Description
Key Learnings
- Learn how to implement AutoCAD web app in your workflow.
- Learn how to collaborate with non-AutoCAD users in DWG format.
- Learn about mobile apps that will improve your experience in the field.
- Learn accessories and tips that can help you solve common problems encountered in the field.
Speaker
- JLJim LaPierJim LaPier is the owner of IMPACT Designs, LLC, a consulting firm based in Maryland. Jim has worked with AutoCAD software for 18 years in varying disciplines, including commercial and residential architectural design, mechanical engineering, materials handling, and telecommunications. He is skilled in customization, efficiency, and speed, and he is adept in information technology. Eventually Jim became an Expert Elite member thanks to his contributions to AutoCAD for Mac. Previously Jim worked as a genius at an Apple Inc. Retail Store, becoming a certified Apple technician. Jim combines paper-and-pencil drafting knowledge with his love of advanced technology, both Mac and PC-based. Jim currently travels around the country giving workshops and classes on AutoCAD for Mac software and using Apple computers in today's design offices.
JIM LAPIER: Welcome to this lecture on Autodesk University for "On the Road Again, Using Apple's iPad in the Field." My name is Jim LaPier. I'm owner and operator of IMPACT Designs, and I'm here today to talk to you about using the iPad out in the field when you're out and about, trying to get your work done.
So we're going to focus on a couple of different areas of using the iPad. We're going to start with how you actually choose the best iPad that's going to be for your use case, talk about models, the storage, the actual physical size of the iPad itself. We're going to talk about what accessories you can use to really help you out in the field. So things like cases, screen protectors, stylus like the Apple Pencil, things you can do for power, power banks, and so forth, and then any other dongles that might help out, again, when you're in the field.
Then we're going to talk a little bit about the settings of the operating system, which things can help you out to make you more productive. We're also going to talk about some OS-specific features, so things like multitasking, taking screenshots, gestures to navigate around and get around in your apps. And then we're going to talk about some native apps, mostly the native files app that's built into iOS. And then we're going to talk about some third-party apps that you can use like AutoCAD Mobile, A360, and then some other third-party apps like Concepts, Trace, and so forth to help you really use your iPad.
So, let's get started. So I want to first start off with actually choosing which iPad. Now, again, this particular lecture is going to be iPad-focused. There are other tablets out there. I just find that the iPad tends to be the most well-rounded.
It's the most versatile. The most apps tend to be written for this, but there are Android apps and so forth. But if you're looking for a course specific for those, there are other online lectures that you can go look at. This one's going to be specific for the iPad and the different iPads.
So the first question you have to ask is which iPad do I get. There are actually three different ones, and, again, this is just the current release. So you may want to go to the website and check out any to see what the current models are and their current specifications. But in general there are typically three different lines of iPad. There's the iPad itself, the iPad Air, and the iPad Pro.
I'm mostly going to focus and the demonstration is going to be on an iPad Pro. But there are other benefits to the other different models and so forth. So you can see that the prices kind of go up. So the basic iPad is the cheapest, and then it goes up to the most expensive, which include the iPad Pros.
So each of these has different sized screens. So the iPad, again, has a 10.2. It's a retina. The iPad Air has a 10.9 screen, and then this is the 11-inch. There is a 12-inch or 12.9-inch that also kind of factors in here, but I just want to talk about the general models for the moment.
So the cheapest one obviously has the oldest chip, A13 Bionic, versus the current iPad Air has the M1 chip. The current iPad Pro also has the M1 chip, which is one of the faster chips. And then you've got things like storage that you need to consider.
You can see here the camera specs. So the camera gets progressively better the more expensive the device. And we also have the connector that's on the bottom of the iPad, and this is rather important, especially when we talk a little bit later about accessories and connectivity. Right now, the iPad itself, the basic iPad, only has a Lightning connector.
So that means you can charge it with a Lightning cord, the same one you can for your phone. That's about it. With the USB-C connector, this is a true USB-C connector, which means not only can you charge it with any USB-C connector, but you can also use dongles, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Things like HDMI, ethernet, and so forth can actually hardwire your iPad into a local network.
The original iPad just has 4G currently. The iPad Air and the iPad Pro offer 5G wireless. The original iPad also works with the Apple Pencil first generation. And then the iPad Air and the iPad Pro work with the second-generation Apple Pencil.
So, again, we've got capacities here and so forth. But this is probably the best place to go and just to sit down and look at the differences between these devices. You can see battery and power pretty even across the board.
They all support the smart keyboards and so forth. Cameras get progressively better. All offer video recording, HD, and slow-mo. Front camera is pretty good but obviously better the higher up that you go. These are all factors that you want to consider when you're looking at the iPads.
Again, I'm mostly going to focus on the iPad Pro. So if that is the one that you decide to go with, there are actually two different sizes of the iPad Pro, the 11-inch and the 12.9-inch. I currently have both of these, and I can tell you from experience I like the iPad Pro 12.9-inch for more office-based work if you're going to be sitting and drawing, you're going to be doing markups, and you're going to be working nothing completely stationary but you're mostly going to be stationary with your iPad.
It's great for media consumption. I want to talk a little bit later about screen mirroring. It's also really nice to have that slightly bigger screen. However, it can get a little unwieldy if it's something that you're carrying around in your hand all the time.
So if you're out in the field at a job site and you're carrying this thing around for 2, 3, 4 hours at a time, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch-- as we come down here and we look at the specs, we can see the overall sizes, the dimensions. And we can see that the 11-inch is 1 pound, just over 1 pound. And this is about a half a pound heavier.
So half a pound doesn't sound like much. But when you're carrying it for two or three hours in one hand while you're writing on it, I can get rather-- it can get a little weighty. And it is a little obviously unwieldy, the size of it. But is definitely a bit bigger, so it's something you want to keep in mind.
I tend to prefer this for media consumption, again, being stationary at an office, at a desk, where you can kind of sit in one spot. And it's really great for the screen real estate as far as drawing, marking up things, and so forth, if that's more your role, marking up, drawings, adding notations and so forth. If you're slightly more artistic and you're actually going to be doing sketches, and architectural sketches, and things like that, screen real estate is really great, and the screen is nice and clear, and it's very bright.
However, if you're going to be in the field or you want something that's a little bit more portable, this is still plenty big enough for most people. It's still got a ton of screen real estate. It's just a little bit smaller and a little bit easier to manage if it's something you're going to be in the field using quite a bit. You can see they offer a very similar storage capacities.
Everything else is fairly similar. Like I said, the screen on this is a little bit bigger, obviously. So it's a little bit more pixels. They've got the liquid Retina XDR versus the liquid retina display.
They both essentially run at 600-nits brightness. This one does have a max brightness of 1,000 nits, which can be nice if you're going to be in the indirect sunlight or you're out in the field. This can be a little bit nicer.
For the most part, these are pretty equal. It's just a matter of you can see everything else pretty much the same between these. It's just a matter of the screen real estate, the screen size. I believe the power is-- one has just a little bit more battery life just because of the sheer size of the iPad.
So aside from the physical size of the device, we also have to think about some other features of the device itself, things like storage capacity. Now, depending on how many photos, videos, that you're going to be using out in the field, again, it's an often overlooked kind of feature of these is they're great demo models. They're great for showing clients different photos and different samples and things like that. But the more of those photos you add onto the device, obviously, the more space they take up.
So the storage is not expandable in any way. There are no card slots or anything like that. So the size that you-- the storage size, the capacity that you order, is what you're stuck with. Now, you can, again, use a dongle, and you can offload photos or view photos that are on SD cards and things like that using a dongle. But it's not the most elegant solution.
So, again, you want to make sure that the size that you purchase is going to be fine for two to three years worth of use. Also, the capacity, there are some differences. Apple doesn't really publish the RAM specs for the different models.
But the one terabyte and the two terabyte I believe actually have higher RAM specifications. Again, this is something that changes with each model. So you want to do a little research online and see what the RAM specifications are for the models that you're looking at. But typically the one terabyte, two terabyte do have actually a little bit more RAM included with them in addition to the higher capacity.
Another thing that affects the capacity or your choice for capacity is cellular. So all the models are Wi-Fi capable. They all have the latest Wi-Fi. However, they also offer cellular models.
Now, if you buy a cellular model, you can activate that with whatever your cellular provider is. Here in the States, it could be AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and so forth. They can roam internationally.
However, if you have a cellular model, you don't have to activate the cellular chip or the cellular portion of this. It does have a SIM card. You can just use it as a Wi-Fi and have that kind of in your back pocket or available if you want to.
However, if you buy the Wi-Fi-only model, that's it. It cannot be converted, or you can't add anything later to turn it into a cellular model. You can use things like phone's hotspot and so forth, the same way you would connect a computer or a laptop to your phone's hotspot. And you can use that with the Wi-Fi models, and that's perfectly fine, but it is a little bit more convenient I've found.
I've had both models, and I do find that the cellular the model is just a little bit easier when you don't have to pull out your phone or pull out another device, turn on the hotspot, and then activate, and connect, and so forth. So it is nice having that cellular model kind of built in, but it does add a cost upfront. So it's usually about $130 ballpark to have the cellular model versus the Wi-Fi-only model. And, again, there's whatever monthly charge based on whatever your wireless carrier is for that service. And then they also have data cap, obviously, that you have to pay attention to as well.
So that said, that can affect which capacity that you purchase. So if all of your files and so forth are going to be out in the cloud and you've got cellular, you've got good connection, you can obviously download and access those files stored in the cloud any time that you want. However, if you don't have good Wi-Fi cellular connection, if you're out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a field and in the field in the middle of a field, then obviously it's going to be a little bit harder to get some of that information out. So the higher capacity can be leveraged for kind of preloading or downloading a bunch of apps-- I'm sorry-- a bunch of files on the local device so that you have access to them even when you don't have a good signal. So something to keep in mind.
So once we have the iPad that we want, we know which model we want, I'm not going to worry about color, obviously. You can choose whatever color you want. It doesn't affect anything.
You can have it engraved, if you like, when you purchase it, which can be handy if you've got a company device. You may want to have a company phone number or something like that or a company name engraved on the back so that you know it's your property. But the next thing once we have this great iPad is to start thinking about accessories and how we're going to carry this thing.
So one of the first accessories that we need to look at is a case. So there are literally thousands, tens of thousands of different cases. I'm not endorsing any specific case. I'm not being endorsed by any of these. These are just cases that I've used in the past or cases that I've found and things that I want you to consider when you're buying a case, no matter who that happens to be from.
So I like the more rugged cases, especially, again, if it's something I'm going to be carrying in the field with me at all times, if it's going to be dropped, if there's going to be dust. These are things that you have to think about if you're going to be out at a job site where there might be sheet rock dust or so forth, or you're in a woodshop where there's going to be dust, or if you're just going to be out somewhere where it might get dropped doing field visits and so forth on finished buildings. Even if there's not a spec of dust anywhere, it could be dropped, could fall out of your hand, could be knocked, the screen could be punctured. So there are things that you need to consider.
So a case like this one-- and again, whether you're buying cases, pay very, very close attention to the model itself. The models change every year or so, and the size changes every so often pretty regularly. And so a case from three years ago that was made for a model three years ago probably is not going to fit the current model case. So make sure that whatever case you're buying specifically says iPad Pro 11-inch third-gen, or latest model, or whatever the year happens to be. So make sure that you're getting the correct case for your particular model.
And, again, iPad won't necessarily fit iPad Air. And that won't necessarily fit the iPad Pro, so forth. So make sure you're getting the ones specific to your iPad.
So, again, there are things you want to consider. Does it cover all the corners? Those are the-- when you drop an iPad, typically it ends up landing on a corner, and that's one of the first things to crack. So you want to make sure that it has good corner protection.
Some of them actually have-- so this one actually has sort of two cases built into one. So you've got sort of a rubberized case, and then there's sort of a hard-shell plastic case that goes around that. And inside that hard-shell case-- and this is, again, a little bit something that you want to consider is stylus storage. We'll talk about the stylus in just a minute, but obviously you want to be able to store any of these accessories that you're going to be taking with you all the time to make sure you've got some place to put these things.
So aside from the physical case, the physical protection that it's going to offer, we also have to think a little bit about, again, how are you going to carry this thing when you're out in the field. So the case overall that I like-- and you can actually use this with just about any case, but I rather like this sort of utility latch system. And there are some other ones as well that I'll show you.
But the nice thing about a case or a system like this-- so this particular one actually fits around an existing case. So you don't have to use any particular brand or model case or anything like that. You can just buy a nice rugged case and then literally wrap this around whatever that case happens to be. It's just got some elastic bands that go around the corners.
But the really handy thing about this-- again, this is something that you're going to be carrying in the field for three or four hours at a time, taking notes on. You're going to be holding this thing with one hand. So having something that you can physically-- I've got one here that you can physically get in and have your hand kind of holding this in the background is going to be really, really handy.
The other thing that I really like about this is the lanyard and the other clip. So you can kind of see here it's got these little loops here in different locations. This one also comes with a little accessory bag, which might be a little overkill depending on what it is you're actually doing. But, again, think about what you're going to be doing out in the field, the same way you would have a paper and a pencil. Where are you going to put these things when you're climbing up and down a ladder, or when you're going through doors, or when you've got a tape measure in your hand? Where is the iPad going to sit?
So having something like this, a shoulder strap that you can strap around the iPad and throw it over your shoulder, throw it around your neck, so that you can climb a ladder, pull out a tape measure, or whatever it is you need to do can be really, really helpful in the field. So, again, whether you get one with a strap or not, definitely look for one that has some sort of a hand grip, something that's going to make it a little bit more comfortable. If you can't find something like this or you're not interested in something like this, there are also some other-- there are, obviously, again, this one you can see same basic premise.
Now, the nice thing about this one is you can see it's got the pencil holder built right there into the back of it so you can actually hold your stylus right in the back. This one also has-- you can see there on the right it actually has a little stand so you can stand it up when you're not actively using it. So there are dozens of these kind of little clips, stands, and so forth that you can find online.
So, again, I'm not endorsing any of these per se. I'm not being endorsed by any of these either. But just so you know, these are the kind of things that you want to look at. How are you going to hold your iPad in the field? What are you going to do when your hands are busy?
Where can you set the iPad down, or can you strap it around your shoulder, throw it over your shoulder, around your neck, whatever it is, so you can use your hands freely when you need to and then pick it right back up? Briefcases are great, but you're constantly in and out, and it's just not as convenient as something like this might be.
Another thing aside from the case itself that we need to think about is protecting the screen. So the screen itself is obviously the most fragile part of this iPad. So there are-- again, thinking about how you're going to be using this out in the field. So if you want not just a hard screen protector, something that's going to protect the screen from scratches, but if you're going to be in direct sunlight, do you want something that's going to matte finish or an anti-glare finish so it's going to be easier to see the screen? You also want something that's not going to make the screen fuzzy, so be careful with the anti-glare screens.
Screen protectors can cut down a little bit on the fidelity of the screen. So be careful with that. And then another factor to consider is how you're going to be using the iPad as far as drawing and so forth. When I was talking a few minutes ago about if you're going to be drawing on the iPad, you're doing architectural sketches, just like you would on bumwad, if that's what you're really going to be looking to use this for. That's great, and there are screen protectors that actually help.
The idea is they actually give the screen sort of-- instead of it being just a very smooth glass like it is out of the box, they aim to give this a little bit of sort of a tooth or a resistance so that it feels more like paper, like the tooth of a piece of paper. So they give a little bit of resistance. You can feel it. That's slightly different.
I have used these. I do have this on my smaller iPad. I can tell the difference. Not sure that it's necessarily exactly like drawing on paper, but I do think that it does help. And it also is a screen protector, which obviously helps protect from fingerprints and screens. And it also is a matte finish or an anti-glare finish, so it does help when I'm in sunlight with that.
Now, there are some other brands and so forth. So, again, I'm not sponsoring any particular brand here, but there are different versions of this. So you can go find one that feels like paper or paper-feeling screen protector if you're going to be doing a lot of artistry, sketches, and markups and so forth if you find that the glass is just a little too smooth and it doesn't quite work right.
So let's see here. So, again, if you find another case that you like, this is just a singular strap that you can use that you can put directly behind the iPad. It just attaches with small-- not quite sure how much I like the idea of the metal right up against the iPad. But there are other models that just have rubber or straps and so forth that you can find. But if you look for, again, just straps, iPad straps, and so forth, I'm sure you'll be able to find something that'll suit your needs so that you can get through what you need to.
One of the next things I want to talk about is over here. There we go. One of the other accessories that I really want to talk about is the Apple Pencil. This is kind of a no-brainer. So this is the current model here.
If you're going to get an iPad and you're going to use it out in the field, whether you're taking notes, whether you're doing any drawing or anything like that, the Apple Pencil is one of my highest recommended accessories that you can get. It's usually the very first thing I recommend people get when they get an iPad is getting an Apple Pencil. The stylus is incredibly useful.
So it's actually-- and depending on which one you get-- so the Apple Pencil second-generation, again, that works with the iPad Air and the iPad Pro. Has a magnetic attachment, so it actually snaps to the side of your iPad. So you can see that right there at the top there.
It also charges when it's magnetically snapped into that. It's kind of nice also if you do have more than one iPad or you're sharing a pencil for an office. You have a couple of iPads and only one or two pencils. All you really have to do is snap the pencil to another iPad and let it sit for just a second.
It will come up and ask if you want to pair. And switching the pencil between these iPads is pretty quick. So just a couple of seconds, and you can pair it to a new iPad.
So the first generation, a little bit clunky by the newer standards. Pairing and charging is via Lightning. So this actually has a cap that comes off, and there's a little Lightning connector. So you would plug this into the bottom of your iPad to charge and to connect.
Again, fairly straightforward to jump between different iPads, if you want to be able to connect it to different iPads even with the first generation. But second generation is definitely a bit better. Now, the other thing that both models have, first and second, is what's called tilt and pressure sensitivity. And I'll show that here in just a moment when I talk about the native apps and the apps that you can use.
But what that means is when you're holding the pencil, if you actually tilt it, it'll actually understand and register that. So if you're drawing in an app that that's actually using a pencil, a crayon, or marker, it will actually understand when you press a little bit harder, just like you would with a marker or a pencil. It will actually draw a thicker or harder line-- not a harder line, but it'll actually draw a darker line. And if you lift it up just a little bit, it'll actually understand that.
So it's got that very natural pressure sensitivity like you would find on a pencil. And then, again, if you tilt it-- so if you're using a pencil or marker and you tilt, you actually get a wider line, or you can actually do shading holding the pencil kind of on its side. It'll actually register that, and I'll show you guys that in just a moment.
The second generation also has double-tap to change tools. So what that means is on the side of the pencil all you do is give it a little double tap there. And it'll switch between-- it's actually specific to whatever app that you're using. But it can switch between things like eraser or a different marker, or you can do undo, or most of the apps allow you to change it to be whatever action that you want it to be with.
But, again, you can see this is the iPad Pros use this. And then the current generation iPad Air and the iPad Mini as well all use the Apple Pencil second generation. Now, there are other styluses. So, again, not being endorsed by anybody.
So these are all Bluetooth. I highly, highly recommend a Bluetooth-connected stylus, whatever one you get. The nice thing about the Bluetooth connected is what's called wrist suppression. So what that means is in the past when you've got a stylus, sort of a more basic stylus like this one, which is just a-- I don't want to call it a dumb stylus, but it's just a simple stick with its-- it's got its little capacitive tip onto it that allows you to tap on the screen and move around the screen.
The problem is the iPad can't differentiate between that and your hand. So you can't rest your hand down on the screen. However, with a Bluetooth stylus, whether it's one from a third party or the Apple Pencil, you can rest your hand directly on the screen and draw, just like you would on a piece of paper. And the stylus is smart enough to know that it's generating the line, and the iPad will actually ignore.
It's called wrist suppression. Will actually ignore your hand, your wrist, or your other fingers while you're using the iPad so that your cursor isn't jumping. You're not getting all these weird lines. It's actually very, very natural way to write.
In the past, if you're using a stylus, you kind of have to hold it up and make sure your hand is not actively on it. But you can actually have a very natural movement or a very natural hand position using a Bluetooth stylus. So I highly recommend at least a Bluetooth stylus, but, again, personally, I've used other ones. I think the Apple Pencil just tends to work a little bit better with the iPad, since it is negative.
One thing you might notice-- it's kind of hard to see here, but you can notice on my Apple Pencil I've got this little clip here. Again, this is just a little accessory that I found quite useful. So you can find these anywhere, Amazon and so forth, but it's just a little pencil clip. If you look for pen clip or pencil clip, and it just literally kind of slides on or off. It's just this little guy here.
The nice thing about it is you can see they've got kind of an opening in the background. And that's supposed to be so you can widen or close them in. But also if you find one that works, the Apple Pencil has actually got a flat spot on it. So you can see here this little kind of indentation here is actually a flat spot and serves a couple of purposes.
That's the surface that you actually connect it to the iPad with. It also helps it so it doesn't roll away on your desk because it's got a flat spot. But if you do get a clip like this, that opening can actually sit right there on that flat spot so it doesn't interfere with the charging or anything like that. But if you've ever stuck a pencil in your shirt or anything like that or you've got it in a briefcase, you know that without a-- this little clip there can kind of end up anywhere. So I really, really like these little clips just to kind of stick it my shirt and make sure that it's going to stay up and stay accessible.
So we've got our case, we've got our screen protector, and we've got our stylist now. So we're ready to rock and roll. However, we're out in the field for a little while. There's a potential we could run out of power.
Now, most of the iPads screen on time and even something like actively playing a video can be 10 hours straight of just playing video, which is one of the more demanding things on an iPad. But there are times where you can't get around to a charger, you're in the field for multiple days, where you need power. Again, the nice thing about using the USB-C or the Air or the Pro is you can go buy a power brick.
So, again, these come in multiple shapes and sizes, ridiculous denominations, as far as the milliamp-hours and so forth. You can do a Google search for the milliamp-hour battery the battery capacity of the specific iPad that you get. Each one is a little bit different depending on the size and the model. But I would highly recommend getting a power brick that can charge your iPad from-- that has enough milliamp-hours to charge your iPad from empty to full at least twice, just so you have something just in case.
And these lose power as well. And why I say twice is because if you've got a power brick and it's sitting in your briefcase for three, four, or five weeks, some of these can actually lose a full cycle of charge in a couple of weeks if they're not being actively used. So it is something to keep in mind. You want to be able to charge your iPad twice in that time so that even if you do lose a little bit of charge because you haven't used it in a week or two, you still have enough to charge your iPad all the way to full. So keep that in mind when you're looking at these power bricks.
One other accessory and the last accessory that I want to talk about-- and this is the nice thing, again, about getting one of the iPads that has the USB-C connector instead of the Lightning connector-- is it is a true USB-C connector. It's a true USB-C port.
If you get the iPad Pro, it's actually a Thunderbolt 4 port, which means you transfer data ridiculously fast. But for all the USB-C, it means you can use USB-C dongles, and adapters, and cables to connect the iPad in other ways. So, for example, something like this.
So you can see this particular unit has HDMI, USB 3, and ethernet as well as a card reader. So, again, you can use a card reader to offload photos directly from a digital camera onto your iPad in the field. If you're at a network or you're at a location that doesn't really have good Wi-Fi but they've got ethernet connection that you can use, you can actually hook this up and get gigabit ethernet through your iPad, directly into your iPad, which is really, really handy.
You've got HDMI. You can hook this directly up to a TV, whether it's a TV in a conference room or a hotel room. If you want to show somebody some plans or something like that, you can do all of that using a dongle like this or adapters. And it doesn't have to be-- this is obviously a multi-port dongle, so it's a little bit bigger. But you buy individual USB-C to HDMI, USB-C to ethernet, and so forth, or cables that'll do the same thing.
Now, the iPad also-- again, this is operating system-based, but it's a feature that you can actually use a mouse or trackpad to kind of control a small pointer on the iPad screen as well. Not going to get too much into that today, but it is a feature. So if you do have a dongle like this that has USB 3 or USB A ports, then you can hook that up directly to your iPad and actually use a mouse to kind of control a couple of things in the accessibility settings. So very, very handy little tool to have.
So that's everything for the accessories. We know which iPad we've got. We've got all our accessories. We're ready to go get out in the field and get to work.
So I want to talk a little bit about things you can actually do on the iPad to move around. So there's some basic gestures that I want to talk about. And then, again, we're going to move into some multitasking and some stuff, and then we'll talk a little bit about the apps that you can use.
So if you go to Apple's support website, you can actually just do a search for iPad gestures and so forth. But you've got tap, touch and hold, swipe, scrolls, and zooms. Should be fairly familiar with this for most devices.
These are specific to the iPad. So I'm going to show you these each in just a moment. But the ones you really want to kind of pay attention to-- so there is no home button on the newer iPads. So, essentially, you've got three buttons.
You've got a top button, and then you've got a volume up and a volume down, and that's it. So there is no home button. It's just those three physical buttons.
So if you want to go back to the home screen, if you're in an app and you want to close it, the idea is just start your finger just off the bottom of the screen and swipe up. That'll take you back to the home screen. The access controls-- again, this is just like an iPhone if you have that.
Swipe down from the top right corner, and that'll bring up the access controls, where you can jump to the camera, you can adjust the brightness, turn airplane mode on, and so forth. The app switcher-- so this is kind of similar to the going home. Swipe. Start your finger just off the bottom of the screen, but you're going to stop and hold when you get to about the middle of the screen. That'll open up the app switcher.
You can switch between open apps along the bottom. I prefer a different gesture for this that I'll show you, which is actually just more fingers swiping back and forth on your iPad to do the same thing. You can open up the dock, which is always helpful to open up apps when we start doing multitasking. There is Siri, just holding down the top button.
There is an accessibility shortcut. Essentially, triple-clicking the top button can actually jump directly to an accessibility shortcut like inverting the screen, maybe if you're in a very, very bright location and you can't really see everything because you've got a white background. This is different than dark mode. This actually inverts all the colors on the screen.
So that accessibility feature for those with visual impairment, but it's also very helpful if you're in a very bright location. This actually inverts everything, white the black, and so forth. Images can get a little funny, but it's still quite useful if you're in a very bright location.
Screenshot, we're going to talk about as we're going through the operating system part. But I use this very, very often in marking up photos or marking up notes or emails and so forth. Take a quick screenshot, use the Apple Pencil as a stylus, and you can actually mark up your drawings. And there's restarting and starting your iPad.
So when we talk about multitasking-- I'll demonstrate this in just a moment, but I want to run through some of the different features or terms that they use for this. So, enabling the multitasking. So we have three different types of multitasking modes here.
So there is Split View, Slide Over, and then Center Window. Center Window doesn't come up all that often. There are only certain built-in apps-- usually, just the built in apps that really use this. So I'm going to focus on split view and slide over.
What these allow you to do in split view-- you can have two apps appear side by side, and you can jump back and forth between the two apps. So you can visibly see them both on two different apps at the same time. You can also store those apps in these sort of split view screens so you can go back.
If you're always using notes and mail, you can kind of have those open all the time as a pair of apps. And then you can kind of save that split view screen to go back to when you need to. With slide over, it's more of a pop-up kind of a thing for an app, but you can actually combine these two.
So slide over, again, it's a little bit more of like a floating window. And I'll show you guys this in just a moment on the actual iPad. But it's sort of a floating window that you can move either the left or the right side of the screen. But using these two together, you can actually have three different apps open at the same time. You can have two apps open in split view, and then you can open up a slide over app and actually kind of be moving it back and forth as you're working. So you can have three active applications open and on the screen at the same time and be interacting with them.
So these are directions on how to access both of those. Most of it has to do with when you're in the app. So you can see there this is actually the split view. You see these three little dots that appear on the app. This is how you're going to control and be able to move back and forth between those different apps.
So with that in mind, let's go ahead and-- OK, here we are. There we are.
So this is a duplicate of my iPad screen. So I'm going to be looking down just a little bit because I've got my iPad here in front of me. So I apologize I won't be looking at you for this part.
So, again, we've got the basic, the iPad screen here. So I talked about those, the gestures. So I'm going to start my finger just off the bottom of the screen, and you see the result here. You can't see my screen, but that's the app window so you can see all of your open apps. And you can just kind of scroll back and forth between these, and then I'll tap outside of that to get back to this home screen.
And then there's the swipe from the top right corner. So there's the control panel, screen brightness, and so forth. You can kind of control that. It's not really going to show up on the mirroring there, but you kind of get the idea.
You can also open up the camera, turn on dark mode if I like, and so forth. Also swipe down from the top for different notifications and so forth, if you swipe down from the top middle. But let's go ahead, and I want to talk a little bit about the apps themselves and the apps that you can use, the native apps built into this. And I'll use that to show you some of the multitasking.
So the main one that I want to talk about here is files. So this is often overlooked. It's on all the iOS devices. It's on the iPhones, and it's on the iPad. But this is very equivalent to what you find Finder on your Mac or Windows Explorer on the Windows side.
What this allows you to do is manage your files and also access your files from any cloud storage or any other storage location that you have. So one of the things I usually say when you first get your iPad is go download all of the apps, the native apps for any cloud storage services that you're going to use. So Dropbox. Google Drive.
I have a Synology server, so I have their cloud drive app. But any of those features that you need or that you want, any of those cloud services, go download the native app and sign in. That way, those locations are available any time you want to go share a file, whether it's in an email, an image, or in this case in the Files app you can actually see all of these show up over here on the left side of the screen.
And if I click the little three dots there that are up at the top, you can actually scan documents. I'll talk about that in a moment. Connect to a server, but you can also edit the sidebar. So doing that, you can actually turn on and off these different available apps, anything that you might find-- any apps that it's going to find on your device, anything that you're signed into. So you can use those, and you can go log in to those.
So iCloud drive obviously is Apple service, but, again, Google Drive, Dropbox, whatever it is that you want. From here, you can either view your files in icon mode or a list mode, using the little icon up here. You can also-- if you click and hold-- so I'm just going to put my finger on one of these and kind of click and hold for a second. And I get this little pop-up menu that has all these different things that you can do with this particular file.
So I can get info, find out when it was edited, and so forth. I can rename it. I can also compress it.
So I can select multiple objects, multiple items, and I can compress them into a zip file that I can email out. So if you've got 20 images, you can actually compress all those, zip those together in a zip file, and then email them out. There's quick look and duplicating it, copy, move.
Share is where you're going to go if you want to open this up in a different app. So down here at the bottom, we've got Share right there. If I click that, this is where it's going to let me run through and print it, copy it, or open it up in a different application, so whatever application that I like. So, again, the Files app can open zip files, and it can create zip files, which is incredibly handy, in my opinion.
And again, you can connect to different servers, so web.dev, and FTP, and things like that. You can add your own server information in the locations. But, again, you can also go through and grab any cloud storage that you're already using. Just download the app, the native app, sign into it, and it will appear over here in Locations. And if it doesn't automatically, again, click the little three dots up here at the top and then click Edit Sidebar, and it should show up. You just might need to enable it down here so that it shows up there. OK?
Now, real quick, one thing that-- it does have scan documents. So, again, your iPad has a camera on it, and they've improved the software dramatically over the years so that you can actually be in the field, have a piece of paper, and you can actually scan this document. Take a picture of it. It'll actually adjust the parallax effect, so the perspective where it's kind of the paper is not square.
And it'll actually make sure that everything looks right and proper and flatten it so that it looks just like you placed it on a scanner back at the office. And then you can save that file in any folder that you want. Upload it. Download it. Print it.
Do whatever you want, but that's right here from the Files app. So incredibly useful. While I have this app open, I want to-- again, if I swipe up-- so I'm going to try and mimic this here with my cursor. But start just off the bottom of the screen and just swipe up.
So if I do that-- if I do kind of low, I end up with a doc. So this is where I can open up additional apps if I like. If I go kind of in the middle-- so I just went off and kind of stopped in the middle-- this is where I can open up any other applications that I want. So what I want to do now is I want to open up the Notes app. I want to show you some of those other features that we talked about with the pencil.
So I'm going to click up here at the top, these three little dots. So these are the windows that I can add. So I can either add another window. I can move this into split screen, and then I can go find another application that I want to open.
So in this case, I want to open Notes. So you can see it split the screen, so I've got the cloud drive over here on the left, the Files app. Over here on the left and on the right, I've got the Notes app. So now I can-- let's say I want to open up this PDF here, this plan.
So I can actually come in here and take a look. And then using my Apple Pencil, I can come over here on the Notes app and I can actually draw some notes out. So, again, I'm just writing directly on the screen. And remember I talked about the pressure.
So there are some different pencils down here at the bottom. I'm using this one over here, the one that looks like an actual pencil. So, again, this is actually smart enough to know if I'm kind of holding this light and then press a little bit harder. See the line gets a little bit darker.
If I hold this on its side, I can actually shade just like an actual pencil, and then I can rotate it up. So all I'm doing is just kind of doing this little motion here as I'm shading in. And then I can go more to a point and then back on its side.
So you can actually do whatever you like with this, and then we've got little things here. So eraser, I can erase this. Got a little cut here so I can actually cut this and move this around the screen somewhere else if I like.
There is a ruler kind of a function here. So this is-- again, this is pretty rudimentary just in the app. But now I can take this and I can actually draw lines. I'm just moving this with my fingers. I can rotate that around and get a specific degree and can actually use this just like a ruler to kind of draw some shapes here.
So, again, just with the Apple Pencil and the built-in Notes app. So I've got my two apps here, and notice there's a bar right here in the middle of the screen. So I can actually hold and drag that and just move over. So you can kind of split the screen here.
So if I want a little bit more room for my notes or if I want a little bit more room for the plan, I can just drag that back and forth in the split screen view. And, again, you've got-- and then if I want to take this and move it to the third option over here, I just click on the three little dots. And I can move it over here to the third. So there's the floating.
So now I can just drag this to the left or to the right, wherever I want it to be. And, again, when I'm dragging it, I'm just grabbing these three little dots and dragging it over to where I want it to be. So now I've got the plan in the background here that I can use. And then whenever I'm done this all, I have to do is just drag it off the side of the screen.
You can see it actually pops up here for just a moment. If I want to bring it back, I'll have to do is start my finger right just off the side of the screen and bring it back in. And there it is. Again, right now, it's floating.
If I drag it up to the top-- so I'm grabbing the three little dots, and I'm just going to drag it more up to the top of the screen. That should let me-- there we go. I just drug it a little bit over to the side of the screen, and then I'm back in that split view.
So, again, now I can go back and forth. I can even swap these if I want, but this allows me to have any two apps that support it open at the same time. So this includes AutoCAD Mobile. So I can have AutoCAD Mobile open on one side and a PDF of a plan open on another.
Now, in the Files app, if you notice up in the top right corner, there's a little markup tool icon. So if I tap on that, I get those same tools, those same drawing tools that I have in Notes. They exist pretty much in the entire operating system.
So now I can come in here, and I can start marking up anything that I like in this drawing. So I can say we need to remove a thread. This is saved in that PDF file. So I can click Done, and there we go.
Again, open it back up, and I can scroll up and down through this to get back and forth to whatever page I need and whatever markups that I want to go ahead and add to my PDF. So, incredibly useful, and this is again all built into the operating system. So I don't have to download any apps or do anything. This is all just part of the operating system that we can use.
So I'm going to start my finger just off the bottom of the screen and bring it up so that I can see the app switcher there. And then I'm going to tap kind of in the outside. So the Notes app is great with the Apple Pencil, especially useful if you're just trying to do some quick notes and things like that. You can type in that as well.
But the other thing that I want to look at are some third-party apps, and we'll talk about AutoCAD in just a moment. But we've got a couple of apps. These are the two that I tend to use the most.
So if you are, again, a little bit more old-school architectural, you're looking at marking this up in the way that you're used to with bumwad or tracing paper. If you learn pencil drafting, that might be something that you're really kind of in tune with. So what this-- it's called Morpholio Trace. And what it allows you to do is actually come in here, and over here to the right there's this little Add a Layer button.
So what it actually does-- you can see that animation. So this is just like yellow bumwad over top of your plan. And now I can take my pencil, and I can actually mark up on this plan. And then I can add another layer on top of it.
And notice that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm just adding another layer onto it. We've got some rulers here. I can kind of spin this around and use that to kind of line up my lines here.
So I'm literally doing with my finger. I'm just taking it and putting two fingers on the ruler and just twisting it, just like you would if I had it in real life, and then just drawing with a pencil right up against the ruler there. So I just move this around and draw whatever shapes that I need to, but that's on a different layer.
So with that layer, I can turn that layer on and off, again, just like using bumwad, using some tracing paper. So each of these is kind of in their own layer. So you can turn them on or off, and you can add as many of these over top of each layer as you would, just like as if you were using tracing paper.
The other app that I go to a lot-- now, Trace allows you to do this on PDFs and images, which is kind of big. And it supports layers, which is great. And you have different pens, and pencils, and so forth, and most apps do this.
The other app that I do like, however, is called Concepts. So most of the drawing apps that you're going to find are raster-based. So they're just pixels and so forth. They don't scale terribly well.
Concepts is actually vector-based. So using this app, again, I can do kind of the same thing. So over here to the top right corner here, we have a little Import button. So I can actually go in and import.
If I do More, there's that same set of plans, and you can see all the pages there over on the right. So I can actually swipe up and down till I find the plan that I'm looking for, and I'll tap it. And I'll bring this in, and I can actually scale the plan in this app.
So I'm going to tap this to kind of accept it. There we are. So I can pan and zoom around. I'm going to close that and that. There we are.
So I have different layers. I can add additional layers on top of these. Again, if I want to-- depending on what it is I want to draw, I can come in here and start to make little markups, make little notes, and so on. And then I can add another layer. I can hide and show layers.
I can bring these on top of each other. But when I'm done, whatever marking up I'm doing, whatever shapes I'm drawing, I can go up here to the Share buttons. So it's this little-- it's a little up arrow in the upper right corner.
I can actually export this out as a DXF file. So it will convert these to splines and polylines and export the entire drawing out in a DXF format. So I'm actually drawing like I would be in AutoCAD. The lines I'm creating are actually splines and so forth. So very handy tool.
You can see it's got quite a few different pencils and pens. And you can get a little bit more artistic than some of the others instead of just pens and pencils. But you can get different brushes and whatever you like, if you're looking for this to be a little bit more artistic or you're trying to do more like architectural renderings and so forth. But Concepts is definitely one of my go-to apps.
File management is nice, and the importing PDFs and images-- again, when you're looking for an app, depending on which sketching app or markup tool you want to find, find one that does both PDFs and images so you can actually take a snapshot of an image and mark it up. Let's see.
One other thing I want to talk about-- so like photos, again, same basic principle. If I tap on the photo, if I click on Edit-- so I've got my photo here up in the upper right corner up here. There's the little markup tool. So if I click on that, there's my pen down on the lower right corner.
So I can actually take this and I can say change color by writing that out on the image. When I'm done, hit Done. Hit Done one more time, and I can save this and email it off or send it off to whoever I like.
So this is an image that I had saved, but I could take this image of a piece of paper and add this markup to it, whatever I like. So very, very handy in that respect. So the last two bits that I want to talk about real quick are A360 and AutoCAD Mobile.
So A360, and there are about 20 or 30 different Autodesk apps available in the app store when you go into the app store. So find the one that is specific to what you're looking for. There's BIM 360, and BIM 360 Docs, and so forth. So there are native apps for all of these different file types that you want.
A360 is kind of nice because it supports most of the different file types that you're going to run into. So if you notice, I've got a Revit file here. I've got vendor assembly over here, Navisworks.
So I can actually go, and I'm going to open up this house design over here. So this is a native Revit file, RVT file. And I'm just panning and zooming, so I'm just using my fingers right now and just panning and zooming around this Revit file.
And then come over here. I'm going to click on the little pie icon over here. So I've got parts. So I can actually scroll up and down through the model here.
So if I want to-- let's say I can click on the little lights here so I can turn off the roofs. See structural columns. Let's do the structural framing. I can turn that off.
Turn off the topography if I like. Turn off the wall sweep, so I can turn off the walls. So, again, this is just on the iPad. So I'm just spinning around this Revit model like it's nothing. I'm just running through this. I can take screencaps down here, and I can also mark up this Revit thing and send it off to somebody as a screencap or the model itself.
You can look at the-- I can select a specific object, and I can look at the properties of this if I like, so the surface and so forth and basic roof. See if can grab the window there, so it's casement window. Over here and grab this double glass door and so forth.
When I'm all done, hit the X and then, again, go back out. So we've got our assembly here. So, again, same basic principle. I'm just spinning this file type around.
So, again, this is great if you're perhaps more in a management role, or a supervisory role, or you're not actually the one who needs to be modeling and creating this stuff. If you're just viewing these objects and viewing these items, again, you can go in and-- let's see here.
So I take off the alternator. Let's see what else. Yeah, so there's the crankcase. You can take that out.
Cinder block in cell cylinder block, cylinder heads. Can take those out so that I can get down in here. I can see the pistons and so forth.
So, again, all this control over a file type. And, again, this is just on an iPad. I'm just spinning this around in my hand.
So, again, A360, very handy for different projects, different file types that you can be working with. So, again, assemblies, and DWF files, and vendor files, and so forth. So it's just a great sort of all-purpose viewer and editor and so forth when it comes to your file types.
And, again, you can look at this in different modes. You can also add, take photos, and so forth, and then go to Browse. So, again, these are my files here. So I can actually open up from the Files app all my cloud storage locations to get my data into this app.
So last app that I want to talk about is AutoCAD Mobile. Here we are. So you may or may not know. So AutoCAD Mobile started about back in 2010-2011, when the original iPads came out.
They were actually-- there was a sort of a third party that was acquired, and it used to be called AutoCAD WS. And it was sort of written from the ground up as an iOS app. It had its own features and its own sort of development track and so forth. But it was very much its own little world, its own little app.
About four years ago or so, five years ago, Autodesk sort of decided to try and take their base engine for AutoCAD and use it across all their platforms, AutoCAD for Mac, AutoCAD Windows, Mobile, and the web app. So there was this redesign of the apps a couple of years back.
And using that, we were able to literally take the entire AutoCAD engine and import it here into the AutoCAD mobile app. Now, it's changed names a couple of times over the years. But the AutoCAD Mobile app is the same basic engine that's on your AutoCAD desktop. It's the same tools and so forth that you're used to running around with.
So when you open up something, here we've got the main screen that you come into in the upper left corner. So we've got Design, Social. There's some settings here that you can change, but I'm going to go right into the Files app there.
Going to open up-- I'm going to come down here, and I'm going to open up my project. So, again, opens up very, very quickly, but we can see all of the normal stuff that we're used to. So there's the Undo, the Redo. There's the Save icon.
There's the zoom extents there. This is a clean screen so that I can minimize my screen for presentations. Over along the right side here, we've got things like Properties. So if I come in here to select an object, let's see if I-- there we go.
So can grab that hatch object there. It tells me all the information and the scale. Can even come down and tell me things like if it's associative or not or, very importantly, the area, the cumulative area and the area of that hatch pattern. So, again, this is on your iPad. This is opening the native DWG file on your iPad.
So, again, that's the properties. Next one down, this is the trace feature. This is one of the newer features in AutoCAD desktop and mobile, but this allows you to do a new trace. So I can actually come in here with a sketch, the same we were doing before.
So I'm doing this in the native DWG app, in the native DWG file itself. So I can come in here. I can kind of open this up, make my notes, and it's saved as a trace. It saved it in the DWG file.
So if I open this up on the desktop, I can see those traces and see those notes in the file and then import them or do whatever I like with them. So when I'm all done, so there's the trace there. And I work around my drawing, and I'm working over somewhere else. I can always go back to that trace and that location and that note there until I close it.
We can go through our different layouts, so model, site plan, ground-floor plan, and so forth, all the different layouts that we're used to. We can control all of our layers and just like AutoCAD desktop. So I can-- let's go look for-- so I can turn off the windows there.
It will have a roof pattern. Let's turn on and off the walls. I can set current. So any new objects that I create will be on this layer. Rename it if I want.
I can change the color. I can lock it. So all that's just by pressing the three little dots there next to the layer name.
Blocks. Any blocks that are embedded in this DWG file, I have access to, and I can import them into the model. So if I want to add a sofa into this, I'll have to do is click. So all I did was click on the block itself, and now it is right there.
Now, what you can't see-- and I'm going to describe this-- when I'm moving this around with my finger on the screen, the cursor, the crosshair here, actually sits about 1 inch above my fingertips so that way you can see the crosshair and it's not obstructed by your fingertip. So what you can't see on the screen, though-- my fingertip is actually where my pointer is right there.
So the cursor is here. My finger is actually, like I said, about an inch below that. So, again, this way you can move the cursor around without the actual finger being obstructed by your fingertip. So once I've got it where I want, all I have to do is release and then give it a quick tap anywhere off, and that sets the location for me.
So, again, all the blocks that you have that are in that DWG file are accessible. They can be imported. You can even create new blocks, select objects, and then create a new block in AutoCAD Mobile.
External references. If you have external references and as long as they are in the same file location, you can access them here. You can see them, and they'll show up externally referenced in the DWG file. You can also attach images.
So I can go find an image of something, bring it in into my drawing, and I can either trace it just like you would in AutoCAD, or you can use it as a logo, or add notes to it if you like. Anything that you like that you normally do with an image in AutoCAD, you can do here as well. Then we have some basic settings, both for drafting and the application.
So your units, decimal degrees, your object snaps, which object snaps you want turned on, which ones do you want turned off-- all that's accessible here. Polar tracking, snap and grid, and then the application itself. What color do you want the background, what color do you want paper space.
If you're going to use the Apple Pencil, which this has been coded for the Apple Pencil-- so what does a double tap do? In this case, it's escape, but I can change that to enter, undo, or nothing, whatever I want that double tap to mean.
And then pressure sensitivity. Do we actually want it to recognize when I'm pressing a little bit harder on the screen? So all that's available here in AutoCAD.
Now, one thing that's a little bit different-- so I'm just using one finger to kind of pan around the screen here. I can use two fingers in the pinching and zooming. And this is incredibly just a natural feeling kind of way of moving around a drawing. It's actually quite nice. You're kind of touching your drawing, but anyway.
As I'm moving around my drawing, I'm just painting and zooming right now. The thing is-- so with one finger it's just pan. If I want to select anything, I can either do at one of two ways. I can either use the select tool that's down here in the toolbar, or I can tap directly on a single object.
So if I want to select this chair, I'm just going to tap on the screen with my fingertip or the Apple Pencil, and there we have it. So it's selected. So I can also-- again, I can look at the properties of that particular chair, the block reference, the name, layer, and so forth.
You can change some of this. Anything that's black on the properties, you can change. Anything that's grayed out, you cannot change. But once I've got this-- so down on the command line, I'm going to deselect this just for a second.
So yep. There we go. Escape. If you notice down here in the toolbar, we have a limited number of commands here. We've got select, measure, draw, annotate, quick trim, and a line dimension, and that's it for the moment.
That's because it's supposed to be object-based, the way that they've kind of made this. So the idea is until you actually select an object-- I'm going to go back up and select that chair one more time. There we are. So now all my tools changed.
I have a bunch more tools down here. So I've got erase, copy, move. So these are all the modify tools. So the modify tools don't really pop up until you've selected an object.
So, again, now that I've got-- I can go ahead, and let's say I want to move that chair somewhere. So I'm going to tap on Move down here, and then it asks me for the base point. So I'm going to put my finger.
I'm going to hover over that, the midpoint, and tap to accept that. So now it's got the midpoint of that chair. So now I can either type in a value.
You can see I've got a little keyboard there. It's got the value highlighted. So I can either tap on that and type in a value, or I can just drag it around the screen where I want it to be. And, again, I'm actually touching about an inch lower than that crosshair. So I can see the crosshair.
So as I put the crosshair up, let's say, at the corner of the table, it snaps into the object snap, the endpoint. I can tap, and that will accept that, and now it's done. So I've moved the chair from the midpoint to the end of the table, the endpoint.
So this is just as precise as the desktop version. I can make these changes in these movements. And if anything, it's a bit more intuitive because you're physically tapping on the objects that you want to do. And the modify tools don't actually show up until you've selected an object.
So this is great if you are a manager or if you've got a manager or somebody in the company who wants to be able to interact with your DWG files but they don't know AutoCAD terribly well. They don't have to. They can go in, and they can actually kind of, I would say, fumble around a little bit. But they don't have to have the AutoCAD training that somebody else might need or have to actually draw stuff.
They can actually go into a DWG file and make these little changes. Most importantly, they can also do things like-- so I'm going to hit Escape. They can do things like measure. This is one of the biggest things that I love about AutoCAD Mobile.
So if you've seen the measure tool that's actually built in that's on the desktop version of this, desktop version of AutoCAD, it started here on the mobile version. This sort of utility measure tool just to measure command, where you can just tap in a space and it gives you the horizontal and vertical measurements, any right angles, and so forth. It gives you all of this information just by moving your hand around the screen.
So if I'm a contractor or if I'm working with a contractor or someone else, I can give them my DWG file that I've designed. And they can go in, and they can take their own measurements. So if I miss the dimension or something like that or if they're trying to move something around, they can actually go in on their own with almost no AutoCAD experience whatsoever. And it's literally opening the drawing and then clicking on Measure.
And now they can go in and they can measure just by dragging their finger around the screen. They can get all of these measurements that they may want or need just by moving their finger around the screen. They do volumes, distance, and so forth. So all that's available to them.
The other thing is annotate. So I'm going to click on the little Annotate button right there. So now I can do a new trace.
I can import a markup from a trace. I can add some text. I can do a Revcloud. Add some leaders.
The one I use the most is definitely sketch. So using sketch, this is just like the markup tool that I've shown you before in Notes and so forth. I can actually go in, and I'm just literally drawing on this. I can change the color and say "add chair."
I'm going to Escape so I'm all done. I'm going to go ahead and grab one of these. So if we go in and look at the properties, this is a-- it's drawing these out of splines, but they're drawn from my pencil. So I'm literally drawing in AutoCAD, just like I would hand drawing on a piece of paper. So quite useful, quite handy.
So, again, but you can do precise operations with this, or, again, if you're not overly trained or you don't use AutoCAD on a daily basis, you can still go into AutoCAD Mobile and actually make some changes, make some markups, and interact with the DWG file. It's not a PDF that somebody locked down that doesn't have all the vector information. It's a native DWG file, and then I can take this DWG file, and we can go up to the three little dots in the upper right corner.
I can actually plot this to a PDF, or I can send a copy of the DWG file back to the architect or whoever else needs to actually work on this after I've made some changes. So I will say, based on my experience-- and I want to talk about the command line in just a second. But based on my experience, I love this, and this is available not just for the iPad but for the iPhone as well. And there's also Android versions of this.
And there's also the web version, the web version of this. So you can go to open up a web browser like Chrome, or Safari, or Edge, and actually go to AutoCAD Web. And it's pretty much the same exact interface. It's the same functions, the same functionality that you're going to find on the mobile app.
The nice thing about the mobile app is obviously it's mobile. It's with you all the time, and you can use the pencil you can't use on the web app. Regardless, this is great for, again, working with existing DWG files.
I don't know that I'd want to draw an entire house or project unnecessarily just on the mobile app or on the web app. But if I've got a DWG file that somebody else has started that I need measurements from, that I need information out of and I'm in the field, this is awesome. This is great.
This is so useful to be able to get these dimensions and get this information from wherever you're at, and open up the native DWG file from the field, and make these markups, and make these notes. I could be sitting at an airport, and I can come down here to the elevation. And I can-- oh, there's a-- it looks like we didn't quite finish that part of this.
So really quickly I'm going to use my Apple Pencil here. I'm going to select that arc. And you know what? I need to mirror that over to the other side there.
Actually, I need to offset it first because it needs to match up to that outside. So I'm going to hit the offset right there. I'm going to do through, and I want it to come right there to the edge of that. So I'm going to tap to accept that. There we go.
So I offset that outside edge of that arc. So I'm done with that. Now I'm going to come over here, and I'm going to hit Select. And I'm going to do a crossing window, just like I would on the desktop.
Select both of those guys, and then I'm going to come over here to-- looking for mirror. There it is there, mirror. So what's my first point of my mirror line? I'm going to choose the endpoint, the midpoint right there. Tap to accept, and I'm going to drag straight up.
I've got polar turned on, so it's going to go straight up. I'm going to tap to accept. There we go. I've added that, then I need to come in here and trim these guys up just a little bit. So there is a quick trim function. Oops. I think I hit Escape instead of accepting that, so I'm going to do that one more time real quick.
So let's see how quickly I can do that. Grab that. Come on over to Mirror. So grab my midpoint right there. Tap.
Drag straight up. Tap to accept. Do I want to erase the source objects? No. There we are.
So now I'm going to come over here to Quick Trim real quick, and then I can just tap on the portions of the line that I want to remove. And I'm done. So that was incredibly easy, just making a couple of these quick changes that, again, I could be doing sitting at the airport or sitting in a field somewhere, drinking a cup of coffee and do this on my iPad. So really, really handy and really useful.
And, again, if you notice down here in the lower left corner, that's the command line. That's the actual command line from the desktop. So if I tap into that, I can open up my-- I can actually type in commands.
So even though the modified commands aren't available typically until you select an object, I can go in and just start to type in something like "rotate." If I hit Send, I'm in the rotate command. Select my objects.
So I'll come down. Let me go grab something like-- grab all that. Enter. Let AutoCAD know I'm done selecting my objects. Specify my base point. It's going to be the end point there. Tap to accept.
Now as I drag around-- kind of hard to see because I think those are-- oh, there it is. There we are. So now I can rotate around. So I can either do this by sight, or I can tap inside of that, the little selection there. And I can erase what's there, and I can type in something like, say, 35 degrees.
There we are. So I just rotated those objects 35 degrees. If I didn't mean to do that, go up here to the top, Undo, and I'm done. So this is AutoCAD on your iPad, and this does support, again, the split screen.
So I'm going to take this, the Files app, and drag it over there. So now I've got Files app over on one side and AutoCAD open on the other. And I can take notes. I can kind of do this back and forth as I like and have these apps open at the same time.
Again, over here on the right, that could be Mail. That could be any other app that supports split screen. So I hope I've shown you at least a little bit of the power of having the iPad and things that you can use to hopefully take this out in the field and really put this to use. Again, tablets aren't-- it's not future technology anymore like it was 10, 12 years ago, where it was like all these cool devices that we didn't quite know how we were going to use them in the real world.
You know, they're ubiquitous. Everybody's got an iPad. My five-year-old niece has an iPad, and they can use them, and it's great. And but really putting the power to this, using the gestures and the features and so forth, is really what's going to separate this from being a novelty and just a nice-to-have it being a really productivity-driving tool out in the field.
So I hope that has been useful kind of a demonstration of what this is capable of. I highly encourage you to-- there we are. So, again, we've looked at the model. We've talked about how to pick a model. We looked at accessories that I think would be useful when you got this out in the field.
Talked about the settings in the OS features, and we've talked about both the native apps and third-party apps like Concepts and Trace, so forth, that you might be able to use to further enhance using the iPad out in the field. And, of course, AutoCAD Mobile, A360, and similar apps.
So I encourage you to look around the rest of Autodesk University. Find some other classes that will be helpful for you. There are hundreds of these courses out there. So I highly encourage you to find them, do some research, and keep learning. Thanks.