mc0m wrote:For stuff like the surveying you are discussing, I still do not think iPads or smartphones are really up to speed with what you want them to do. I would just stick with a pencil and a pad of paper if I were you.
Because I work with historic structures I do a lot of existing conditions building surveys. I do this by hand now and have this fantasy about being able to have a drawing on my iPad on which I can make smart notes (i.e. when I bring them back to my desktop they are actually imported into the drawing program) and also link a photograph of the condition at hand - maybe even the option to link a short narrative if the problem can't be documented fully with photo and graphic notation.
I can do some of this (sort of) now but here are the drawbacks:
I can make notes on a PDF that is pulled into my iPad - but this really isn't much different from hand notes because ArchiCAD doesn't recognize them. You still have to go back to the office and manually transfer them into your cad documents.
The viewing of the PDF is sometimes a little frustrating - its too small or too big or you can't see enough or you need to see two or more drawings simultaneously.
Sometimes (actually a lot of the time) it's really hard to see the screen of your iPad in sunlight.
There's a "bog down" effect to the technology - you get too wrapped up in making the gadgets work and not seeing the real issues with the building.
For now, I don't see an advantage for field surveys.
However, you can use iPad as your primary phone if you make voip calls with it. All you have to do is contact the best voip provider and they will get you all set up.
Still looking?
