The Report Runner
A Drafter's Tuesday
I worked inside a survey firm. Tuesday morning: a stack of stakeout sheets — Site A, Site B, Site C. Each one is the same workflow. Pull the field data. Build the COGO. Set the leaders. Title block. Paperspace. Plot.
Three jobs. Six hours. None of it required a brain — it required a person.
That's the loop I built the Report Runner to break.
What the Box Does
The Report Runner is a small Linux appliance that sits on your office network. PNEZD files drop in. Stakeout sheets — your template, your title block, your field codes — drop out the other side, plot-ready.
- No internet required. Processes on-site.
- No cloud account. Field data never leaves the building.
- No human in the loop for routine work.
The drafter who used to spend Tuesday morning on three stakeout sheets gets that time back for the work that actually needs them — boundary disputes, redline reviews, the things a machine can't read.
The Math, For Your Firm
Hire another junior drafter: roughly $90K loaded (salary, benefits, Civil 3D seat, workstation, training cost amortized over their first year).
Install the Report Runner: $122K/year ($10K/mo consulting + $2K setup).
The Pi takes the routine — stakeout reports, plot sheets, field-to-finish — so your senior drafters stop processing and start solving. The math gets better every year: drafter salary inflates, the appliance doesn't. The Pi doesn't get sick, doesn't quit, doesn't need six months of training, and doesn't leave for $5 more an hour.
When routine work exceeds one person's output, you upgrade to the Draft Engine ($15K/mo, includes 8 hrs/month of senior drafting on complex jobs). Same hardware. More automation.
Why Local Is the Lock
Most CAD automation lives in the cloud. For survey firms doing LAWA, Caltrans, DOD, or any agency work with data-handling requirements, the cloud is the disqualifier.
The appliance sits on your network. No phone-home. No third-party server. Compliance is the architecture, not an add-on. The day your ISP goes down, your drafting department doesn't.
How to Try It
I do a free 30-minute teardown of your current workflow. We look at where your drafters are losing time, what's automatable, what isn't. You leave with a written teardown of what the Report Runner would and wouldn't take off your plate.
The teardown is the sales call. If the math doesn't work for your firm, I'll tell you.