Autodesk bets future on design process going mobile

If you were a civil engineer working on the Prime Minister’s ambitious Golden Quadilateral project, besides worrisome corruption issues your mind would be focused on one more problem—carrying bulky drawings to the site and making corrections. But if Autodesk has its way, then carrying bulky designs on large paper maps would be a thing of the past. Srikanth R P has the details

Paul Kuah says that users can access large, complex digital drawings and maps via handheld computers using the Autodesk OnSite solution

Technology has changed many traditional ways of doing business. So why should it be any different for professionals like architects, engineers or surveyors. Currently, most professionals involved in these fields have no alternative but to take large paper drawings into the field. While these drawings are easy to navigate, they are also costly to print, cumbersome to carry and not updated with the latest information. Additionally, while working with paper drawings or maps in the field, notes and corrections are typically made by hand directly on paper. Within a few days, the map looks like a child’s sketching book—messy, complicated and difficult to comprehend.

Can technology come to the rescue? Domain player Autodesk certainly believes so. The company, which brought design from the drafting table to the computer desktop in the 80s, and to the Internet in the 90s, is now betting its future on bringing design to the ever growing mobile work environment of today. To take advantage of this paradigm shift, Autodesk has developed the Autodesk OnSite solution.

OnSite answer

Says Paul Kuah, marketing manager, Infrastructure Solutions Division, Autodesk, South Asia Pacific, “The impact of mobile computing on the design process can be significant. Mobile access to design data and mapping information would bring freedom to architects, engineers and surveyors. Moreover, the same device can be used to review, mark, measure and update digital design data. Today, using the Autodesk OnSite solution, users can access large, complex digital drawings and maps via handheld computers.” Enabling handheld computers with limited storage and memory capabilities to view large, complex files is not a simple task. For making this possible, the company takes advantage of a new file format called ‘Design Web Format (DWG),’ which allows a professional to compress his design to fit the functionality of handhelds.

The OnSite solution consists of two components : OnSite view and OnSite enterprise. The OnSite view is a standalone mobile design program that enables users to access digital drawings and maps via handhelds with a COM interface for building customised applications. The OnSite Enterprise uses OnSite View as the viewing client and enables large organisations with diverse mobile workforces—typically utilities—to extend their enterprise data onto the field. Users can even remotely access design and mapping data on an organisation’s servers, review it and update it digitally.

E-governance

The solution can even go a long way in speeding up e-governance initiatives. As GIS can play a huge role in e-governance, the data for implementing GIS solutions can be captured quickly and accurately using handhelds. For example, municipal corporations can organise and map the properties of a particular region by using GIS as a tool. There have been countless cases where after a fresh survey of a particular city was taken, it was found that more than 25 percent of the properties in current land records would need to be reassessed. If properties are indeed identified, then it will mean an increase in collection of property taxes. This is where mobile computing-based tools can be used to capture data accurately. Additionally, GIS today finds extensive use in a wide range of areas like planning of public health systems, urban development, public utility works, agriculture, forestry, transportation and management of resources like oil & gas and minerals. All these sectors can not only speed up the capture of data but can also manage it effectively by using mobile computing-based tools.

As Autodesk has a major presence in the Indian GIS market, the company does hold the advantage of rolling out its solution to its existing customer base. The timing of the product could not have been better—the Indian government is going pulling out all stops in investing in building better infrastructure and roads.

srikanth@expresscomputeronline.com