I just came accross this blog at Revitspace by Aaron Ward and thought I'd show some love by doing a repost.  Great info Aaron...I can't believe I missed the "My Measures & Dimensions App."  Now what they need to do is take it a step further and do something like what AutoDesk has done with their field verification photo software.  Where I can define a few dimensions on the pictures and it will give me the other dimensions!...that'd be a sweet iphone app!

REPOST::

        

After a bit play, I'm initially quite impressed, it seems to have most of the basic drafting tools required (line, pline, arc, offset, trim extend etc, my main grumble is that many of the tools that are required for a site viewer are actually missing such as no polyline area, no markup tools, and most importantly there is no way to add text to a drawing. Lack of these basic features makes it pretty much useless as a portable 'site' cad viewer editor. 

It is also let down by the interface, which justs doesent seem to work well enough to usable. It does use some of the multitouch features such as zoom, pan etc however it is poorly implemented, and does not seem to be tied into how the other commands work. On more than one occasion I found myself zoomed extents and unable to zoom back into the drawing area due to the way the interface seems to work, and even after reading the instructions I am still unable to delete a object. You almost get the feeling that this app was originally programmed for a non multi touch device then the multi touch added without any thinking of how multitouch will  work with the existing interface. 

It might be because I am a self admitted CAD hater since moving to the BIM darkside, but this app just doesent seem to have a Purpose. I am never going to design on a mobile device, and even if I could I would want all the featured required to do so, such as hatch, dimentions and text. If the app is designed as a on-site viewer/editor which it seems to be them why can't I check dimentions, check an area or even add mark-ups and text? 

   

The next app I downloaded was one I have had my eye on for a little while now. It's a app called 'goBIM' and is a mobile BIM viewer (imagine Autodesk Navisworks freedom viewer on your mobile). It's a paid app and is around £3.99.

On first entering the app I opened the example project that is included and had a play. Straight away I was impressed with the flawless interface and multitouch integration. Within minutes I could fly around the model, look around, select objects and get information about the selected object.

It has own file format, which you export from your BIM application via a plugin. This file format is based on the .obj format so is quite light with relativley small file size. The clever bit is that these files can then uploaded to your own server for access via goBIM. The goBIM app can then access these models via wireless, meaning that you don't need to store lots of models on your iPhone/ipad. The downside is of course that you will need wifi access.

Selecting a object in the model, allows us to interogate the elements getting it's name, construction phase, area, comments and volume etc. The one thing missing is Dimentioning (although this will be in version 1.1 apparently). Something I would like to see in a future release is a way to markup or comment on elements using goBIM whilst on site. That would make this the ultimate BIM viewer, especially on the iPAD. Imagine snagging a building by walking around and using an ipad to leave comments in the goBIM model. 

As a viewer goBIM is a powerful tool, and one I will be using often whilst on site visits etc. We are even considering specifying the weekly export and hosting of all our BIM models to the goBIM format so we can link into these anytime whilst on site.