ArchiCAD on the iPad, iPhone and iTouch?

[Anonymous]

Since official details about the iPad came out I have been wondering about it as a laptop replacemnt for client presentations. The main drawback is that I would not able to view a 'live' 3D model on it (orbiting etc).
Someone had mentioned that VBE should be on the iPad - I agree (well a re-written one anyway)
Now Rhino has taken the lead.
Robert McNeel and Associates amazes! I hope they don't become Autodesk.

[Chadwick]

Interesting...but I think this limits the power of BIM. I think one of BIMs most powerful abilities is to change and update the model on the fly (especially when giving a presentation or a meeting with the client). I find the iPad cumbersome (try typing on it) and restricted. I'd rather spend the $499 minimum and get a laptop that can load a bunch of software that I want and still manipulate my building in real time.

Just my 2 cents

[Anonymous]

Hmm. That`s interesting... Requesting VBE for iPad now!

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that trying to squeeze a BIM model of moderate size and complexity into one of those platforms is doomed from the beginning, because those are machines that simply can not handle that kind and quantity of information.

I'm sure some companies will come up with some sort of 3d viewers, but surely it will be more a publicity stunt than anything serious.

[Anonymous]

Krippahl wrote:
It seems to me that trying to squeeze a BIM model of moderate size and complexity into one of those platforms is doomed from the beginning, because those are machines that simply can not handle that kind and quantity of information.

I'm sure some companies will come up with some sort of 3d viewers, but surely it will be more a publicity stunt than anything serious.

I wouldn't expect a full BIM model - more like a surface model export or something along those lines.
They have obviously solved it with Rhino 3DM files (which is NURBS surface modeling)

[Anonymous]

Yes, they say at that site that it can handle 1 million polygons, which is a LOT, but checking this small video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TCq-HMo1s you can see that, on the Iphone at least, a simple car takes 50 seconds to render an then it is painfully slow to navigate.
I would love to see some videos with real examples of a medium sized building on an iPad. If that works, I'll be the first to ask a viewer from GS.

[Anonymous]

oh dear ... you're right
reverting to living in hope

[Ralph Wessel]

Krippahl wrote:
Yes, they say at that site that it can handle 1 million polygons, which is a LOT, but checking this small video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TCq-HMo1s you can see that, on the Iphone at least, a simple car takes 50 seconds to render an then it is painfully slow to navigate.
I would love to see some videos with real examples of a medium sized building on an iPad. If that works, I'll be the first to ask a viewer from GS.

The iPad is 2-4 times faster than the 3GS, and I expect that we will see similar speed increases on an annual basis (or faster). And the car in that demo may have had as many polygons as a small building.

I can see a device like the iPad becoming a great presentation/field tool. But if we wait too long for the technology to arrive, we will only find ourselves playing catchup with companies that planned ahead a bit.

[Anonymous]

Ralph
I agree with you in principle, if for no other reason that your perception of the technical issues involved has to be manifold better than mine.
As I said, if such a product is possible, I will be the first in line, and can even imagine helping a third party develop it.
Still, my concern is that, not being a viable solution, this could be a typical publicity stunt, distracting users from what is commercially and technically important and possible.

[Anonymous]

I've got an iPad coming next week!, i've been looking at systems like http://unity3d.com/ as they can convert quite complex scenes into a more useable model for these less powerful devices, as i do think that these will be great as presentation tools.

There are also some VNC apps that link back to your main computer, so you could display ArchiCAD in full, but you would be relying on the speed of your network or internet....