PocketCAD: Leave Your Blueprints at the Office

A Vertical Access employee inspects this building's columns. Although you can't see it here, he references drawings stored in PocketCAD on his Pocket PC.  (Image courtesy of Kent Diebolt, Vertical Access.)

Some of the first graphics applications, dating back to the 1960s, focused on computer-aided design and computer aided manufacturing (known as CAD/CAM). However, it wasn't until the 1980s and '90s that the computer workstations needed for the task were inexpensive enough for widespread use. Since then, AutoCAD ((www.autocad.com) has become the industry standard for PCs, and even the more sophisticated CAD systems generally support AutoCAD file formats.

While AutoCAD can run on almost any PC, engineers and draftsmen generally use fast computers with large monitors. The faster the computer, the quicker a drawing can appear on the screen. The larger, higher resolution screens allow the user to have many views of a drawing (or multiple drawings) on the screen at once, as well as allowing the user to see more detail without needing to zoom in.

Given that CAD users prefer fast computers with big screens, how valuable can a CAD program on a Handheld or Pocket PC be? The answer is that it can be quite valuable. Of course, a Pocket PC is not a substitute for the more traditional workstations. Instead, it is the ideal tool for bringing drawings into the field. In some cases, the user simply needs to reference the information on a drawing, while in other cases, the user may need to edit the drawing or even create one from scratch. In a highly mobile environment, the portability of a Pocket PC can be preferable to a bulky laptop or an unwieldy set of paper blueprints.

PocketCAD and the "80/20 Rule"

In software development, the "80/20 Rule" states that 80% of the time only 20% of a program's features are used. The problem with this simplistic rule is that each user may use a different 20% of the program, so it's often difficult to decide which features to keep in applications designed for the Pocket PC or other smaller platforms. However, Arc Second's PocketCAD (www.pocketcad.com) is an excellent example of how to apply the 80/20 Rule properly. PocketCAD provides much of the functionality of AutoCAD LT in a compact, easy to use program that is available for both Handheld and Pocket PCs.

Although PocketCAD cannot open AutoCAD drawings itself, it does come with a translator plug-in for ActiveSync that converts AutoCAD drawings to PocketCAD format. Once this plug-in is installed, all you have to do is open File Explorer on your desktop PC and drag an AutoCAD drawing to the My Documents folder on your Pocket PC. ActiveSync then converts it to PocketCAD format automatically. Also, dragging PocketCAD files back to your PC converts them back to AutoCAD format.

PocketCAD provides only two dimensional drawing and editing capability, but it does retain any 3D information in your files. This allows you to copy a 3D file to PocketCAD, make some edits, and then copy the file back to your desktop PC (and AutoCAD format).

Up and running fast

If you are at all familiar with a CAD program, you'll be up and running fast with PocketCAD. Within a few minutes of installing the program on my Casio EG-800 Pocket PC and HP Jornada 720 Handheld PC, I had created my first simple drawing (see Screen 1), a right triangle using the intersection of two circles to define the location of the apex (the way I learned way back in high school drafting class.) The drawing literally took less than two minutes to create.

Screen 1: My first PocketCAD drawing was a right triangle using the intersection of two circles to define the location of the apex.