Today’s businesses are busier than ever, and the ability to easily print, scan, copy, and share documents, renderings, blueprints, and more across multiple teams is no longer a luxury — it’s essential for efficient workflow. While some employees are returning to the office, many are shifting to hybrid work situations in smaller home offices and require multifunction CAD printers with a broad range of capabilities.
Scanning functionality used to be a significant premium cost, however today multifunction printers are no longer as expensive compared to single function printers. With integrated scanner functionality, more compact sizes, and more versatile connectivity, multifunction printers have vastly improved in the last decade and are more affordable and productive than ever, offering benefits for businesses of all sizes.
Being able to print, scan, copy, and share documents, renderings, blueprints, and the like with all team members, whether they are on the job site, in the office, or working from home is essential to efficient workflow. Image source: EPSON.
Enhancing Collaboration
Before scanning was widely available, printed plans and documents needed to be physically transported back and forth between multiple different teams, including construction crew members, engineers, clients, partners, and more. Employees needed to take extra time and transport files themselves, or rely on mail services which added extra costs.
While the work environment today is increasingly digital, it is still an essential combination of both print and digital files. Professionals from architects and engineers to graphic artists and product designers still rely on printing and scanning documents and graphics to stay efficient. For example, blueprints, charts, and posters can be difficult to view and interpret on a smaller mobile device at a jobsite, especially with the amount of zooming and panning needed. And once these documents are marked up, they need to be scanned so all collaboration notes, measurements and updates are preserved and recorded.
Leveraging a multifunction CAD printer with a built-in scanner, professionals can now scan up-to-date notes, plans, revisions, approvals, and other visuals to e-mail and network folders for nearly real-time and seamless collaboration, planning, and execution. By digitizing these files, they can catalog and keep records of them on the network or in the cloud without taking up significant space in physical file cabinets or desks. Multiple copies of updated plans for distribution to team members — whether on-site in the field, trailer, or in the office — ensures everyone is kept up-to-date.
Increasing Productivity
Effective collaboration across various teams and stakeholders is key to improving productivity and increasing ROI, as every bit of increased efficiency adds up for busy workgroups.
Scanning large documents is a quick process with a multifunction printer capable of handling 24” or 36” wide media. Advanced multifunction printers today also support copy enlargements and reductions, as well as enhance tracing and offer highlight detection for scanning annotated blueprints. Professionals can email scans directly to colleagues without the use of a computer, scan from shared network drives, or put scanned files on a USB thumb drive so they can be shared easily in the office or jobsite and all team members can access the files.
Multifunction printers can also offer versatile print options, such as support for Wi-Fi and high-speed LAN connections, so team members can print from practically anywhere, and jobs can move more quickly through the queue to help optimize workflow. For those who need to print large size files and don’t have the time to be tethered to a desk, printers that support high network speed and enable printing from mobile devices are very valuable.
Saving Space
With a hybrid work arrangement now being common for many technical professionals, space constraints are a concern. While some of us might be accustomed to large and bulky office plotters, CAD printers have become much more compact and modern, ideal for printing, scanning, and distributing documents quickly and efficiently in any workspace, even a home office.
Rather than finding space for a printer, copier, and scanner, professionals can experience the convenience of robust printing, copying, and scanning in a single machine. Whether you’re taking work home, working from home, or printing out and scanning documents to distribute at a jobsite or trailer, many multifunction printers today offer integrated scanner functions that don’t take up any additional space compared to single function printers.
New scanner, printer, copy machines take up less space and can fit in any office space. Image source: EPSON.
Key Takeaways
Printing, scanning, and sharing documents play critical roles in the success of a variety of industries — architecture, engineering, construction, CAD design, and more — and provide professionalism and reliability to any project. Businesses need to ensure they’re investing in the ideal multifunction CAD printer for their unique requirements.
One of the most essential requirements of today’s printers is versatility. From durable pigment ink to robust printhead technology that provide superior line accuracy and consistency across a wide range of media, advanced printers today are designed to meet the needs of demanding businesses. With professionals splitting their time between the office, jobsite, and home, production quality multifunction printers must be more reliable and better connected than ever before.
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Viewpoint articles are tech-focused editorial written by experts from the CAD industry. This article was written by Jacob Hardin from Epson.
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