WorldCAD Access

Why I no longer update my Androids

No need I've turned off the automatic updating of apps on all my Android devices, because my life is better that way. These days the bulk of "What's New" lists are "bugs and performance enhancements." If the software is running bug-free for me, and fast enough, then I don't need the update. As with any software, updates are not necessarily better. Some introduce ads, even after I pay for the ad-free version. Others badly screw up the nifty user interface into something that's slower and unusable (here's looking at you, Opera v42 for Android). About the only updates I'll do... Read more →

Here's hoping my new cell phone will be really great

UMI Super My current cell phone is an LG-made Google Nexus 4, that's over 4 years old. It is showing its age. Increasingly, the screen stays black when I turn it on; the only recourse is holding down the Power button until it reboots. Its CPU is struggling with today's app load, and the default camera app sometimes crashes but more often takes a long time to be ready. A replacement, clearly, is needed. At one time, I would have got the same phone as I got for my wife and my mother-in-law, the $200 Moto G with smart cover.... Read more →

'Airplane Mode' is useful for more than just on airplanes

Muting unwanted transmissions Phones, tablets, and even Windows 10 desktop computers have Airplane Mode. Turn it on, and it turns off all of the radios used by the device. This goes back to the day when we were assured that a single cell phone transmission would crash entire airplanes. (Turns out it was an urban myth, not science, like the myth that cell phones cause gasoline pumps to explode into flames.) So, airplane mode turns off all the radios, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and cell communications (talk, text, and data). Here is where this mode can be useful on land.... Read more →

Recharging Android Tablets

More oomph! You're probably aware that an iPad tablet uses a more powerful charger, one that puts out 2.1 ampere (A). This is twice as much as typical chargers for smartphones, which range from below 1A to perhaps 1.5A. The reason for the more powerful charger is that the iPad has a much bigger battery. Using a normal 1A charger, it would take a long time to recharge. By pushing more electricity back into the battery in less time (which is what ampere-hours measure), a larger battery is charged in less time. As a result, there are a lot of... Read more →

It only took 5 months: reviving a bricked tablet

Applying the Right ROM Last summer I bought a couple of tablets from China through eBay, and you might have read me raving about one of them. The Talk9x from Cube has Apple-like build quality (tho' no GPS and the camera isn't great, but it has slots for microSD and SIM). Most surprising to me is that the manufacturer followed up with several OTA (over the air) updates to the firmware. Normally, once a tablet ships, the manufacturer is too concerned with the next model to bother maintaining the old one. Last October, another firmware update arrived, and I installed... Read more →

Graebert first CAD vendor to cover all viable platforms

Six platforms We're in Berlin this week for the annual Graebert meeting. Leading up to the conference, the company promises some surprises, and here they are. Graebert GmbH is now the first CAD vendor that will be providing a drafting program on all viable platforms. I'm the one using the word "viable" to emphasize that the program doesn't run on platforms like Blackberry or Windows Mobile. The list now consists of the following OSes, in alphabetical order: Android iOS (iPhone and iPad) Linux desktop OS X (Macintosh) Web browser (OS-independent) Windows desktop New to the list is iOS, meaning that... Read more →

ARES Touch 2016 on Android

And soon on iPad Graebert's strength is OEM'ing its software, and here at the Annual Meeting it has announced the first OEMer of its ARES Touch software for tablets: CorelCAD Mobile will come out soon, and be linked to CorelCAD 2016: get a one year license of one, get the license for the other product free. Back to Mr Desbordes taking about mobileCAD. Questions he gets asked about it: 1. How to ensure a good workflow for PCs? 2. Will users want to use a tablet for more than viewing? 3. Can I get enough precision on a tablet? 4.... Read more →

Get this free ebook with your subscription to upFront.eZine!

I've put together a whitepaper on the status of CAD running on mobile devices, like Android tablets. It's titled "MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity," and it is available today. Eight chapters, three appendices, 40 figures, and 15,000 words! The 56-page whitepaper has a list price of $56, but you can get it free just by subscribing to upFront.eZine, the newsletter that for 20 years has reported on the business of CAD. Subscribe by simply sending an email to [email protected]. Expect to see your copy of the whitepaper in a day or two in your email box, as a 5MB PDF file.... Read more →

Solving an obscure tablet (dis)charging problem

ASUS Transformer TF-101 design flaw The original Transformer laptop-style Android table from ASUS was the TF-101, and its clip-on keyboard is being copied today by other vendors. It's a design that makes a lot of sense. But the TF-101 had a severe design flaw: its battery system could drain the tablet to the point of being unrecoverable. A battery drain itself? Yes. Over the years that I've owned the TF-101, I finally figured out why the problem exists, and how it is cured. The problem is so severe that when I first bought the tablet from the local Staples outlet,... Read more →

OrthoGraph Launches Cross-platform App

Genius today, OrthoGraph Survey System tomorrow One of the problems with mobileCAD is that there is little money to be made. (The other problem is adapting to hardware limitations.) One iPad developer put the blame on Apple, because the behemoth did not allow demo versions of software on its ubiquitous e-store. To get people to try software, it has to be priced so cheap that potential customers would not mind throwing away a dollar. This drove pricing expectations in the brave new world of smartphones down to a near-nothing level -- the pricing so feared by Bill Gates in his... Read more →

Guided tour through ArcSite

Real-time constraints engine runs on iPad ArcSite from Arctuition is the first CAD program for mobile devices that uses real-time shape recognition and constraints to convert hand-drawn sketches into connected lines and arcs. More than any other mobile app, it bridges the gap between the interface of the tablet (which lends itself to freehand drawing) and the precision required of CAD. Launching ArcSite on an iPad first runs through a few introductory screens, as is common now with iOS and Android software. (See Figure 1.) Figure 1 Introductory screens highlighting ArcSite's capabilities After the first launch, ArcSite goes right into... Read more →

Next week in upFront.eZine: first mobileCAD to draw with constraints

Real-time constraint engine runs on iPad We continue to take our summer break by publishing every other week. The next issue of upFront.eZine appears September 14 with our story about ArcSite from Arctuition and exclusive interview with developer Pei Zhan. To whet your appetite, WorldCAD Access later this week will post an illustrated walkthrough to show you how ArcSite works on iPad. To not miss out on the Business of CAD, email 'subscribe' to [email protected] Read more →

Teigha for Mobile Platforms

In business, it appears that Android and iOS (iPhone, iPad) share have nearly equal market share, yet ODA also supports WinRT (ARM verison of Windows 8) and WinCE (from 2005), even though their market shares are razor thin. Despite WinCE being ancient, ODA supports it because some members still use it. Indeed, DGN support was added to it this year. I was surprised to see that Android and iOS come on so many hardware platforms. I counted 15 architectures that ODA supports. The interface is built using Qt. Presenting the mobile work by ODA At the Teigha Developer Conference we... Read more →

How to get a iTouch-like Android for practically free

Not paying $300 for a music player Petro-Canada is one of the gas station chains in Canada, and it runs a a Mobile Virtual Network phone network like 7-Eleven does. Right now they are giving away a free Android cell phone if you buy at least $35 of time. I was switching my wife's cell phone away from Rogers (Canada's biggest and most expensive cell phone carrier), and so got the free one (worth $160) but didn't know what to do with it. It was, after all, being given away free because it is a two-year-old phone no one would... Read more →

Guided tour through Siemens Intosite

Runs on iOS, Windows Metro, and Web browsers Intosite is an app that lets Siemens customers place 3D models and other data onto Google Maps. I tested it on an iPad. There is no demo mode, and so Siemens PLM Software provided me with an example login. After logging in, I was prompted to chose a location, either manually (through the Address option) or automatically through a barcode or GPS. (See figure 1.) The prompt "Set Location" is vague, but it means that I should set the location of the site I want to visit. The barcode option is useful... Read more →

Next week in upFront.eZine: We talk to Siemens about Intosite

Yes, Siemens Does Cloud We continue to takes our summer break by publishing every other week, and so the next issue of upFront.eZine appears August 31 -- which just happens to be my birthday -- with our story about Intosite from Siemens PLM Software and exclusive interview with developer Tali Segal. To whet your appetite, WorldCAD Access tomorrow posts a walkthrough of Intosite on iPad. She works in the same division that produces Tecnomatix and CNC software for NX. To not miss out on the Business of CAD, email 'subscribe' to [email protected] Read more →

Next week in upFront.eZine: Q&A with Graebert on MobileCAD Design

MobileCAD, Part IV We are taking our summer break in dribbs and drabs, and so upFront.eZine is not being published today, August 10. Next week, we return with part IV of our series on modern mobile CAD. This four-part, six-thousand-word series began when some months ago I conducted an interview with CAD software engineer Andre Neumann and head of sales and marketing Cedric Desbordes of CAD software developer Graebert GmbH. Their answers to my questions got me thinking about the maturity of mobileCAD and the broader implications thereof. Now, finally, the Q&A that started it all will appear in upFront.eZine... Read more →

Next week in upFront.eZine: solving the problems created by mobileCAD

MobileCAD, Part III We are taking our summer break in dribbs and drabs, and so upFront.eZine is not being published today, July 27. Next week we return with part III of our series on modern mobile CAD. upFront.eZine #869 examines the problems that need to be solve to effectively run CAD on mobile devices: Solving the file problem Solving the UX problem Solving the print problem Solving the porting problem Solving the licensing problem To assist me, Graebert Gmbh's CAD software engineer Andre Neumann and head of sales and marketing Cedric Desbordes described their company's rethinking of mobile CAD's problems... Read more →

7 Ways to Cram More Apps onto Your Android Tablet

Making 1,480 + 323 = 890 I was a bit surprised to learn that a tablet I recently bought had just 1GB (0.89GB, actually) in which to store apps. Worse, a bug in Android meant that sometimes apps wouldn't install even when there was sufficient room. Well, I wasn't going to let those two limitations stop me from installing all the apps I wanted and needed, so I researched solutions, and now have more than 1GB worth of apps running on the tablet. Here are seven ways to go beyond the 1GB limit. I used these techniques to install 1.5GB... Read more →

How much tablet can you get for $200?

Quite a lot, it appears by Ralph Grabowski A few years back I would troll eBay to see how much tablet I could get for under $100. The result, something that cost me about $80, was pretty bad. The screen was resistive, meaning it might or might not register a touch. The vibrate function felt like a small motor was running inside, according to my son. Nevertheless, there was a sub-cult dedicated to optimizing the Android OS for this fat 7" tablet. Two years ago, the 8" Chinese-designed model I picked up for just over $100 was dramatically different. It... Read more →

How to take control of a blank Android

Tutorial by Ralph Grabowski I wrote last week about Ampe's A88 Android tablet I purchased recently from China through eBay. As is sometimes the case, I bricked the device. After many attempts to reinstall the operating system, I succeeded but then faced a blank Android with Chinese as the default language. Here is my story of how I got it fully working again. After the A88 finally rebooted successfully, the home screen was blank, with just the status bar at the top and some soft buttons along the bottom. This is pure Android operating system with almost no user interface.... Read more →

The best apps that I'm running on my Android today

Five favs I suppose that some sort of adopter curve applies to apps stores, in which new users are hesitant about accessing them, then as they become excited by the one million apps freely available for downloading, download a ton, and finally settle on a favored few. I rarely look at the app store anymore, but once in a while I check to see if there is something better. Sometimes I need a replacement app when the developer stops updating it. Here are the apps I am running today: Replacement Dialer & Phone Book True Phone Dialer & Contacts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hb.dialer.free... Read more →

Effortless rooting of Android devices

Kingo to the rescue The latest cheap Android tablet I bought through eBay from China is an Ampe A88 for $123. When I have a choice in tablets, I like 8" screens and white bodies, and it is surprising how few models are available through eBay in that configuration. I had to buy another one, because Android tablet #1 now serves as our bedside Internet radio; tablet #2 went along with my daughter living in Germany; and #3 was absconded by the other daughter living in the next city who wanted to watch news while making dinner. So here I... Read more →

Does any Android user need another camera app?

Some camera apps are better Android comes with a pretty good camera app. I treasure a user interface that quickly accesses the most important functions, and Google Camera does that in its latest incarnations.It is good enough that I don't use any third-party app, even though I have paid for a few of them over the years. But Camera minimalist, no doubt so as to not compete with third party products. And so once in a while I'll look for one that does more functions that are useful and convenient to access. The latest one I am using I learned... Read more →

Hardware review: Logitech K480 triple-Bluetooth keyboard

Intriguing concept, flawed implementation My wife Heather is becoming sufficiently comfortable using her iPad that I suggested she take it as her "computer" the next time she travels. She would need a Bluetooth keyboard with which to type emails. The local flyer of BestBuy that week featured Logitech's new portable keyboard, the K480. I had read about this keyboard, it intrigued me, here was my excuse for buying one, and now it was available locally, finally. Well, except it wasn't. None of the outlets in our area carried it in stock; a helpful store employed finally located the elusive keyboard... Read more →

What the future of smartphones looks like (and of tablets, too)

Tomi T Ahonen is an ex-executive of Nokia Tomi Ahonen likes writing long, run-on pieces on his blog communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands. Long-winded pieces that are fun to read on a Sunday afternoon, because he writes streams of conscience, complete with 'ha ha ha' inserted, as he mocks those who yelped against his earlier predictions, now come true. Also, he hates those involved in the destruction of Nokia. This is what he says about the future mobile market in "Seems Like My Work Is Done: As we shift from Hunters in mobile industry to Farmers, most of the cool stuff is done and... Read more →

I'm declaring peak tabletCAD, for now anyhow

MobileCAD is fairly unimportant to deep-pocket CAD vendors An email buddy writes, CADO [from England's Orange Juice Studios] ... had a somewhat tragic Kickstarter campaign, and I'm not sure if any major CAD firm has taken any interest supporting the project, or licensing the tech for their own app. - A. B. Orange Juice Studios came up with (patent-pending) technology for solving the fat finger problem in using CAD on tablets. They are still alive, judging from the flurry of postings on their blog as recently as mid-June. True, their Kickstarter campaign failed; we only hear about the outrageous successes,... Read more →

How to switch your Google phone to run faster

ART is 50% faster than Dalvik The tech media is all a-twitter today, copying each other's stories about the new runtime environment in the "next release" of Android. A few, however, hint at the truth: that ART (Android Run Time) is already in Android today. (The only change, really, is that the old Dalvit engine will be removed from the next Android release, make ART the default.) If you own a recent Google phone, you might be able turn on ART right now. No root required. Here is how I did it: The ART switch is found in Settings, in... Read more →

Graebert ports their entire ARES CAD system to Android tablets

ARES now runs on Android, Linux, OS X, and Windows Graebert Gmbh of Berlin yesterday briefly briefed me on their new initiative: running full CAD on an Android tablet. The software is code-named "Radon" and this week is entering beta at http://www.graebert.com/radon. Not a lot of information at this point (or images of the user interface, except for the one promotional image shown above): Radon is the entire ARES CAD system Same APIs as desktop ARES (Tx C++, LISP, and FDT) Due to ship in October How can they get an entire CAD system -- as well as third-party add-ons,... Read more →

I've got a Chromecast; now what?

The same hour that Chromecast dongles became available in Canada, I ordered one. It was so popular that during the ordering process, the shipping date slipped by a day. Curious: we Canadians order from google.ca, pay in Canadian dollars, and yet the product is shipped from the USA. Nevertheless, a week later the small box arrived, and upon unpacking it I immediately plugged it into one of the 21" LCD monitors that surround me. Having already read several tutorial-like reviews, I knew what to do; hey, I had already downloaded Chromecast software to my smartphone in anticipation. First disappointment. The... Read more →

Orange Juice Studio's CADO goes on Kickstarter

It's been a year since I first told you about a new CAD app for iPad, CADO. One of its chief attributes is the virtual mouse, which lets you draw and edit not under your finger -- it's an offset mouse. The promotional video shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1gbLSYQ7T4. Solving the fat-finger problem is what CADO's OMouse is about Orange Juice Studios tells me they are 70% complete, but after two years of development they are turning to Kickstarter to complete the job. Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/981031266/cadotm-is-computer-aided-design-cad-for-tablet-dev Peeler Vimal writes me, "Being a small independent design studio, creating a... Read more →

Solid Edge Mobile Viewer for iPad and Android

It's become common in the last two years for CAD vendors to release viewers for mobile devices, usually at no cost. These let us see 2D and 3D models on our smartphones and tablets. Siemens PLM Software last year released a free viewer for iPad and this year for Android tablets. Solid Edge Mobile Viewer interactively displays 3D models exported from Solid Edge. Using multi-touch gestures, we view the models by rotating, panning, and zooming them. Images of the models can be saved and sent to others using the tablets' communication facilities, such as email or Dropbox. Currently, the app... Read more →

Here's what to look for in an Android (not Google) tv box

Google is promoting Google TV boxes to counter Apple's TV box but Google is not making much headway with manufacturers. In the meantime, there are a ton of Android TV boxes available today. So, what's the difference? Google TVs run a modified version of Android designed to work with remote controls and television sets. Android TV boxes run pure Android, and so are not optimized for touch-less interaction. Hardware-wise, they are like Apple TVs: small plastic boxes with no physical input or output, no keyboard or screen. The keyboard function is provided by the remote control or a wireless keyboard;... Read more →

Here's how to run full Microsoft Word on Android tablets

There are several top notch independent versions of Microsoft Office that run on Android tablets, but none support Word's review markups and comments. The solution is to use Word running on your PC back home, and displayed on your Android tablet where ever you have a connection to the Internet. In my case, I use TeamViewer. It lets me see and interact with the screens of other computers, whether my own desktop or that of relatives who need tech support. TeamViewer is free for non-commerical use. (The business version costs $689.) There are other similar products on the market, and... Read more →

IMSI/Design plugs its mobileCAD data right into Autodesk software

TurboSite ($499) is probably the best app out there for collecting onsite data. It runs on iPads only for now, but IMSI/Design has added the ability to plug the collected data right into AutoCAD and Revit. Here's how one press release words it: With the launch of TurboSite Plug-In For Revit, all Revit users on a project can, for the first time, view correctly geolocated video, photo, markup, and text documentation directly within Revit. TurboSite Plug-In For Revit is free and available now through the Autodesk Exchange for Revit. The same is available free for AutoCAD, and here's a pic... Read more →

IMSI/Design ups the ante with TurboSite to v1.3

I don't know why IMSI/Design numbers the releases of TurboSite with points, because they are adding so much to each one. This software runs on iPads and now also on iPhones, but not Androids; it collects site data through GPS, camera, voice notes, and other input sensors. Here is a list of some of what's new in TurboSite v1.3: Custom PDF field reporting (first in the mobile space) Search for text in GeoMarks Import and export video and pictures to/from camera roll Reduction in drift of SPS (sensor positioning system) Add text to all markup objects Front-facing arrows, dimensions, and... Read more →

How to reclaim 1GB from your Android's disk space

Update: A faster way to accomplish this is to do the following: Settings > Storage > Cached Data This will erase unnecessary data, in my case over 1GB. - - - - Using a disk space analyzer, I was surprised to see that my Android tablet had 1.03GB of photos. This was odd to me, because I knew there were only a couple of photos on the device. I pinpointed the problem to thumbnails. These are tiny copies of photos used by some apps to more quickly display pictures. Specifically, the 1GB was being taken up by a thumbnail index... Read more →

First! IMSI/Design announces first CAD app for Google Glass(es)

From desktop to laptop to tablet to nothing. It's vapourware at this point, but IMSI/Design will have its TurboSite software ready when Google ships its Glass eyeware later this year. I'll quote the press release directly, which describes a scenario: Simulated image of Glass eyeware (left) and image seen by user (right) A user -- carrying nothing but wearing the smart device glasses and running TurboSite -- will see building plans directly in front of them. GPS will track their movement through a drawing. The built-in eye glass camera will let them take pictures and record video and TurboSite will... Read more →

My second look at Vectorworks Nomad, part ii

Here is a walk-through of the Nomad viewer-redliner from Vectorworks: After installing Nomad from the Google store on my Android tablet, I signed in using my complimentary subscription account: User Interface Once signed in, I saw this list of drawings. (Sample drawings provided by Vectorworks.) I picked one drawing, and then a few moments later it appeared on the screen. A button on the upper right opened all the sheets included with the drawing (see the list of thumbnails on the right.) Along the bottom of the screen is a short tool bar that switches modes between viewing, redlining, and... Read more →

My second look at Vectorworks Nomad, part i

When in April I tried to review Vectorworks Nomad, their app for Android and iOS devices, I couldn't get any further than the login screen. because only paid-up users of their annual subscription program can get access. The folks at Vectorworks noticed, and set me up with a complimentary access for a second try. In brief, Nomad views PDF files of 2D drawing sets and rendered 3D models created by Vectorworks, and has some actions for marking up and measuring the drawings. Nomad does not read native Vectorworks files. The PDFs are strictly 2D, and so can be zoomed and... Read more →

Android apps I use (no, that I need)

As my needs change and as apps improve, the list of programs I run on my many Android devices (8 devices, at last count) changes. Here are the ones I find most useful, and think you might like them too: Best WiFi. When your home or office has multiple WiFi access points, Android devices don't switch to the strongest signal automatically. This is what Best WiFi does. (The limitation to this app is that all access points need to have different SSIDs. If your location has access points that use the same name, then there is another app that will... Read more →

Blackberry says tablet is a useless form factor, and I agree

I've had access to tablets since 1991. Back in the early 1990s, Microsoft was pushing Windows for Pen Computing after companies like Grid and AT&T beat the convicted monopolist to the punch with operating systems that accepted input from pens tapping and dragging on touch screens. Until the iPad, these flat computers failed, of course, because they were a category for which there was no popular demand. There was no popular demand, because the hardware and software were wrong. The earliest tablet computers, like the Grid, adapted a version of DOS or created a new OS. They required the use... Read more →

What happens when we try Nomad with no Vectorworks sub

Vectorworks last week released its Nomad app for Androids, and so I was curious to check it out. I read from the press release that it was only for people who pay into the subscription program run by Vectorworks. I thought, well, let's see how far I can get without a sub. Going to the https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vectorworks.nomad page, I found that the app is compatible with three of my Android devices: Google Nexus phone, ASUS Transformer tablet, and MOMO8 tablet. It was not compatible with older devices of mine: my first Android phone (Samsung Vibrant) and my first Android tablet (WonderMedia... Read more →

TurboSite v1.2 adds so many functions it oughtta be named "version 2.0"

IMSI/Design keeps powering ahead with its mobile software for CAD users. It seems it me that a number of CAD vendors put out a mobileCAD program for Android and/or iOS for free, and then lost interest. Not all, of course. But they are in contrast to IMSI/Design who (a) charges for some of their Turbo-branded software and (b) keeps pumping in ever more functions. Here's the list of new stuff for TurboSite v1.2, released last Friday: Box.com cloud file storage; get 10GB free storage when signing up through Box.com with TurboSite Display materials attached to 3D drawings, including color values,... Read more →

ASCON's sub-d software runs on Androids

Knowing that Android's market share is 2-3x larger than that of iOS, ASCON last month released their sub-division modeling software on Google Play store. It has the utilitarian name of SubDivFormer and can be accessed from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ascon.subdivformer The software runs on Android smartphones and tablets, and has the following editing functions: Extrude -- Intrude -- Subdivide -- Bevel -- Bump -- Split -- Bridge -- Merge -- Delete -- Move -- Rotate -- Scale. Read more →

Geometros comes out with a custom furniture designer running on an iPad

Anyone can create a drawing viewer; heck, we had them back in the late 1980s (tip of the hat to Vince Everts and Cyco). A new computing platform demands new ways of interaction, and finally in 2013 we are starting to see some breakthroughs. I've written already about IMSI/Design's TurboSite ($500) that takes advantage of most sensors in an iPad; here's another breakthrough: Geometros's Furniture 3D Constructor ($3) lets you design rectilinear furnishings, like cupboards. What is fascinating to me is how they split the 2D and 3D paradigms. And it's not today's (well, 25-year-old) paradigm of construct a 3D... Read more →

Autodesk gets top billing in last week's Apple press release

When Apple last week quietly announced that its 128GB iPad is shipping tomorrow, it was so quiet that I didn't notice that Autodesk had twice received top billing in the accompanying press release -- until I read Jean-Louis Gassée's Monday Note on Sunday, "iPad Pro: The Missing Workflow." The first "first" mention for Autodesk comes in the third paragraph: Companies regularly utilizing large amounts of data such as 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, project blueprints, training videos and service manuals all benefit from having a greater choice of storage options for iPad. (I boldfaced the file types... Read more →

IMSI/Design first to adapt CAD to finger-based tablets

There is a lot of CAD software for Android and iOS tablets, but pretty much all are simple adaptations of desktop CAD metaphors to the finger-as-stylus interface. The adaptation consists of (a) fewer functions and (b) larger icons. That's pretty much it -- other than passing files between the CAD program and email or Dropbox-like services, and in some implementations the file-passing function is painful to find/use. Starting at the Basement The exception is a company known better for loud marketing than innovation, and so IMSI/Design has surprised me. When a year or so ago they first told me in... Read more →

Media loves the idea of 3D printing Nokia cases; gets the technology wrong

Many tech web sites are reporting this morning that Nokia has released STEP and STL files that would allow owners of 3D printers to print their own cases for the Lumia 820 cell phone. The catch to downloading the STL files is that you need to first register wtih Nokia: STEP drawings for Lumia 820 back shell for 3D printing (shell separated) http://www.developer.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/90d754d9-2419-404d-a6d2-6ce1ff049a8f/Lumia_820_shell_STP.zip.html STL file for 3D printing (all parts) http://www.developer.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/42482850-b21d-48e8-a027-6b6453e19fa5/Lumia820_shell_allparts_STL.zip.html As CAD users, we can amuse ourselves at the errors made in the reporting. I've highlighted the errors in bold, underlined, italicized text. Let's take a look, shall we?... Read more →

Where are the CAD apps for Windows phones?

A reader writes from South America: In the last upFront.eZine newsletter, you have written about CAD apps, “Running CAD on Small Screens.” I am using an HTC Windows Phone 8X, which I really like, but I cant find any apps for mobile CAD purposes. Which is for me really BAD! Do you know of CAD apps running on Windows phones? -- J.J. That's right: no CAD vendor supports Windows 8 Phone, because its marketshare is too small (under 4% and shrinking) to assign programming resources. In recent years, CAD vendors were forced to switch from programming for just one --... Read more →