Waterfront hotel
Door schedule and separation requirements disagree
Sleeping-unit entry doors opening into an interior lobby were marked unrated, while the surrounding separation called for protected openings.
See sources and verification stepsScans · Photos · Hand-drawn sheets
AI review of scanned and hand-drawn drawings
Archive scans, redlined sheets, and hand-drawn plans rarely have a usable text layer. Groundbook reads every sheet as an image, so scanned and hand-drawn sets get the same coordination, consistency, and code-reference checks as a native PDF, with findings your team can verify.
Inside Groundbook
From scans to findings
Upload the scans as PDFs
Combine scanned sheets, photographed pages, and hand-drawn plans into PDFs and upload them with the native drawings, specifications, checklists, and code references they should agree with. Mark which files to check and which are references. Import from Autodesk Construction Cloud (Forma), SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, or email.
Groundbook reads the page, not only the text layer
Each sheet is rendered and read as an image. Image-only areas are transcribed as a draft, then checked back against the page, so a misread dimension digit or member size is corrected from the print. Where the scan is illegible, the region is recorded as unreadable instead of filled in.
Verify findings against the original
Findings come back with the sheet and location highlighted, so the reviewer can compare the transcription with the scan before acting. Readability limits are reported as questions, not silently skipped.
What a scanned set looks like
Pencil, paper, and a phone camera
This is the kind of sheet the review has to read: a hand-drawn residential floor plan, scanned with no text layer, with dimensions and room names in pencil. Groundbook reads the rendered page, transcribes the lettering as a draft, and corrects that draft against the image. Every finding is then shown beside the highlighted sheet so the transcription can be checked against the print. Open the image to see the sheet at full size.
What changes when the set is a scan
Six conditions and how each is handled
Scan quality decides how much of a sheet can be read. This table shows what Groundbook does with each common condition and what the reviewer should verify against the original.
| Condition | Typical source | What happens and what to verify |
|---|---|---|
| No text layer | Scanned or rasterized PDFs where search returns nothing. | Groundbook works from the rendered image; an empty text layer does not stop the review. Confirm that key schedules and notes were transcribed as printed. |
| Low resolution or skew | Faxed, downsampled, or crooked sheets with small text. | Rescan at 300 dpi or better and square the page when possible. Where text is too small to read, the review records it as unreadable rather than guessing. |
| Hand-lettered dimensions and notes | Hand-drawn plans, field sketches, and lettered schedules. | Transcribed from the image and corrected against the print. Check dimension strings and member sizes where the lettering is ambiguous. |
| Stamps, clouds, and redlines | Reviewer markups, revision clouds, and stamps over drawing content. | Markups are read as part of the page. Tell the review which markup set governs and whether redlines are incorporated or pending. |
| Mixed native and scanned sets | A current native set with scanned consultant sheets or an archived as-built. | Both kinds are checked in the same review. Identify the governing issue so an older scan is treated as a reference, not the current design. |
| Photographed sheets | Phone or camera images of drawings saved as PDF. | Usable when the whole sheet is in frame and legible. Crop to the sheet, avoid glare, and keep one sheet per page. |
From published project reviews
The checks that run on every sheet
These anonymized findings come from published Groundbook reviews of native PDF sets. The same cross-document checks run on scanned and hand-drawn sheets, subject to the readability limits above; final design decisions and completed corrections are not claimed.
Mixed-use residential
The governing structural revision is unclear
Two structural schedules carried different requirements, while the set did not clearly establish which version governed or update all downstream references.
See sources and verification stepsMixed-use residential
Plans, schedules, and controls use different equipment data
Equipment tags, quantities, duties, materials, and operating sequences did not consistently reconcile across plans, diagrams, schedules, and specifications.
See sources and verification stepsWhere scanned sets show up
Renovations, as-builts, and archive sets
Most scanned sets arrive with existing buildings: as-built drawings for a renovation, an archived permit set for a tenant improvement, a historic survey, or a consultant package that only exists on paper. Review the scan alongside the new work so that a changed level, opening, or wall type is checked against what the old sheets actually say.
Scan at 300 dpi or better, keep the full sheet including the title block, save one sheet per page, and note which scan is the governing record. A clear scan gives the review more to check; a faint one produces questions instead of findings.
See how the workflow fits renovation projects and historic preservation work.
Questions, answered
FAQs
Can AI review scanned construction drawings?
Yes. Groundbook reads each uploaded sheet as an image, so a scanned PDF with no text layer is reviewed the same way as a native export. Text in image-only areas is transcribed as a draft and corrected against the page before it is used as evidence.
Does it work with hand-drawn plans?
Hand-drawn and hand-lettered sheets are read the same way. Legibility sets the limit: clear lettering and complete dimension strings review well, while faint or ambiguous marks are reported as unreadable so the team can supply a clearer source.
Do I need to OCR the PDFs before uploading?
No. Groundbook transcribes image-only areas itself and treats any existing OCR text layer as a draft, not as truth. A searchable PDF with a bad text layer is still checked against the image.
Can I upload photos of drawings?
Yes, saved as PDF. Keep the whole sheet in frame, avoid glare and shadows, and use one sheet per page. Photographs at an angle or with cut-off edges lose dimensions and notes, and the review will report those areas as unreadable.
Is a scanned set priced differently?
No. Pricing is per page: $1 per drawing page and $0.25 per reference page, from $100 per project, with the exact price shown before payment. Scanned pages count the same as native pages.
What are the limits?
The review can only read what the scan shows. Illegible text, missing sheet edges, and superseded scans produce questions rather than findings. Groundbook does not certify a design or replace the responsible professional; it organizes possible issues and the evidence behind them.
Keep exploring
Continue your review
Review the whole set
Connect scanned and native drawings, specifications, and project requirements.
Construction document reviewCoordinate the interfaces
Follow openings, levels, and equipment across disciplines.
Cross-discipline reviewTrace the requirement
Bring project code references into a source-backed review.
Building code reviewBring the sheets you only have on paper
Scan them, upload them with the rest of the set, and get findings you can check against the print.