AI Developer for Engineering Drawing Surface Take-Offs

About Us:
We are a UK-based specialist powder coating and wet paint applicator serving the architectural, construction and manufacturing sectors. A key part of our quotation process involves calculating the total coatable surface area (m²) from customer drawings before preparing customer quotations.

Project Overview:
We are looking for an experienced AI, Computer Vision or Software Developer to design and build a solution that can analyse engineering and fabrication drawings and produce estimated coating surface areas for quotation purposes. This is not a chatbot project.

We are looking for someone who can genuinely solve the problem using a combination of AI, computer vision, OCR, CAD processing, rules-based calculations, or any other technologies they believe are appropriate. The successful applicant will be expected to propose the approach and then build the solution.

The Challenge
We receive a wide variety of documentation including:
General Arrangement (GA) drawings
Fabrication drawings
Architectural metalwork drawings
PDF drawings
CAD exports
Screenshots
Scanned documents

At tender stage, drawings are often incomplete or lacking detail, meaning interpretation and assumptions are sometimes required. Our estimating team currently spends considerable time manually calculating coating surface areas from these drawings.

Desired Outcome
We are seeking a solution that can:
Read and analyse drawings and associated documents
Identify fabricated components and assemblies
Extract dimensions where available
Estimate coating surface areas (m²)
Produce a structured part summary
Highlight assumptions or areas of uncertainty
Allow manual review and adjustment where necessary

The objective is not necessarily 100% automation. The objective is to significantly reduce the manual effort required to produce accurate quotations.

Typical Items
Examples of fabricated items include:
Balustrades
Handrails
Railings
Gates
Screens
Steel frames
Brackets
Panels
Fabricated assemblies
Miscellaneous architectural metalwork
Important – Proposal Requirements

To be considered, please explain:
1. Your Proposed Technical Approach - How would you solve this problem?
Please describe:
Technologies you would use
AI models or vision systems you would use (if applicable)
How you would extract dimensions and geometry
How you would deal with incomplete drawings
How you would calculate coating surface areas

2. Similar Experience - Please provide examples of projects involving any of the following:
Engineering drawings
Fabrication drawings
CAD processing
PDF analysis
OCR
Computer vision
Manufacturing software
Estimating or quantity take-off systems

3. Expected Accuracy - What level of accuracy would you realistically expect from your proposed solution?

4. Key Risks - What do you believe will be the biggest technical challenges?

Required Skills
Ideal applicants will have experience in some or all of the following:
Computer Vision
AI / Machine Learning
OCR
Python Development
CAD Processing
PDF Analysis
Document Intelligence
Workflow Automation
Engineering or Manufacturing Software

Additional Information:
We are looking for a freelancer who can both propose and implement the solution.
Generic AI-generated proposals will be rejected.
Please refer specifically to the challenge described above and explain how your solution would handle engineering and fabrication drawings where dimensions or information may be incomplete.