Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software

REVIEW:

Graphtec CSX300 large format scanner

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Speed

We measured the time it took to scan an A0 (E-size) sheet at 200 and 400 dpi from the clicking of the "scan" button to the Scanning Master software becoming available again after the scan.

We timed speeds made in High Quality mode only, as it is our opinion that this is the mode you would want to use if you were scanning technical drawings.

Our test PC was a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with 1Gb RAM. This is the same PC that has been used for the speed measurements of all the scanners below with the exception of the Contex HD4230i, which was tested on a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with 1Gb RAM.

  Image Access WideTEK 36 Contex SD4490 (1) Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40e (2) Graphtec CSX300 (3) Colortrac Cx 40e Contex HD4230i Graphtec CS600 (3)(4)
Black and white
200 dpi 7 sec 7 sec 13 sec 9 sec 13 sec 9 sec 33 sec
400 dpi 17 sec 12 sec 29 sec 17 sec 24 sec 10 sec 38 sec
Greyscale
200 dpi 7 sec 7 sec 10 sec 10 sec 13 sec 12 sec 32 sec
400 dpi 17 sec 20 sec 22 sec 21 sec 24 sec 27 sec 33 sec
24-bit Colour
200 dpi 7 sec 19 sec 19 sec 23 sec 36 sec 35 sec 40 sec
400 dpi 17 sec 63 sec 46 sec 68 sec 80 sec 105 sec 60 sec


(1) The specs of the PC used to time the scans are below Contex's recommended specs of a 1.66GHz Dual Core Processor, 2GB RAM, a 7200rpm SATA hard drive with 5GB free space and a high speed USB 2.0 interface.
(2) Timed using ScanWorks software which scans in greyscale even when you do a black and white scan. This confers a productivity benefit onto the scanner by allowing scan settings to be modified after scanning without a need to rescan.
(3) Timed using High Quality mode.
(4) Now replaced by the Graphtec CS610 and updated Scanning Master software which may scan faster.

The table above shows that the speed of the CSX300 stands up well in comparison to the speed of other scanners. However, remember that raw scanner speed itself is only part of the speed equation. The length of time it takes to scan a drawing is also dependent on the type of drawings you are scanning and the capabilities of the scanning software you use.

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