Design Review - There's an App for That!

At the last Revit user group meeting I attended a few guys were chatting about how logical it is for Design Review to be an app for iPad or iPhone. Guess they were right?!? There's an app for that now! Yeah I'm slow mentioning it since it actually became available a few days ago?

Check it out at iTunes

Revit Technology Conference - Australasia - iTunes App

I suppose the word is getting out when a blogger (Revit3D) that is attending the Revit conference in the USA (RTCUSA) manages to let people know about this before the conference marketing committee members do?

Three enterprising fans of the conference have conspired to create an iPhone, iPad app for the Australasia conference that begins next week. These enterprising fans are Kingfisher Recruitment, Atlas Industries and Rod Howarth (programmer and app author listed at iTunes).

The app features a welcome screen, schedule, site information and app sponsor page. We've asked them to add a sponsor page to list all the conference sponsors too. Here's the main screens in the app.

If you are one of the over four hundred Revit/BIM savvy people coming to RTCAUS in Goldcoast next week then you might want to take advantage of this free app!

32 Apps for iPhone and iPad

Houston Neal, the Director of Marketing for Software Advice (Free Advice for Software Buyers) recently wrote an article after sifting through roughly 500 offerings for the AEC industry.

There are some interesting items in his list. I grabbed four pretty tool image captures below: (left to right)

• E-Calc (electrical engineering calculations)
• BuildCalc (construction calculations)
• Concrete Calculator (concrete slab calculations)
• InchCALC (feet inch calculations)

If you use these devices you might want to check the list to see if there are any you didn't already know about.

Off Topic - Retro iPhone Accessory

While using my iPhone as a phone, which I don't really do very much, I accidentally engage Mute or Speaker phone. My cheek apparently is a sufficient source of inspiration for either mode unfortunately. To counter this tendency I end up holding the phone at an angle near my ear which is actually uncomfortable after awhile. Maybe this new product is the solution?

It is available to us via Native Union, from their about page:

...snip...

Product designers with a simple goal
To create simple, robust and chic products that are
functional both at home and in the office.

International business people
We travel all the time and we rely on our mobile phones.
We see ourselves as customers.

Great talkers
We believe in the art of conversation - the most powerful form of communication. We look to enhance this art

...snip...

It reminds me (well the color does) of the phone my parents had and STILL have in their kitchen, a red wall mounted dial phone. I found this picture, it's practically the same phone they have, at Vince's Cavalcade of Phones, proving once again you can find just about anything on the internet!

Apples iPad

When I first saw the iPhone I wanted to get one but didn't until a year after it was available. Just couldn't justify the premium to get in early. Once that settled down I was in! Before that I was pretty slow to get interested in the iPod and I really didn't get the interface despite it being so "obvious"...to some anyway.

With this new product I find myself interested again, like the iPhone but again not really prepared to plunk down $500 for it. I don't use the phone part of the iPhone much really so I could practically get away with just the iPad. I'm among those who want one...just a question of when. Hopefully the numerous references to the product's name relating to feminine hygiene products won't last too long.

Now getting to use Revit on it would be very interesting to this blogger too! Had to include that part otherwise this post would be completely off topic!

iPhone App - Revit Keys

My son found this one tonight and rushed downstairs to let me know about it. From the Apple apps site:

REVITkeys is a list of 260 keyboard combinations for AutoDesk Revit Architecture 2010. Arranged in 14 categories for easy access this tool makes it easy to find the keyboard combination you are looking for or learn new ones. Utilizing REVITkeys for Revit Architecture will speed up your work and help you learn new skills.


Categories include: Project, Model Family Editor, Profile Family Editor, Truss Family Editor, Rebar Family Editor, Mass Family Editor, Conceptual Mass Editor, Detail Family Editor, Contextual Tab, Snap Overrides, View Control Bar, Context Menu, Navigation Bar, and Alternates with Closer Keys


It isn't free, nearly so...just 0.99 cents until it gets wildly popular. I didn't try it out myself yet because my phone is still downloading the latest update.

Dept. of NfSCD - iPhone Tip

If you have an iPhone...

Tips
When the phone is off - Double Click the "Home" button - displays iTunes mini menu.

When the phone is on but "at home" - Double Click "Home" button - display Favorites (contacts)

When the phone is on - Press and hold the "Home" button then press Power button - Generates a screen capture of what is on screen and adds it to your camera roll.

Want more?

Applications I use:
Pandora - The Music Genome Project - Radio station that plays music you like based on the "type" of music based on artist or song selection. (free)

Yelp - location based recommendations for restaurants, bars etc. (free)

Shazam - Find out what that song is, hold you iPhone near the speaker and let it listen, pretty amazing.(free)

Clinometer - Cool level, yes as in a level to find out if something is "level", not tilted, "geek food". (not free)


NfSCD = "Now for Something Completely Different"