Touching AutoCAD on the desktop

I inherited a two-week-old touch-screen computer, after my dad decided he didn't like the shininess of the screen. I agree that the screen is annoying, acting like a mirror, instead of the normal matte finish of other monitors.

No matter. I put up with it, because it's a 23" Acer touchscreen all-in-one computer running the awful Windows 8. I figured I could put it to use for my writing work; it gets added to other computers I have purchased solely for writing about software, such as the Apple Mac Mini.

(This new Acer has a secondary HDMI input, meaning I can use its screen for the Mac Mini that sits next to it.)

Touching AutoCAD

First software I installed was AutoCAD, for I was curious to see what it would be like with a touch screen.  My understanding is that Windows 8 interprets my touches on the screen as if there were mouse inputs (but I could be wrong); this lets any program react to touches.  In particular, I was curious about what kinds of touches were necessary to make AutoCAD work.

I started the Line command, and found...

 ...tap once to indicate the start of the line segment

...and then tap a second time to show the end of the line segment.

As on Android and other tablets, the (relatively) fat pointing finger gets in the way of seeing what's going on in the drawing precisely where I am working. But it works.

Same for the Circle command: one tap to indicate the center, a second tap to indicate the radius -- always vaguely, because I couldn't see under my finger.

Selection works when no command is active. I tap once in a blank area to start rectangular selection, and then again to define the rectangular area.

Tapping an object selects the object.

I then tried my hand at grips editing, but this barely worked. The problem I had was accurately selecting any blue grip to make it hot (red), which then would allow me to manipulate it. But it took me repeated taps to get a grip to turn red, and soon I tired of the exercise. I suppose one solution is to increase the size of grips.

By this time, my arm was getting sore from holding it in the air.

Before giving up, though, I did want to try panning and zooming...

...pinch two fingers to zoom in, and spread the fingers to zoom back out.

...drag two fingers to pan the drawing.

Right-clicking is not available, at least not that I was able to find. I tried double-tapping; no do. I tried a long-press (the standard for right-clicking on Android touch screens); no go. So I was unable to access shortcut menus.

I was unable to rotate the drawing in 3D, even using up to four fingers at a time. (The Asus screen supports up to ten fingers at a time, as do most touch screens today).

Summary

I was wondering why Autodesk was not trumpeting AutoCAD working with Windows 8 and touchscreens at Autodesk University, and now I know why. The problems are the pain (holding up the arm in the air) and the lack of accuracy (can't see what's happening in the most important part of the drawing, under my finger).

A touch screen is fine for closing dialog boxes or panning the drawing. But that's not enough of a reason to get such a screen for CAD.

 

Comments

[Rakesh Rao]

Did you try with AutoCAD 2013? The full, regular version? Do earlier AutoCAD versions also work with touch OS Win 8?

[Ralph Grabowski]

I tested the touchscreen/Win8 combo with AutoCAD 2013. I don't expect that earlier versions would be any different.

After all, Windows 8 is just a Dr-Jeckle Windows 7 with a partial Mr-Hyde UI makeover. For instance, BricsCAD runs fine on Windows 8; haven't tested any others, yet.

[Jchawner]

Ralph: Your experience doesn't surprise me. Holding up your arm to point at and touch a screen positioned like a traditional monitor just won't cut it. And your "fat finger" experience makes obvious the fact that current UI paradigms will have to change for touch. Now imagine a touch screen configured more like an old-school drawing board and we might be getting somewhere.

[Ralph Grabowski]

SpaceClaim claim that last year they rewrote their software to be touch-friendly. They also noted that the monitor had to be laying down to be effective.

It must have not been all that successful, for this year they aren't pushing touch. Reminds me of think3 did the same thing with voice input: flattened the command structure to accommodate voice commands in one release, and then ignored the feature in the following releases.

[Bill Fane]

I would like to comment on your mention of how the "fat-finger" syndrome doesn't produce enough accuracy for design work.
I don't think this is new to touch-screen CAD at all. I'm sure that during my life I have worked on/worked with/repaired a great many products that were designed by people with "fat fingers", like the burned-out car dash light bulb that can't be replaced without removing the entire instrument cluster, or certain Porsche and Chevrolet models that required removing the engine to replace the last spark plug, or the '37 Rolls-Royce that required drilling a factory-prescribed hole in a chassis cross-member in order to remove the last bolt holding the starter motor. or the leaky condensation tray on the refrigerator that can't even be patched without removing the motor/compressor and hence the refrigerant, or....

[Ralph Grabowski]

My pet peeve: It seems to me that freeway interchanges are designed more poorly as CAD is more used (cf. 200th street interchange on Hwy 1, as well as the double-traffic circle with nine roads at the McCallum interchange here in Abbotsford).

[R. Paul Waddington]

Smiled when I saw your comment about freeway design Ralph. Remined me of a bus interchange built for a local high school. I provided the designers with the minimum turning radius required by our buses (I was designing them at that point in time). The very first day the buses very nearly ran over the toes of students as they mounted the footpath when entering the interchange. A complaint was made to me and when I went to inspect I found 90 degree left turns (buses entering and leaving) with no radii and the required radii plus a bit on the right hand turns made within the interchange.
I found the designers did not KNOW? a bus needs the same turning radius for left and right turns. Dumb, I know, but real and, CAD would not have made any difference in this case.
Please note!. I am talking about a country where we drive on the correct side of the road ;-) meaning we pass starboard to starboard so as to facilitate the drawing of swords to engage an on-coming opponent.

[Edward Picard]

Is this subject still open for discussion?