One question that we receive more and more these days, is how to use tablet devices, such as the iPad, Microsoft Surface 3, or Android-based devices with the different data management solutions offered.
This article will attempt to provide a very high level summary of the capabilities of these devices and the following software packages offered by Hagerman & Company:
- Autodesk® Vault
- Autodesk PLM 360
- Autodesk® Buzzsaw®
- Synergis Adept
- BlueCielo Meridian
Tablets are obviously becoming more and more popular in the marketplace these days. Of course, one big reason is the easy portability which is important for traveling company employees, maintenance personnel, field service tech’s, etc. Another big advantage is the quicker boot up as compared to a PC. Tablets can be on and ready for use in as little as two to ten seconds. Some disadvantages of tablets can include a lack of keyboard, lower processor speeds, fewer input/output ports, fragility (in many applications a protective case is recommended) and incompatibility with many common office tools and applications. As a result, it is necessary to weigh the pro’s and con’s of tablet devices for your own particular application.
First, a couple of the easy options to cover:
- Since the new Microsoft Surface 3 is a fully Windows-compliant PC in a tablet format, any of the above applications will work with it. While more expensive, the Surface 3 is the most complete, compatible and flexible of all tablet devices available.
- Since Autodesk PLM 360 and Buzzsaw are browser-based cloud solutions, these are fully supported by all of the above devices and in addition both have app’s available for download in the iTunes and Google Play stores
Additional options are as follows:
- Autodesk Vault desktop clients will not run on iPad or Android devices. Due to the fact that Autodesk Design Review does not run on iPad or Android devices, using the Vault web client to view files stored in Vault is not possible. Since subscription customers with Vault Professional do receive one license of Buzzsaw with each license of Vault Pro, they have the option of making Vault files available for secure access in Buzzsaw, utilizing automatic or manual synchronation between Vault and Buzzsaw.
- The Adept desktop client is not supported on iPad or Android devices either. In March of this year, Synergis began supporting the use of its Adept Explorer web client on the iPad. Android devices are not supported in this way. Finally, since files managed by Adept are stored in a structure based on standard Windows folders and filenames, it is possible to browse the files in a read-only manner via a tablet device and open them into a viewing software installed on the tablet. Customers will need to note what specific types of files they need to view and what specific viewers are available for the device.
- With BlueCielo, iPad support is available for its Explorer client, which is browser-based and provides search-view-print capabilities. Please note that the Explorer client is separate from the normal BlueCielo Meridian web client. No Android device support is available at this time.
Due to the increasing popularity of tablets, we expect more and more software applications to provide support for them. If you are interested in using one of the above data management applications with a specific tablet device, please contact us for more info as this article presents only a high level overview.
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