topic Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone in Collaboration with other software

Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:00:14 GMT

Interesting

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13872203

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwYm5YhA0pQ

Buying now, to try.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Thomas Holm — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:26:24 GMT

That means Autodesk is doing their homework in Cocoa programming...
The implications might be scary, for GS, that is...

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Eduardo Rolon — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:46:24 GMT

I think Sketchbook was part of the Alias acquisition and that is why there is a Mac version.

BTW it is fun though it will take time to get used to it. Feels like finger painting.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:36:34 GMT

ejrolon wrote:
BTW it is fun though it will take time to get used to it. Feels like finger painting.

Reading that and watching the video, it sure looks like it would benefit from the larger screen of the much-rumored tablet that Apple may be working on.

BTW, I assume this would run on an iPod touch also?

Karl

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Thomas Holm — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:57:21 GMT

ejrolon wrote:
I think Sketchbook was part of the Alias acquisition and that is why there is a Mac version...

Yes, but Sketchbook Pro was made some years ago, cross-platform (XP + OSX, both Intel and PPC) and most probably a Carbon thing, like Photoshop, and Archicad, because that was the easiest way to develop cross-platform before.
This mobile iPhone version is Cocoa, because that's the only API available for iPhone. And it's new, which means they currently have developers working this way. This didn't exist at the time of the Alias buyout that was 2005, two years before the iPhone.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:01:17 GMT

Thomas wrote:
ejrolon wrote:
I think Sketchbook was part of the Alias acquisition and that is why there is a Mac version...
Yes, but Sketchbook Pro was made some years ago, cross-platform (XP + OSX, both Intel and PPC) and most probably a Carbon thing, like Photoshop, and Archicad, because that was the easiest way to develop cross-platform before.
This mobile iPhone version is Cocoa, because that's the only API available for iPhone. And it's new, which means they currently have developers working this way. This didn't exist at the time of the Alias buyout that was 2005, two years before the iPhone.

Hi,

I was one of the original developers of Sketchbook (Technical lead). Sketchbook on the mac was a native Cocoa application right from the start. Sketchbook was based on a painting engine I had created and worked on since 1994 (parts of the brush engine date back to Alias StudioPaint). The UI for Sketchbook pro was almost entirely platform independent, but with the appropriate pieces either talking natively to Cocoa or Win32.

Sketchbook Mobile is based on the same platform neutral and highly optimized multi-layer painting engine as Sketchbook, but with a new Cocoa UI designed for smaller touch screens.

These days I'm the tech lead on Autodesk Mudbox, but I still occasionally help out on Sketchbook. The guys currently working on it are top-notch -- as you can see from their work with SketchBook mobile.

-- Ian.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Thomas Holm — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:25:13 GMT

Hi Ian,
thanks for posting. I was obviously wrong about the Carbon part. But the interesting things remain - it's fully possible to do cross-platform development using Cocoa - and Autodesk has top-notch Cocoa developers!
You wouldn't take a position at Graphisoft, would you? 😉

PS
I also find it interesting that you are watching this forum. I have a feeling Graphisoft can't leave the Mac platform unattended for too long, if they had any thoughts in that direction.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:02:18 GMT

I have absolutely no idea about this -- but I note that if Autodesk was planning to port Revit to OS X, they wouldn't have stripped out OpenGL support and gone to Direct X. We've taken that to mean that we're not going to see Revit on OS X any time soon...

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Thomas Holm — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:56:29 GMT

metanoia wrote:
I have absolutely no idea about this -- but I note that if Autodesk was planning to port Revit to OS X, they wouldn't have stripped out OpenGL support and gone to Direct X. We've taken that to mean that we're not going to see Revit on OS X any time soon...

Hi Wes

I don't think I mentioned Revit?

Whatever, I seem to recall there are other cross-platform developers that support DirectX on the PC and OpenGL on the Mac, so that doesn't have to be a problem. The OSX platform has a certain momentum at the moment, so it would really surprise me if Autodesk didn't keep their eyes open. But I'm just trying to keep Nemetschek AG and GS on their toes, you know

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:21:14 GMT

Hehe -- no you didn't, of course -- but I was thinking about it because there are so many of us who would love to switch and ditch Windows!

I'm beginning to think that mobile devices like the iPhone have some utility on site as a field review / markup device. That you can do some pretty decent art on the phone is almost a proof of concept!

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Thomas Holm — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:33:55 GMT

metanoia wrote:
I'm beginning to think that mobile devices like the iPhone have some utility on site as a field review / markup device.

They sure have. (I've just purchased my first iPhone, a 3Gs, and I'm amazed) And I think the much-rumored upcoming Mac tablet device will become even more useful in this context. And it wouldn't surprise me if it will in some way merge the current MacOSX and the current iPhone OSX into something that will point in new directions. Cocoa-proficient developers will have an advantage there as well. We ain't seen nothing yet!

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

owen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:04:18 GMT

Thomas wrote:
metanoia wrote:
I have absolutely no idea about this -- but I note that if Autodesk was planning to port Revit to OS X, they wouldn't have stripped out OpenGL support and gone to Direct X. We've taken that to mean that we're not going to see Revit on OS X any time soon...
Hi Wes

I don't think I mentioned Revit?

Whatever, I seem to recall there are other cross-platform developers that support DirectX on the PC and OpenGL on the Mac, so that doesn't have to be a problem. The OSX platform has a certain momentum at the moment, so it would really surprise me if Autodesk didn't keep their eyes open. But I'm just trying to keep Nemetschek AG and GS on their toes, you know

I think the OpenGL/DirectX issue is not the big one .. rather hasn't Autodesk heavily used Windows-only frameworks like .NET? I get the impression that Revit is so heavily reliant on these sort of things that an OSX version would be a totally new program?

I would love to have it available on the Mac though 😉

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:21:27 GMT

I don't know how heavily Revit relies on .NET -- but I'm sure Windows tentacles are in it quite extensively. The API tools are .NET-driven so I'm sure you're right.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:03:42 GMT

Revit 201? osx? It would be dangerus for Graphosoft. But as someone said competition is always good. I'd love to see more progress from graphisoft side.

Re: Autodesk SketchBook Mobile in the iPhone

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:35:50 GMT

Ian wrote:
The guys currently working on it are top-notch -- as you can see from their work with SketchBook mobile.

i agree they've done a fantastic job!