A Mobile CAD Reality Check

22 Feb, 2012 By: Robert Green

There's a lot of buzz around the technology right now, but does it hold any value for your users?

It seems that every week there's a new press release about how you can open CAD files on your iPad or send viewable files to your phone. If this keeps up, I'll have building information modeling on my wristwatch soon.

But how widespread is the move to mobile CAD usage? Are users truly taking advantage of the new capabilities, or is CAD mobility simply more technology hype that doesn't reflect real patterns of usage? And, most importantly for us CAD managers, how might this development change the way we manage our CAD departments?

In this installment of the CAD Manager's Newsletter, we'll start investigating mobile CAD from a CAD manager's point of view.

Defining Mobile CAD

Before we proceed, let's rough out a working definition so we'll have a basis for our discussion.

Mobile CAD is:

An application run on a portable device (such as a phone or tablet) or a totally web-based platform.
Usually based on non-Windows systems such as Android, iOS, or OS-agnostic browsers.
Low-cost or free to download and use.
Usually based on cellular or Wi-Fi network connectivity.

Mobile CAD is not:

Your normal CAD program running on a laptop.
Fully functional (instead, it offers a small subset of CAD functions).

Who Can Benefit?

Like so many developments in technology news, mobile CAD seems to be mainly about the "Wow" factor at this point. I haven't seen much use of mobile CAD among my clients so far, but I have noticed more and more questions about the concept, so it is obvious that the hype is working.

So how can we determine whether mobile CAD is something we can take advantage of? By focusing on the fundamentals and asking some diagnostic questions about our company's CAD usage, that's how. Let's get started by answering these questions:

Are you in an industry (such as construction, technical services, or facilities management) that often places your users in the field?
Do your users need to view CAD information without editing the CAD file?
Are electronic markup or commenting functions what your users really need?
Do you need to equip workers with basic CAD viewing capabilities, without paying a fortune to do so?

The more times you answered "Yes," the more likely it is that mobile CAD of some sort will have a place in your future.

Limited Functionality, Limited Uses

You may have noticed that the list of diagnostic questions I proposed describes mobile CAD functions that are more viewer-centric, annotative, and less computationally demanding than their stationary counterparts. Why? Because that's what field workers need. If you're sitting at your desk with all your normal CAD tools, there's no reason to perform CAD operations on a cell phone or an iPad!

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About the Author: Robert Green

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Comments

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check
by: mwrcadalyst
on: February 22, 2012 - 2:38pm

At first I thought mobile CADD was going to be another here we go again. I remember viewers created for PDAs in years past. Still haven't really found a need for it on the phone yet but I have been using it heavily on my Xoom for both getting ideas across to clients and also doing markups.

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check
by: mmermel
on: February 22, 2012 - 4:41pm

How about continuing with information about the publish/synch process. We're looking at posting information in the "Cloud" for our site visits. No one has yet inquired about the process for putting the information out there. I'm afraid they will use the "Upload What You Need" process, which will be totally uncontrolled.

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check
by: danstitt
on: February 23, 2012 - 2:40am

I'd like to see an article(s) about using mobile devices to be a better CAD Manager. I bought myself an iPad for work and so far I use it to take notes in meetings. Are there other apps out there that can help with CAD Management duties outside of the mobile CAD app?

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check
by: rltomkinson
on: April 17, 2012 - 1:45pm

At this point, our CAD users aren't the ones using CAD viewers on iPads, it's our field guys. Our foremen, testing and commissioning guys and others who need to have access to the drawings but aren't necessarily CAD users. That being said, they have found them useful. They can "mark up" the drawings for as-built conditions and let the cad guys back in the office make the changes.

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Poll

Of the time you spend working with CAD software, approximately how much is spent working in 3D?

100%

75%

50%

25%

10%

None

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check	by: mwrcadalyst on: February 22, 2012 - 2:38pm
At first I thought mobile CADD was going to be another here we go again. I remember viewers created for PDAs in years past. Still haven't really found a need for it on the phone yet but I have been using it heavily on my Xoom for both getting ideas across to clients and also doing markups.

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check	by: mmermel on: February 22, 2012 - 4:41pm
How about continuing with information about the publish/synch process. We're looking at posting information in the "Cloud" for our site visits. No one has yet inquired about the process for putting the information out there. I'm afraid they will use the "Upload What You Need" process, which will be totally uncontrolled.

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check	by: danstitt on: February 23, 2012 - 2:40am
I'd like to see an article(s) about using mobile devices to be a better CAD Manager. I bought myself an iPad for work and so far I use it to take notes in meetings. Are there other apps out there that can help with CAD Management duties outside of the mobile CAD app?

Re: A Mobile CAD Reality Check	by: rltomkinson on: April 17, 2012 - 1:45pm
At this point, our CAD users aren't the ones using CAD viewers on iPads, it's our field guys. Our foremen, testing and commissioning guys and others who need to have access to the drawings but aren't necessarily CAD users. That being said, they have found them useful. They can "mark up" the drawings for as-built conditions and let the cad guys back in the office make the changes.