AAA Drafting Blog

A SolidWorks designer talks about stuff related to CAD and mechanical design

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Touch CAD for the iPad

Like many people, I was just blown away watching the 90 minute launch speech for the Apple iPad delivered by Steve Jobs, Apples CEO.

There is a huge market for software that just works. There is also a huge demand for a netbook that really works. Not everyone wants to be their own programmer. Apple has always appealed to people who do not care about how a computer works. The Grandmas and Grandpas of the world will love the new iPad just as much as their tech savvy grandchildren.

Unlike the iPhone, which originally had no Apps or even the ability to cut and paste, the iPad is a seamless all-in-one mobile device right from its launch. It fills an immediate need. I can only see this grow in the future. Literally, we will see 19 inch iPad's replacing laptops and keyboards relegated to accessory status.

The iWork software really blew me away. If you can work with spreadsheets and word processors and powerpoints in touch only mode, and do things more easily than keyboard programs can do, why use keyboard based programs at all ?

In my own drafting and design world, we've got complicated "fly through space" mouse controllers as well as having to make your fingers into LA gang signs to make keystroke selections. Can you imagine just grabbing the model to rotate it. Touch CAD for the iPad. It would be great !

It's all coming soon. By January 2011 the keynote speech by Steve Jobs will be about the first keybordless powerbook as reporters feverishly blog out the new device features on their iPads. To paraphrase Tom Peters, "Apple is a company that appeals to that segment of the market that appreciates devices that work !"

Monday, January 18, 2010

AAA Drafting Joomla site now running

Dear folks; I spent most of the weekend getting the AAA Drafting website transferred to the Joomla content management system. This should help me concentrate on putting up content instead of fighting with html and trying to be a webmaster. Which is something I dont pretend to be. I apologize for any bad links, I am still working like mad to get all the redirects in place.

Joomla is really easy to use but a horrendous drawn out pain to install. Even with help from my webhost and freinds who know Joomla. It's really something that a pro webmaster should handle, but hey I got it working. And I like it !

One of the new things I'm planning is to make it possible for visitors to add their articles to my site, because I think it makes the site more useful when it's more than just my opinions you read here. I hope to get that working very soon. In the meantime, dont hesitate to let me know what you would like to see here.