Tablet for viewing cad drawings.

[Joshct]

I've been asked to look into the possibility of a tablet for viewing cad drawings for work, my initial assumption is android would be the most flexible, however i know very little about it.



Has anyone had a similar criteria when picking a tablet? It needs to be robust, and if possible have an attachment we can use to fix it to a wall, but still move it about on a flexible arm (like in various electronics stores).

Could you provide me the names of a few tablets that might be suitable? I'm aware that not all apps are compatible with all android OS versions / hardware configurations, so that might be an issue?



Other solutions are point of sale machines,.. but they seem to be fairly bespoke so getting cad viewing software may be a pain, or an all in one pc to mount on a wall..


Anyway thanks if you can help.

 

[Myshra]

As I know close to zero about CAD I'll open with the obvious - does Android have a CAD file displayer you plan to use? I know AutoCAD WS exists but I have no idea if it's the right one you need, this is also on iOS too.

As for mounting to a wall/arm... ipad would be easiest here as there are many flexible arms available for it. You can use any decent case with these from my experience, my sister manages to let her ipad survive in afghanistan in a case so I figure your workshop should be OK.

 

[sarge78]

I'd consider 10" too small for displaying detailed drawings. (Autocad WS should run fine on all recent Android tablets btw)

Check out the Samsung Series 7 Slate for something a bit bigger or ask Steve Ballmer where he got his 80" W8 office tablet.

 

[Joshct]

I'd done a few google searches that came up with various cad viewing apps, such as AutoCAD Ws, i'm assuming at least ONE of them will fit the job (worst case scenario we redeploy the tablet elsewhere with different criteria later).

Knowing it's available for Ipad is useful, my first thought towards android was partially due to price, but if for convenience ipad is the bed route i'll explain that in the meeting.

Final note, our users are animals, expect it to be dropped, a lot, but i know theres sturdy ipad cases out there XD

I'd consider 10" too small for displaying detailed drawings. (Autocad WS should run fine on all recent Android tablets btw)

Check out the Samsung Series 7 Slate for something a bit bigger or ask Steve Ballmer where he got his 80" W8 office tablet.

I mentioned the size, but i do as i'm told and the management are keen on the idea... as long as they can zoom in they think it'll work. The issue being is it's for the sign building department of our company, and they don't bother going to check the cad drawings (paper versions) and so make mistakes (guesses), hence the need... even if only 10".. but i'm looking at other options too like all in one pcs.. But i shall look at your suggestion thanks

 

[paradigm]

I guess the benefit here of the iPad 3 will be the retina display.

This will mean that even zoomed out you'll be able to see detail.