Replies

1. 
   gfretwell | Apr 13, 2013 07:10pm | #1

   The engineer or architect who drew those plans did them on his computer. The only question is if he will give you the file and if your tablet has the software to open it

1. 
   dropin | Apr 13, 2013 07:26pm | #2

   But does any software in use today have the capabilities that I mentioned?  If its a choice between looking at a laptop sized image and a full set of plans I'll take the paper copy.  If however the digital version can navigate in the ways I mentioned, bringing up pertinent info just by clicking on the area in question without having to find which sheet the door schedule, appropriate elevation/detail, or any other data then I'll happily deal with the smaller size.

1. 
   DanH | Apr 13, 2013 07:41pm | #3

   Download Eclipse and write your own Android app.  14-year-old kids are doing it.

1. 
   dropin | Apr 13, 2013 07:46pm | #4

   Maybe If I do that I won't have to read plans anymore.  I'll just sit on the beach raking in all the money from my top selling new app! Too bad I'm app-stupid

1. 
   calvin | Apr 14, 2013 08:32am | #6

   drop

   I remembered this post http://forums.finehomebuilding.com/breaktime/general-discussion/graphpad-pro-technical-drawing-application-ipad

   Not what you are after, but perhaps he's got some information that would point you in the right direction.

   best of luck.

2. 
   gfretwell | Apr 13, 2013 08:33pm | #5

   You can navigate around and zoom on any phone that knows how to pinch. In a lap top any decent picture program will let you do all sorts of things with an image.

   I do understand it would really be cool to have a totally interactive electronic plan but I have not seen that one yet.

   Maybe something based on a "book" ap would work if the plan had all the data. I could make it a web page.

1. 
   RickGreg | Apr 14, 2013 08:59am | #7

   If you scan or take a photo of your print and save as a PDF, Adobe Acrobat Pro offers several tools for annotating, linking to other pages, other documents, etc.  Maybe not a ready made solution, but I think it would accomodate what you are looking to accomplish.

   And PDFs can be viewed on phone, ipad, etc...

1. 
   dropin | Apr 14, 2013 10:32am | #8

   Thanks RickGreg that sounds exactly what I was looking for. I'll try messing around with adobe. 

2. 
   gfretwell | Apr 15, 2013 07:38pm | #9

   I talked to my wife about this. She was a builder for about a decade and her first thought was the company that owns that plan would not want it to be that easily copied and distributed.

   Maybe with the right licensing and DRM they could go for it tho.

1. 
   DanH | Apr 15, 2013 08:15pm | #10

   You could certainly develop a pad app that would only let you access licensed prints, and which would do most of what you want.  The main problem is that it would require an infrastructure ("cloud") to "serve" the prints, if licensing must be managed.

1. 
   gfretwell | Apr 15, 2013 09:31pm | #11

   DRM is only as good as the worst "cracker" and there are some very good ones.

   The "secure" copy of the NEC 2011PDF was only out a few days when a cracked version showed up on the internet.

1. 
   DanH | Apr 15, 2013 09:38pm | #12

   I would imagine that it wouldn't be done with DRM but with the user "signing on" to the server site.  A determined hacker with a user's password and a "jail broken" device could probably access a given print, but the prints could be individually "watermarked" so that the thief would be identified.

   Not perfect (nothing is, on the web), but about as secure as one could hope for.

3. 
   Condoman | Apr 16, 2013 12:05pm | #13

   Isn't this concept why Trimble acquired Sketchup from Google, to make plans digital?