve Type, NPS, Spec Code |
| TV-00601 | — | — | — | — | REVIEW | Missing: Valve Type, Line Number, NPS, Spec Code — hand-annotated area |
| GV-00733 | — | — | 3" | — | REVIEW | Missing: Valve Type, Line Number, Spec Code — low-legibility section of scan |
Sample only — illustrative of output format and confidence flag behaviour. How much of a real drawing set recovers this cleanly depends entirely on the drawings themselves — resolution, condition, and how much is hand-annotated all affect it.
No monthly subscription. Pay per project batch. For large ongoing programs or enterprise volume, contact us for custom pricing.
For smaller audits, single-unit projects, or pilot evaluations.
For mid-size plant inventories, compliance prep, or project closeout packages.
For large facility inventories, multi-site programs, or ongoing digitization work.
Scans at 200 DPI or higher give the best results. Lower-resolution scans are accepted, but accuracy for small text (spec codes, line numbers) drops noticeably below ~150 DPI. If you're unsure, send us a sample drawing and we'll give you an honest assessment before you commit to a project.
No — not directly. All output requires independent review and sign-off by a qualified engineer before use in any technical, operational, or regulatory context. Archive Digitizer reduces the manual transcription step; it does not replace professional engineering judgment or certify compliance with any regulatory standard.
It varies significantly by drawing quality and content type. Tag numbers on legible drawings extract reliably. Spec codes on rotated stems, faint line numbers, and hand-written annotations are harder — and the output will show blank fields or REVIEW flags rather than guessing.
Excel or CSV with standard headers: Tag Number, Valve Type, Line Number, NPS, Spec Code, Notes, Confidence, Flags. The format is designed to import into common EDMS platforms or open directly in Excel for review.
If you have the drawing's legend or symbol key, include it with your submission. Older and regional drawings often use non-standard symbology, and a legend gives the recovery process a reference for those conventions — it can meaningfully improve results on drawings that would otherwise come back with more gaps.
Uploaded drawings are processed and then deleted. We do not store your files beyond the duration of the project. For full data handling details, see our privacy policy and terms of service.
We confirm turnaround before starting each project — it depends on drawing count and complexity. A 50-drawing batch is typically a few business days. Larger programs are scheduled with you in advance.
Tell us your drawing count and a bit about the project. We'll assess the drawings and confirm scope before you commit.
Thanks — we'll follow up by email to confirm scope and turnaround.