What we need to see
Representative documents, the fields you need and examples of scans, missing pages or difficult layouts.
Document extraction · Fabricators
Drawings In. Bills of Materials Out.
Reading a drawing pack is the slowest part of estimating. Your senior estimator spends an hour with a calliper and a calculator, pulling out cut lengths, weld details, plate thicknesses, and finishes. AI does the same job in seconds, and we built the playbook for it at Kingsland Fabrications.
Tell us the task, your current tools and where the work gets stuck. We will help you choose a sensible first scope.
The fabricators reality.
Drawing packs arrive in every variation. PDFs from SolidWorks, scans of CAD prints, the occasional hand-marked photocopy with notes in the margin. Your estimator pulls out: parts list, dimensions, weld symbols (fillet/butt/penetration), plate thickness, material grade, finish spec, special notes. That data goes into the BOM, then into the quote. The current process is reliable but slow, and it's held in one or two heads.
The work in context · Illustrative scenes
Start with the fabricators workflow.
Use representative inputs from the business to scope document extraction. Agree what the system prepares and what a person needs to check.
Make the handover part of the build.
Test normal work, missing information and failures with the team, then hand over clear review steps and practical guidance.
Drawing extraction at Kingsland Fabrications
See the business context and the work delivered. Your own scope, inputs and results will depend on the workflow we agree with you.
Explore the delivered workTuned for fabricators.
01
Read the drawing the way a fabricator reads it
The model is tuned on real fabrication drawings, it recognises weld symbols (BS 8888 and ISO), plate codes (PL10, PL15, etc.), material grades (S275/S355), and the conventions your draftsmen use. Not generic OCR.
02
Extract the full BOM, not just text
Parts list, dimensions, weld lengths, plate thicknesses, surface area for finish, special notes flagged for the estimator. Structured output, ready to drop into your estimating tool or your quote template.
03
Handle drawing-pack complexity
Multi-sheet drawing packs, GA + detail drawings, cross-references between sheets. The system stitches the pack together so the BOM reflects the whole job, not just the front page.
04
Human-in-the-loop for the tricky cases
Bespoke welds, non-standard finishes, customer-specific notes, flagged for the estimator to review. The 80% standard work runs through automatically; the 20% judgement work gets human attention.
We integrate with what you have.
- Custom MES
- SolidWorks / AutoCAD PDF exports
- Excel / Google Sheets BOMs
- Sage
- SharePoint / Google Drive
We check your software version, available API or export, access permissions and any supplier fees before quoting. If a reliable connection is not available, we will explain the practical alternatives.
Prove it on your own work first.
How we judge the pilot
Check field accuracy against a human-labelled sample and measure the time still needed to verify the output.
What stays in your hands
Keep the source beside each extracted value. A named reviewer checks critical fields before downstream use.
Fixed fee, phased delivery.
£4,800-£12,000 for build, ~£300-£600/month for hosting + accuracy monitoring
From £4,800excluding VAT
Document extraction for fabricators
- Workflow audit + industry-specific spec
- Build, integrations, and tuning to your real data
- Deployment, handover and agreed access controls
- Hosting, AI usage and ongoing support quoted separately
Things people in this industry ask us.
01Does it handle our specific drawing conventions?
Yes, we tune for your conventions during build. Whether you use BS 8888, ISO, ASME, in-house standards, or a mix of all four, the system is calibrated to your weld symbols, material codes, finish specs, and notation. Adding new conventions later is straightforward.
02Can it read scanned drawings, not just clean PDFs?
Yes. Scans, photos taken with a phone, marked-up prints, multi-generation photocopies. Modern vision models are robust to image quality in ways old OCR wasn't. The system falls back to "send to human" when the image genuinely can't be read.
03What about jobs with customer-specific weld procedures?
Recognised and flagged. Customer-specific procedures (e.g. "WPS-12 applies to all butt welds for this customer") get attached to the BOM as a note for the estimator. The system doesn't make the procedural decision, it just makes sure the human sees the right context.
04Does the BOM go straight to our quoting tool?
Yes, we integrate with your estimating tool, ERP, or spreadsheet. The BOM lands in the same format you'd expect a human to produce, ready for pricing. Pairs naturally with our quote-generation use case for end-to-end drawing-to-quote automation.
05How accurate is it?
Accuracy is measured during the pilot against your labelled drawings and the fields that matter. Low-confidence values are flagged for review, and nothing should pass silently when the system is uncertain.
Zoom out.
Keep exploring
Turn the idea into a working system.
What could work
better for you?
A new website. More customers. Less admin.
Tell us where you want to get to. Chris or Kay will reply within one working day.