Tablet PC Talk Forums

[Groomi]

I run a small design consultancy in the UK working mostly on commercial & healthcare projects. My primary roles are to design schemes from brief to tender stage - sometimes project managing the construction too.

I am considering the purchase of a Toshiba Portege M200 for the following reasons...

1) Meet client on site to take brief. Take digital photo of site, load onto Tablet and start sketching initial ideas / thoughts / concepts right there with the client!

2) Carry out measured survey of site drawing all the notes etc. straight onto the Tablet.

3) Back at office / hotel / train, draw up survey notes on appropriate CAD software.

4) Develop proposed schemes via sketching and CAD drawings - perhaps integrating them both.

5) During all this, take notes etc. in meetings straight onto tablet and perhaps merge with calendar for easy retrieval of minutes?

6) 3D walkthrough presentation to the client - get approval blah, blah.

7) Tender issue drawings and spec produced.

Sit back and play Grand Prix Legends, safe in the knowledge of another job well done!

Anyway, that's the intentions and the thought process behind the decision - does anyone have any opinions on my expectations of the product and the feasability of it actually being able to handle so many different tasks?

Would be really interested to hear your opinions.

Cheers.

[octopoos]

i just found this forum, but i'd like to add a few items...

i'm a preoject designer at a small (30-35) firm in hawaii. We're very interested in tablet pc's, so i've been researching them lately. (actually, part of my conditions of employment was to acquire a tablet pc as my workstation)

i like all your ideas. a few additional items i'd like to implement with the tabletpc:

1. marking up pdf files of cad sheets, whether it be in-house or with consultants. questions and comments, and even different trades could be in different colors.

2. with the notes, cutting and pasting images directly onto shets, like views of 3d models, product cutsheets, etc.

3. alias sketchbook pro is an intuitive sketching program that i want to integrate in our design process, minimizing loose papers and allowing instant ability to email renderings/images to teammembers from any location (w/o the need of a scanner) also a great pasttime program for doodling and ruminating...

4. of course, photoshop and painter could be used in a similar capacity.

5. we've been using sketchup more in our design process, a light, intuitive 3d modelling/"sketching" program, and this would be another useful application, especially with clients...

6. i purchased franklin covey's tablet planner, to try to "organize" my universe, and it's now obvious to me that it will only work effectively on a tablet pc vs a wacom tablet...we
ll see if i can get myself "organized"...

i'll see if there's anything else i can think of...

one product i wish they had out was a toshiba-size (and resolution) screen with the nvidia graphics card and 2gb ram option, but with the HP setup of detachable keyboard. for that matter, if the keyboard could be wirelessly connected to the slate, that would be better...i'm willing to use an external cd/dvd burner (since on the upside, i could upgrade the burner with time), but that will take some getting used to.

[dondoroux]

I've been using an HP TC1000 for about 8 months.
My business is restaurant design and manufacture.
My primary software tool is Adobe Acrobat 6
I use Microsft Journal (the graph template to measure commercial facilities)
Use a digital camera to photo the existing facility
I combine the photos, field condition sketches and notes into one PDF file.
When drawings are completed and I make a presentation with everything including a digital color board and drawings in a PDF.
For changes I use the stylus markup PDFs of Autocad plans etc.
Adobe Acrobat 6 is an awesome tool when using the stylus! Far better than Acrobat 5.
Of course everything is digital and in one file.
Hope this case study helps.