Technology in Architectural Practice

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Technology in Architectural Practice and Small Project Practitioners .
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What do most small firms (we are 3) use for their in-house printing needs?  We currently have a 42" HP Plotter, a KIP wide format copier/scanner/plotter and a Toshiba Copier with ledger capabilities.  Looking at costs, we are currently paying on leases for the wide format and regular copier over $7,000 per year. We do not use the machines as much as we are allowed to (as in a car, we are severely under mileage).  

What do you use for check prints?  Do you send out most larger projects or print in-house?  We are thinking about sending everything out instead for cost savings or purchasing the machines off lease. 

Any input is appreciated.  
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Joseph Buda AIA
Project Architect
George A. Held, AIA, & Associates
Clifton NJ
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Hello Joseph,

We have a 7 year old HP wide format plotter that we only use for emergencies.  We have a local printer that we use for most of our printing work, and we submit the receipts to our clients for reimbursement.  They pickup and deliver 2 times per day when we are busy.  This covers the cost of handling the invoices.  It also keeps our staff out of the printing and babysitting business and focused on the design business.  We can issue pdf's by 4pm and receive 20 or 30 sets of a hundred drawings back by 5pm.  Can't beat that in-house.

We recently leased a copier from Docutrend, after running the numbers for our service contract, toner replacement, drum replacement, etc. and found that it would pay for itself after a year as we again are reimbursed by our clients.  We charge 2x the cost of what we pay for a print.  We pay Docutrend on a per-print basis.

Hope this helps -

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Michael Maturo AIA
President
Dyami Architecture, PC
Chestnut Rdg NY
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I use an Epson WF-7010 and make half size check sets on Super B paper.  I send our for full size plots.  Works great for me.

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Leigh Hebert AIA
Studio 4C
Evergreen CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-05-2013 17:39
From: Michael Maturo
Subject: Printing and Plotting

Hello Joseph,

We have a 7 year old HP wide format plotter that we only use for emergencies.  We have a local printer that we use for most of our printing work, and we submit the receipts to our clients for reimbursement.  They pickup and deliver 2 times per day when we are busy.  This covers the cost of handling the invoices.  It also keeps our staff out of the printing and babysitting business and focused on the design business.  We can issue pdf's by 4pm and receive 20 or 30 sets of a hundred drawings back by 5pm.  Can't beat that in-house.

We recently leased a copier from Docutrend, after running the numbers for our service contract, toner replacement, drum replacement, etc. and found that it would pay for itself after a year as we again are reimbursed by our clients.  We charge 2x the cost of what we pay for a print.  We pay Docutrend on a per-print basis.

Hope this helps -

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Michael Maturo AIA
President
Dyami Architecture, PC
Chestnut Rdg NY
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we have a small firm.  we have 3 plotters for quick prints and drafts.  but we large printing jobs out for copying.  we have a copier which allows for 11x17 formatting...which works great in many case, and is inadequate for the others.  the outside printing jogs require coordination in our office...but i think its worth having the outside company do this work.  and its reimbursable!  also, i don't want to tie up someone in-house to tend to printing.


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Stephen Angelo AIA
Architect
Offices of Stephen Michael Angelo, Architect AIA
Livermore CA
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Hello Joseph,
I own an HP DesignJet Z2100 Photo (24" wide media).  Not sure what it goes for now.  I think I paid a little under $2k a few years ago.  Outstanding plots all the up to and including photo-realistic. My sheet size is 24x36.  If you need larger, they have a more expensive larger model. 
I no longer run prints.  I distribute PDFs via DropBox electronically only and whoever wants to have a reprographics company run sets; they can.  My HP 11x18 just got corrupted by HP's online diagnostic (sort of like the Angel of Death), so I replaced that with  Brother  MFC-J45100W sideways printer for $129 from Best Buy.  It prints 11x17 through a rear feed tray.  Cheaper than trying to hassle with HP for a fix on the older, pricier printer.  You can't get much cheaper for high-quality output than what I just described.  Get rid of the expensive leases, unless you are personally plotting 1,000 sheets a week and reproducing 700 page spec books.  Enjoy and have a nice weekend.

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Rand Soellner AIA
Architect/Owner/Principal
Home Architects
Cashiers NC
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Plotting should more than pay for itself or you have too much plotter. For starts, it sounds like you may need a cost recovery software such as Argos by Sepialine (sepialine.com). We paid off our 36" 4-roll Kip lease in about 6 months by billing for all our printing. At the time I was running about 8 employees and we had a reasonable amount of work. Our monthly print billings equated to about $7-9K. We printed everything in house from check plots to construction sets and billed for it all. We priced printing at a 20% savings below the local print shop.

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Gordon Rogers AIA
EAS Department Executive
Kitchell CEM, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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You don't say what models you have, how many plots you're looking for annually, or what the lease includes (I assume you have to pay for toner/ink beyond the lease, though). A 44" HP plotter can be anywhere from $4K to $11K or up purchased outright depending on volume required. Likewise, a Toshiba ledger sized copier can be $5K and up for color or $2.3K and up for B&W.

For my single person firm, I'm using a HP T1100 44" plotter (the current T1300 is $6200) and a Konica Minolta MagiColor 7450 II grafx color printer ($3400) that does up to 12.25x18 sheet fed (and duplexed) and will do up to 12.25x47.25 manual fed. I also have a Fujitsu fi-6230Z Sheet-Fed Scanner ($1400) and a older large flatbed scanner for photos. Large format scanning I send out because my needs for such are limited.

If I understand correctly, the $7K is just for the large format plotter and the copier. The sheet-fed scanner and printer method may not work for your workflow if you are making a substantial number of copies. But I find that for my office I'm not making a lot of copies and having things scanned in helps to keep me organized and makes it easier to email something rather than mail it to someone. So for just over a year and a half of your lease (roughly $11K) I have large format plotting, copying, and printing needs covered and don't foresee needing to purchase any new equipment in the near future.

For me, depending on an outside print shop was not an option. I do have one nearby that I use for large format scans and occasionally for some printing needs. But there are too many times that I end up getting last minute changes that require plots after the print shop is closed for the day - or I find that they have a job in already that has them tied up all afternoon. Being just outside NYC, that may not be an issue for you. You may have larger print shops with longer hours available to you.

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Thomas Bank AIA
Owner/Architect
Simply Stated Architecture, P.C.
Lemoyne PA
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Try Bluebeam Revu. This is an excellent software that allows you create and mark-up PDFs.
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[Gustavo] [Guerra,] [Assoc AIA], APAB
[Architect, Principal]
[Guerra Consulting Architects]
[Belize City,] [Belize]
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We have always had a large format plotter/copier in our office for convenience.  We have owned and leased. When times were good the lease was good as the minimums did not come into play.  As the economy tanked we were spending a lot of out of pocket money and we couldn't wait to get out of the lease or at lease change players.  We are now in a lease-to-buy agreement but we know that as a machine gets older, the parts and maintenance get very expensive, just like a car.  We print out checkprints at 13" X 19" most of the time.

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E Michael Shackley AIA
Architect
Beta Design Group, P.C.
Stone Mountain GA
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Small practice of 7 people here... we have never had a large format printer in our office (9 years now).  We have a nice 12x18 inkjet that gets steady but light use.  All large format and all bound half-size sets get printed out-of-house.  As a junior architect at other companies I spent way too much time getting paper cuts and watched so many co-workers stand at the machine, watch a print emerge, and jab the 'cancel' button, back to their desk, etc.  When I opened my practice this was one of the first and easiest decisions I made and I have never regretted it for a minute.  When I need a set of drawings it walks through the front door in a nice neat bundle.  It all gets billed to the client and we don't charge markup.  Printing is not how we make money around here.  When I think about trying to figure out what to charge, how to bill, buying cartridges, fixing the thing, paper cuts, wasted time, etc., I just cringe.  And it must be a huge expense to have your people stand around the printer watching ink dry.

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Brian VanWinkle AIA
Vessel Architecture and Design
Creve Coeur MO
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2013 08:44
From: E Michael Shackley
Subject: Printing and Plotting

We have always had a large format plotter/copier in our office for convenience.  We have owned and leased. When times were good the lease was good as the minimums did not come into play.  As the economy tanked we were spending a lot of out of pocket money and we couldn't wait to get out of the lease or at lease change players.  We are now in a lease-to-buy agreement but we know that as a machine gets older, the parts and maintenance get very expensive, just like a car.  We print out checkprints at 13" X 19" most of the time.

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E Michael Shackley AIA
Architect
Beta Design Group, P.C.
Stone Mountain GA
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I have been using a nearby service bureau for full size check sets, bid and construction drawings. The only items I print locally are letter size PDFs and the occasional 11x17 drawing. Since drawings are a reimbursable item in my contract, I can order the required drawings and avoid the overhead. (initial expense, maintenance and trouble shooting, supply cost and square footage to keep a plotter in the office)

It is faster for me to email an ArchD PDF set to the reprographic company, have them plot one or more sets and return them to my office than it is to generate an original with a local plotter.

This is working for me,
Paul

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Paul Adams AIA
Principal
Earth And Sky Architecture
Denver CO
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Not sure if this helps, may be a bit off topic but I have a monochrome 24" HP design jet that I bought at least a decade ago for under $2K. The beauty of this machine is the ink jets are part of the ink cartridge. It can sit around un-used for several months (and unfortunately it does) and can totally dry out and clog. All you have to do is replace the ink cartridge and it is all good to go. I use this to make plots for client and board meetings. Con docs get sent out. I also have a 13x19 Epson photo quality printer that also serves my photography hobby, used for half sized plots, communication drawings etc. and of course renderings and photos. Sometimes for meetings I place renderings over a monochrome plot; with a foam core a spacer to make it look like an intentional presentation layout design rather then I don't have a big color plotter. The image would be in B-W under that for copies.

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Thomas Streicher AIA
Thomas Streicher, Architect
Monroe NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2013 13:20
From: Paul Adams
Subject: Printing and Plotting

I have been using a nearby service bureau for full size check sets, bid and construction drawings. The only items I print locally are letter size PDFs and the occasional 11x17 drawing. Since drawings are a reimbursable item in my contract, I can order the required drawings and avoid the overhead. (initial expense, maintenance and trouble shooting, supply cost and square footage to keep a plotter in the office)

It is faster for me to email an ArchD PDF set to the reprographic company, have them plot one or more sets and return them to my office than it is to generate an original with a local plotter.

This is working for me,
Paul

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Paul Adams AIA
Principal
Earth And Sky Architecture
Denver CO
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