Hit a total win with my iPad in the field today

I was out at a job site in Nashville and kept having to walk back to my truck to check PDF plans on my laptop. Got tired of it and tried out the blueprint app I saw recommended on here. Loaded the plans as layers and used a stylus to mark changes right on screen. Found three mistakes before lunch that would've cost us a redo. Anyone else mess with tablet setups for field work?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_patel4121d agoMost Upvoted

Wrote all over a set of plans with my finger once and somehow managed to zoom in on the wrong layer, spent ten minutes trying to undo a scribble that looked like a spider had a seizure on the screen. @patking you're totally right though, being able to mark stuff up in real time beats the heck out of writing notes on scrap wood like I used to. I still accidentally draw on the screen with my palm sometimes and have to erase half a page, but man, it's way better than walking back and forth to the truck. Maybe it's just me but I think I waste more time correcting my sloppy handwriting than I save, ha.

patking21d ago

Oh man, I gotta say that tablet setup saved my bacon in a similar way last month! I was out measuring a tricky roof layout and kept having to go back to my truck for my paper notes until I just started scribbling dimensions right on the PDF with my stylus. It's crazy how much time you save when you can mark stuff up in the field instead of memorizing it all.