While those hesitations certainly have merit, CAD and design tool vendors jumping into the new frontier of mobile apps claim there's little to be concerned about. They say engineers' reticence is really tied more to a general lack of understanding of the new technology and what is still a very immature and emerging market.
"It really boils down to a lack of information," Amar Hanspal, senior vice president for Autodesk's Information Modeling and Platform Products group, told us. "People may not realize that these things are more capable than they perceive them to be. Sure, you can play Angry Birds on your mobile phone, but the device is capable of doing a lot more than that."
Constant Aviation engineers employ Autodesk's AutoCAD WS app to help design the proper placement of electronics going into small planes when out in the field. (Source: Autodesk)
Consumption and collaboration So what exactly is an iPhone, Android, or Windows tablet capable of when it comes to serious engineering work? As it turns out, right now, the devices still lend themselves best to the consumption and collaboration around engineering data, not necessarily for the creation of complex 3D CAD models. CAD specialists toiling away on constructing 3D parts and assemblies are still going to want the luxury of a large monitor (sometimes two), a mouse, and a keyboard to perform the complex tasks related to extruding surfaces, creating fillets, or modifying geometry.
But, as it turns out, dedicated CAD work is only one aspect of engineering, and as experts contend, only a small part of the workflow around product design and development. There are many constituents involved in the product development process who are not CAD specialists, and who live outside of engineering and need fast and easy access to core design data, whether they're in the office, offsite with a client, or commuting on the train.
"Not all engineering activities make sense to migrate to a mobile device," says Laurent Bernadin, executive vice president of chief scientists at Maplesoft, which markets the Maple mathematical computing software, now offered in an app form for the Apple iPad. "If you have designers sitting in front of a CAD system doing detailed design of a product that involves tens or thousands of parts, they will probably never do that on a phone. But there are a lot of tasks that can be taken on the road, and beyond that, there are activities you didn't really have computer support for before that are now becoming possible."
With tools like Maple Player for the iPad or Autodesk's AutoCAD WS, on-the-go engineers and other professionals can have easy access to product data, not to mention the ability to take the design with them for more effective collaboration with peers. As such, mobile design tool apps delivering capabilities for 3D visualization and viewing, basic markup, and conceptual sketching and ideation are natural targets for mobile platforms, as are any number of highly targeted technical calculators, reference tools, or industry- and domain-specific engineering utilities.
@Greg; @Jack: I think you're both right in terms of the need trying to be served. For out in the field markup and collaboration, the ability to manipulate lightweight models is really all you need, hence the high utility of smart phones and tablets. But the idea of being able to go further and do some hard core CAD modeling work is also appealing, especially once the devices whet your appetite for doing more. I think we'll get there over time.
@TJ: That's a real eye opener in how dependent we really are on these devices.What a shame that a job site that could have profited from the use of mobile technology wouldn't allow it. I wonder given the proliferation of these devices and our increasing dependence on them, how long a mandate like that would be realistic.
Integrated technology is sometimes a hindrence. This past week the project I oversaw during installation was in a location that absolutely forbade cameras of any kind. Phones were not a problem, but no photography could be tolerated.
I had to leave my android smartphone AND my laptop computer in the construction company's trailer outside the secure area.
This particular startup had more difficulties than normal and would have benefited from a tablet and software as you've desrcribed. An Ipad with its cameras would not have made it past the checkpoint.
We were left with paper and pencil.
I did a lot of standing around Thursday and Friday. No phone, no computer. Heck, I use my phone for a watch so I couldn't even look at the time.
Yes, I do agree with you Jack that many times mark-ups in the field would be great on a simplified representation of the part or assembly and this would be adequate and powerful. However, as the design engineer, I'm eager for the day when I can pull up the entire CAD assembly and do some focused work in the field (to offset the extra emails and task assignments that accumulated during the time that I was out of office). Maybe in the not to distance future...
True, Greg, but do we really need all that power when we're out in the field? If it's just a layer or two that is being looked at or simple notes / mark-ups being made, the high-power stuff can be done later.
I eagerly await more and more CAD tools apps for tablets and smartphones. However, given the large assemblies and high processor power that our designs need, I'm thinking that these apps for me will be an extension of our existing 3D CAD tools at best (at worst they will be too painfully slow). I am hopeful that processing power will catch up to the need in the long term.
Beth, as mentioned in the article mobile apps are designed as an extension of the corporate structured suite of CAD tools not a replacement. When Jeff Hawkins created the PDA, his vision was to replace the desktop PC. Today we still have desktop PCs with computing power matching Cray machines.
This technology serves as part of a much larger trend -- that is, the tendancy for our offices to follow us everywhere. This could be great or scary, depending on how you look at it. Tools like these could enable us to spend less time at the main office, but more time working. The walls between work and the rest of our lives are crumbling, bit by bit.
Beth, I think your article answeres the question that was prompted by the emergence of mobile devices for design engineers. Do they actually need these mobile apps? By the way, I'm impressed by your use of "obviate."
Dave, I think you are describing the initial resistance by many of your peer engineers perfectly. But once you get over it and get used to the utility of being able to access email and key materials on the fly, you definitely get hooked and are perhaps more open to exploring some of your more traditional engineering tools on these platforms.
Most of the PLM vendors are working on mobile capabilities for the PLM systems (note, I did not say mobile VERSIONS of their PLM systems). No one has drunk the mobile punch enough to believe you can run a full-blown PLM system on a phone or even a tablet. But you can benefit from some of the capabilities on a mobile device.
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