What engineer doesn’t want access to product data on the go? It’s a need that shows no signs of abating, particularly in light of the increased use of outsourced design partners and the trend toward individuals working remotely, whether in satellite development groups or home offices.
With that mobility in mind, Inforbix, a company specializing in intelligent CAD and product data access, has released its first iPad app designed to let users search and access engineering data no matter where they are working. Oleg Shilovitsky, CEO of Inforbix and an active blogger in the PLM and CAD space, told us that the free app is meant to work in conjunction with and as an extension of Inforbix’s cloud-based collection of integrated applications, which, in concert, help users find, reuse, and share product-related data.
Inforbix’s semantic technology automatically finds and infers relationships between disparate sources of structured and unstructured product data.
Inforbix’s semantic technology -- the power behind the new iPad app -- automatically finds and infers relationships between disparate sources of structured and unstructured product data, Shilovitsky said. By linking and drawing connections, the technology helps users find, locate, and access product data, whether it’s a drawing, an Excel worksheet, or a CAD assembly file.
The genesis for Inforbix’s xSearch Web hosted offering was the difficulty companies have in tracking down their product-related data when they need it, especially when it’s stored in multiple systems and in a variety of file types. Unlike PDM or PLM systems, which manage product-related data in what Shilovitsky called an engineering-centric way, the Inforbix tools, including the iPad app, are designed to let anyone find and access data easily.
“PDM helps those in engineering, but it’s complicated for people in the supplier groups or others who want to access data for downstream use cases,” he said. “Ultimately, what we’re allowing is a simplified and cost-effective way to find, reuse, and share product data.”
Inforbix xSearch is a replacement for PLM or PDM, Shilovitsky said. My guess is that small firms may be game for what appears to be a far less expensive and complicated solution. An iPad app seems to be a natural extension of the Inforbix tools, given its narrow focus on serving up access to data. Shilovitsky sees the app being used by engineers or manufacturing personnel at a customer site, for example, or by members of the marketing and sales team when they're not at their desks.
The iPad app is available for free in the Apple App Store. Check out a video preview here.
That sounds about right, Beth. For this type of stuff, I see the smartphone more as the backup to the tablet. If you're caught in a situation you weren't intending, the smartphone can be used, but for day to day planned work, it's going to be the tablet as the main tool - sort of as a replacement for a notebook or 3-ring binder.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as to agree that a larger smart phone screen will lead to the smart phone replacing the laptop, but I do agree with you that tablets and smart phones of all shapes and sizes are definitely going to be the go-to device for specific kinds of interactions, mostly around design reviews and collaboration. Having access to handy tools, be they mathematical calculators, look up tables, parts databases, GPS coordinates, or whatever are also natural apps to find their way to these new platforms.
Screen size is indeed the most important point, as you note, TJ. Or, more specifically, a big screen in a lightweight package. The recent wave of stories on tablet apps in CAD indicates that tablets are becoming mainstream for taking, say, DXF files into the field and sharing drawings, or for engineers or techs being able to look stuff up on the road or on the shop floor. (They don't replace laptops/desktops because of their data-entry limitations. I.e., you don't create the drawing on the tablet, you share it.)
Anyway, so my point here is that tablets are "arriving" in CAD, but what I think we're going to see very soon is that smartphone screen-size creep -- Android phones with bigger screens than the iPhone -- will soon position smartphones for use as CAD in the field, "hey, take a look at this" devices.
I personally think smartphone size creep will mean they'll displace laptops, too, as the become used as mobile devices on the road and then fit into a dock when you're back at your desk. Only Motorola is pushing this so far, and many people I've talked to disagree with my scenario here, but I think it'll happen.
Over the last few years, I've interviewed an increasingly large number of engineers who spend a day or two every week working at home (Friday seems to be a big day for some reason). I would imagine these kinds of apps will grow as that phenomenon grows, in part because the engineers can't always bring their bigger system home with them.
I think it depends on the app. Most are available for both smart phone and iPad (tablet) platforms, but in some cases (as TJ notes) it just doesn't make sense in terms of screen real estate to deliver an app that is dealing with rich and sometimes highly complex 3D data on the tiny screen of a mobile phone.
Screen size, Rob. There's no problem getting to either platform, but once there, you have to be able to read it. You can multi-touch zoom on the smaller screen to read it, then spend a lot of time panning around to view it.
There seems to be a flood of mobile apps for design engineers these days. I'm surprised they didn't also make it available for the iPhone. Is this a pattern with mobil design tools, that they favor the iPad over the iPhone?
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