Keep the Excel. Drop the manual typing.

Read drawings directly into a structured I/O list, equipment list, and line list with audit trail. Export as Excel.

Migration path off Excel-only instrument tag workflows.

Teams running spreadsheet-only workflows usually have a template that has evolved over many years: specific column orders, signal-class dropdowns, conditional formatting for SIS instruments, a tab structure that matches how the engineering team thinks about the project. The migration is not about leaving that template behind.

The first project.

The first project routes drawings through Tagsight and exports the result as Excel. The engineering team compares that workbook against the template they would have produced by hand for the same project, and adjusts whatever differs. The output format converges quickly; the work that disappears is the typing pass.

Subsequent projects.

Subsequent projects run drawings into Tagsight directly and skip the data-entry step.
The reviewer corrects what is flagged.
The Excel workbook lands in the same shared drive folder it always has.
Revisions go through the Revision Comparison tool instead of cell-by-cell diff.

Two workflows, six decisions.

Where the spreadsheet-only workflow concentrates effort, and where the Tagsight workflow concentrates it instead.

	Excel-only workflow	Tagsight
Source of truth	Spreadsheet on a shared drive, emailed copies, occasionally a SharePoint folder. Multiple versions in circulation at any time.	The drawing itself is the source. The Excel export is generated from the reviewed extraction and timestamped.
Data entry	Engineer (or junior) types every tag, signal class, description, equipment link, line number from the drawing into the row.	Rows produced from the drawing in one pass. The engineer reviews and corrects flagged rows instead of typing from scratch.
Validation	Manual cross-check or per-cell dropdowns. Errors surface during commissioning or post-handover.	You review and confirm each row in the review pane with the source drawing visible.
Revisions	New spreadsheet per revision. Diffing between revisions is a manual cell-by-cell pass.	Upload two revisions, run Revision Comparison, export an Excel Change Report with added / removed / modified instruments.
Provenance	No link back to the source drawing for any given row. The spreadsheet is the only record.	Every row carries the source-page reference. One click back to the drawing for any flagged tag.
Downstream formats	Excel is the only export format; PLC vendor formats require a manual transformation.	Excel, CSV, TIA Portal XML, Studio 5000 L5X, PLCCreator CSV, DEXPI XML, JSON, all from the same project.

Common questions

We already use Excel for everything. Why would we switch?

Tagsight does not replace Excel; it removes the manual-typing step that comes before Excel. The exported I/O list, equipment list, and line list land as Excel workbooks ready to drop into the same place the spreadsheets currently live. The work that changes is the data-entry pass between the drawings and the workbook.

Can we keep our existing column conventions?

Yes. The default Excel export carries tag number, instrument type, signal class, description, equipment owner, line number, and source-page reference. Tag conventions read directly from the drawings, including any in-house letter codes already in use.

How does this compare to a spreadsheet template approach?

A spreadsheet template still requires someone to type each row. The validation and dropdowns help catch typos, not produce the rows in the first place. Tagsight produces the rows from the drawing and the reviewer corrects anything flagged, instead of typing from scratch.

What about projects where the drawings are scattered across PDFs and scans?

Drop them all into one workspace. Multi-file uploads process page by page. The resulting I/O list, equipment list, and line list reference each source page so the reviewer can jump back to the originating drawing in two clicks.

Do revisions still go into separate spreadsheets?

You can keep that workflow, or upload both revisions as separate Tagsight projects and run Revision Comparison. The Change Report Excel lands ready to attach to the MOC package; the diff is also viewable in the browser side by side.

What if the drawings are bad scans?

Drawings are read at high DPI before processing. You review and confirm each row in the review pane with the source drawing visible, editing inline before export. The exports always use the reviewed data.

Drop the manual typing.