Shop tools
Read a drawing
Upload a drawing of a turned or machined part. Get the bar size, the part length, the material and an estimated weight, read from what is printed on it.
Your drawing
One page: a PDF or a photo, up to 3 MB.
Tick the box above first.
What it reads from a drawing
- Part name, drawing number, revision
- As printed in the title block. The page also sends an enlarged picture of the drawing's bottom-right corner, where the title block usually sits, so small print there is read properly.
- Customer
- The filled-in Customer field, or else the company name or logo printed in the title block.
- Material
- As printed, for example EN8, SAE 1018 or SS 304. The page then suggests the matching standard grade for the weight, and you can pick another.
- Bar shape and bar size
- Round, hexagon or square. For a round part, the largest printed outside diameter. For a hex or square part, the printed across-flats size, never across the corners.
- Part length
- The largest dimension printed along the part's axis. The axis can be horizontal or vertical on the sheet.
- Net weight (estimated)
- Worked out from the printed outside diameters and their lengths, minus the printed bores. Chamfers, radii and flats are not deducted, so it reads slightly heavy.
- Gross weight per piece
- The bar each piece really uses, at standard allowances you can change: see the worked example below.
Files that work
- A PDF of the drawing, one page.
- A photo or scan as JPG, PNG or WebP. Large photos are made smaller in your browser before they are sent.
- Up to 3 MB per file.
- A clear, straight-on drawing reads best. A blurred or angled photo of a print can lose small figures.
What it does not do
- Tolerances. It reports 47.20 for 47.20 ±0.20 and keeps nothing of the tolerance.
- GD&T, surface finish symbols and notes. None of these are read.
- Threads, holes, grooves and chamfers as a list of features. Only what it needs for the bar and the weight.
- More than one page. A file with two or more pages is refused before anything is sent.
- Measuring off the picture. Every figure comes from a printed dimension. If the bar size or the length is not printed, the result says so instead of guessing.
- Adding dimensions together to make a length that is not printed.
- Prices or costing. The weights use standard densities and standard allowances, not your bar prices.
A worked example
An illustrative part, not a customer drawing: a stepped pin in EN8 with a Ø22 head 12 mm long, a Ø16 shank 28 mm long (40 mm overall) and an Ø8 bore right through. These are the figures the reader works out from those printed sizes.
- Bar
- Round, Ø22 mm (the largest printed outside diameter)
- Part length
- 40 mm
- Net weight (estimated)
- 0.0642 kg
- Gross weight per piece
- 0.1421 kg
- Net: the outside steps (Ø22 × 12 and Ø16 × 28) less the Ø8 × 40 bore come to 8,181 mm³. At 7.85 g/cm³ that is 0.0642 kg.
- Cut per piece: 40 mm part + 2 mm parting + 1 mm facing = 43 mm.
- Pieces per bar: a 3,000 mm bar, keeping 250 mm back for the end piece, gives 63 whole pieces. The real end piece left over is 291 mm.
- Gross: you pay for the whole bar, so each piece carries 3,000 ÷ 63 = 47.62 mm of Ø22 bar: 0.1421 kg.
Standard allowances — your own would differ. On the result you can change the parting, facing, end piece and bar length, and the gross weight follows.
How many reads
One free read per email address each month, and a limited number of free reads each day across everyone. When they are used up the page says so and when to come back.
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