Autodesk Software Goes Mobile

Using a new mobile-viewing application, product designers can now publish documentation and assembly drawings on iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices.

The software, released last week by Autodesk Inc. could allow manufacturers to eliminate the time-honored process of creating hundred-plus-page documentation manuals, instead enabling them to put 2-D and 3-D drawings in a handheld phone, a tablet PC or even in an iPod.

"You can hold an iPad next to the product and say, ‘Look here, this is how you assemble it,'" says Raymond Price, a University of Illinois engineering professor who has seen and used the software. "It takes the translation step out. Instead of me having to translate, I've got the information in my hand."

The mobile-viewing application, added to an existing technical communication software product known as Autodesk Inventor Publisher, is believed to be the first of its kind. The Inventor Publisher software is aimed at helping manufacturers explain and differentiate their products with documentation, even allowing them to import 3-D models into their information.

Autodesk executives believe the new mobile-viewing application could simplify the documentation process for manufacturers and improve the interface for their customers. In many cases, they say, product teams have been forced to assign dozens of employees to the difficult task of creating product manuals that can sometimes exceed 600 pages in length. Those efforts often fell short, however, because the voluminous information they provided weren't always appropriate at the time and place where they were needed. Autodesk believes the mobile-viewing app could help change all that.

"This interface is very accessible," says Keith Perrin, a senior industry manager for manufacturing at Autodesk. "To capture an immediate thought or an immediate environment, you need a device with immediacy, like an iPhone."

Customers at a recent rollout of the software were encouraged by the availability of a mobile application. "This is going to affect the dad who has to assemble a bike on Christmas Eve for his kid," says Craig Breckenridge, a senior designer for Dynamic Structures Ltd., a designer of commercial products and structures. "And it's also going to affect the technicians in the field."

Perrin believes the new features could also help bridge language gaps by enabling customers to work in a graphical environment. "In many countries, customers can't read the instructions that are written in English," he says. "For someone who's trying to assemble something in another country, this lowers that language barrier."