A resounding NO

I agree it is possible to print electronic drawings to scale – if they are CAD files they can be plotted to scale. However, PDFs are different and can only be printed to the paper size required (A3, A1, A0 and so on) and not necessarily printed to scale.

I know that quantifying directly from CAD drawings is possible, but this can only be applied to certain trades/work sections/elements of the work. It still requires several documents to be viewed simultaneously, which is currently not possible on normal PCs, unless using dedicated software and specific hardware.

Has Mr Sell or anyone else investigated the comparative costs between printing/plotting and copying drawings? My current costs for printing and/or copying externally are between £3 and £4 for printing an A1, whereas to copy an A1 the cost is between £1 and £1.50. This surely points to the requirement for a single point for printing with multi-copying, which must be more cost efficient. The obvious single point for printing must be for the designers, who already have printing/plotting facilities.

This is not a win-win-win-win situation, except for those who would normally send documents to the tenderers. Several questions arise:

• Are designers’ fees likely to be reduced, because they no longer have to send hard copy documents to tenderers?

• Will tenderers be given more time to prepare their tenders because of the time required for the initial printing of documents?

• Will clients accept that tender prices are likely to increase because of the time required by estimators to constantly review the e-tender website for revisions?

• Will e-tendering prevent the issue of inadequate information?

• Will designers still be responsible for ensuring all drawings are not only drawn to the correct scale, but are also printed to the correct scale ?

My suspicion is that the answers to the above is a resounding NO.

I agree the debate is long overdue, but I’m afraid it might already have been overtaken by members of think tanks who show little regard for those who bear the brunt of their impractical decisions.

I suggest Mr Sell asks people who are actually involved in the tendering process for their opinions before advocating going any further down the e-tendering route.

Rob MacBain, CQSS