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[rmr236]

Hey all,

I was curious on how most firms do their figure drafting. Do most out-source the work? Is there someone in-house? Is the applicant responsible for submitting them?

If it is out-sourcing would anyone have any information about networking ideas? I have a friend who does illustration who is interested in the topic.

Thanks!

[Robert K S]

Speaking only for myself, I do all my own drawings, and computer drafting skills are always something we ask about when we interview.  I work from schematics and illustrations provided by the inventors and sometimes make use of royalty-free clip art if it can be adapted.  I mostly use vector art illustration software and, when necessary, 3D modeling software.  I do a lot of tracing, sometimes from photographs that I will stage if I need a particular angle of a device or showing its use.  90% of patent drawings can be done in something as simple as Word or PowerPoint.  If we ever needed a drawing or schematic that was beyond the skills of myself and our other legal department folks, we would probably farm it out to a professional illustration service.

A good resource for your friend would be the USPTO's Guide for Preparation of Patent Drawings, last published in June 2002.  Learning how to do patent drawings well is something of an art in itself and requires throwing away a lot of what an illustrator already knows about illustration, since the tools of color and scale shading are no longer available.  Spaced-line shading is a fairly difficult drawing technique to master, and stippling shading is among the most advanced and sophisticated (even the state-of-the-art computer plugins can't do stippling satisfactorily).  For the sake of international portability, it's always best to plan drawings from the beginning to conform to both USPTO and PCT standards.

[khazzah]

For cases involving block diagrams and flow charts, I do my own drawings in Visio. I've seen others use Word or PowerPoint's drawing tools, but I much prefer Visio.

I know plenty other folks, though, that send even these sorts of drawings to an outside draftsman.

For cases involving anything mechanical, I send to an outside draftsman.

[rmr236]

Thank you for your insights, Rob and Karen.

[techlaw]

Because I have substantial CAD experience, I typically do my own drawings.  However, if you have a good, reasonably-priced draftsman, it may be more efficient to outsource.

Here's my typical process for generating mechanical drawings:

If the client already has 3d CAD solid models of the system/apparatus (e.g., from ProE, Catia, Solidworks, etc.), I'll have them send the 3d part/assembly files to me, so that I can manipulate the models in SolidWorks to create the several desired 2d drawing views (front, top, side, iso, section, exploded, etc.).  If the client doesn't have 3d models already, for a bit more money I'll build the device from scratch in SolidWorks.

In either case, I output each of the several 2d drawing views in dxf format.  Using a simple CAD system like DesignCAD 3D Max, I then generate each individual drawing sheet by importing one or more of the dxf files onto a single page, then scale, crop, hatch, shade and mark them up with figure numbers, reference numerals, arrows, lead lines, etc..  I then print each sheet out as a PDF file.  This process creates a clean set of drawing sheets that I can quickly re-edit without having to go back-and-forth with a draftsman.

That was probably more than you needed to know, but I thought some may find it useful.

[blakesq]

anything other than simple flowcharts, I out source them to a drafting company.  for simple flowcharts i use powerpoint. 

[Eng13]

Hi,
 I am new on this forum and the reason I am here is because I would like to be able to do contract work as an independent patent illustrator. The problem is that I am not sure where to start. I have about 16 years of mechanical engineering experience and in the past 4 years I have made all the patent drawings for a high tech company. I work with Unigraphics, 3D models or just simple sketches.
Any suggestions on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[Eng13]

I forgot to ad that I can use Rhinoceros software (including 3D capabilities) for contract jobs.

[patentsusa]

Hey all,

I was curious on how most firms do their figure drafting. Do most out-source the work? Is there someone in-house? Is the applicant responsible for submitting them?

If it is out-sourcing would anyone have any information about networking ideas? I have a friend who does illustration who is interested in the topic.

Thanks!

I sent them out.  I have some great patent draftsmen and draftswomen.  I can get them done for under $50 per sheet which is a lot cheaper than what I would want for my time in drawing them.  Let me know if you would like some names.