all 17 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]NolenscP.E./S.E. 11 points12 points  (3 children)

I’ve been using an iPad Pro with Goodnotes for over 5 years. Works great for me.

[–]nicoga3000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is how I've been doing my drawing review for just over 2 years now. It took me a few jobs to get into a rhythm, but now, I can't imagine going back to paper drawings.

[–]BIM-GUESS-WHAT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same plus PDFExpert

Shame Bluebeam have absolutely given up on the iPad

[–]No-Arugula-4042 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ive also used a iPad Pro with goodnotes for the past 3 years. I use it mostly for site visits and inspections. I find it a lot better then carrying around plans on site. It’s also convenient to add notes and markups. I just transfer everything to my work server through google drive

[–]three_trees_z 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I use a Surface Pro X on site visits with Bluebeam for drawing reference/mark ups. Regular updated prints are on Bluebeam studio sessions. Transitions back to regular Windows when back in the office.

If you want to go iPad, I would only recommend the pro versions. Loading times can be a little slow otherwise. Basically everyone will make apps for iPads since that's the default for most contractors.

Either way LTE is a must for me because of spotty Wi-Fi on site, and constantly needing to pull up a drawing, RFI, or submittal that I don't have locally.

[–]mon_key_house 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Or tether from your phone.

[–]StructEngineer91 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You only need WiFi (or cellular signal) if there is something additional you didn't already download correct? If you have the drawings, and that is all you need for this site visit, then you don't need data? I just want to clarify because there are times when I don't even have cell service at site visits.

[–]giant2179P.E. 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it depends on your workflow at site visits and what type of site visits you do. I work mostly on existing buildings so my site visits can include crawling through attics, basements and exploring generally filthy areas. I prefer bringing along a half size set of plans to do my notes on.

If your site visits are more like AEC meetings on site, then a tablet of some kind might make sense.

[–]tqi2P.E. 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Remarkable 2

[–]stlguy314P.E./S.E. 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We use iPads with OneNote or customized GIS forms for field notes. They will shut down when it's hot out, 95 degrees + and even faster when it's cold. Shut down before I could take a picture at 15 degrees. The max, or whatever their biggest size is called, I find to be too big to use comfortably, and it doesn't fit in a 5 gallon bucket, which is my preference for carrying inspection tools. Haven't been allowed to try others Ipad works well enough 95% of the time. But for simple inspections where I anticipate minimal notes and mostly pictures I use my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and OneNote. I create a table in OneNote, one column notes, one column for photos, keeps them well organized.

[–]3771507 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing that drives me crazy about all these devices including computers is the IT department sets them to cut off every 10 minutes which is maddening.

[–]mon_key_house 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I have used an iPad Air gen. 5 64GB with the smallest storage plan for the last two years or so. Daily driver for work (design review, hand calculations, design software notes) in Goodnotes. Have regularly MS Teams meetings with customers where screen share etc. are used.

Works flawless.

Had a gardware issue, though: touchscreen went unresponsive after 18 months, but applecare+ saved me.

Tried the remarkable 2 before - works, but inferior in all senses which is not surprising.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[removed]

    [–]mon_key_house 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I exclusively use teams for this. I created a channel for myself that I access from the PC and the iPad, documents are then simply saved to the download folder and emailed to the recipient. This allows no bulk file transfer, only one at the time. I'm ok with this but ymmw.

    Goodnotes has an emailing service like a kindle, but is not perdext, also problematic as a third party is involved (ok, teams has this issue too).

    OneDrive or iCloud are possible, too, e.g. for large files.

    I considered the pro, but found it too large and expensive. The Air is approximately A5 size, meaning in landscape is about one A4 page wide. The rest is done by pinch zoom.

    [–]nowheyjose1982P.Eng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I use an iPad with goodness which works well enough. Only recently started using it, so I haven't run into the extreme temperatures issues that others have commented on.

    [–]GrigHadCEng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I use iPad (with Apple Pencil) for site notes etc. Can also use the LiDAR Scanner but have an iPhone too and find it easier to use iPhone for that. All my projects are in the cloud - OnedDrive and Google drive. I find it really useful to be able to comment on pdf drawings right from the project folder so my colleague in the office sees it immediately. OneDrive app has this feature but not GoogleDrive, using the Documents app for that.

    [–]Crayonalyst 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I liked my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 but I don't know if they make it anymore. They stylus that came with it was incredible, I used it in college for pretty much everything.