Mobile CAD apps can be a useful part of your design workflow—if you know the right way to use them.
Autodesk has sponsored this post.
Early ads for the Apple iPhone had a catchy message: There’s an app for that.
But that wasn’t exactly true. Sure, there were apps aplenty, but there were gaps aplenty too—partly because we were too parochial about what phones, and later tablets, could do.
CAD, for example, was for workstations. Not phones. Not tablets.
Not anymore. Now there really is an app for CAD—many apps, in fact—and they can be a valuable part of your design workflow. You just have to know the right way to use them.
Mobile CAD Apps to Complement the Desktop
Those skeptical of mobile CAD have every right to be. After all, who would want to trade in their comfortable, customized CAD setup to design on a screen the size of a credit card?
Most wouldn’t, and that’s why many mobile CAD apps do not aim to be desktop CAD replacements, but rather supplements.
Take the Autodesk Fusion 360 app, the cloud-based design, simulation and manufacturing platform. Available for both Apple and Android phones and tablets, the Fusion 360 app allows users to view 3D files, examine their properties and add comments and annotations for collaborators.
The mobile Fusion 360 app doesn’t match the full functionality of the desktop Fusion 360, but it fully complements the desktop app. And like other mobile CAD apps, it can prove handy in many ways.
Stuck waiting in line? Use the mobile app to fire off some comments on the latest revision. Laptop dies or Wi-Fi cuts out? Whip out your phone to show off a design to a client or colleague. Need to quickly double check the size of that opening? No need to get up—it’s right there, two icons away from Twitter and one up from Uber Eats.
Think of it like email. We all have a mobile mail app that we use to check our messages, maybe clean up our inboxes, and occasionally send off some brief replies (with the obligatory signature explicating our brevity). But not many would use their phone to compose a massive missive. When you have an important email to send, you tend to sit down at a keyboard.
And when you have a model to design, you tend to do the same. Mobile CAD apps, which might have added collaboration, are still evolving to their full potential.
Next-Level Mobile CAD Apps
Some mobile CAD apps currently offer full-featured design functionality, on par with their desktop counterpart. However, not many designers take full advantage of it.
Many CAD users with access to full-featured mobile CAD apps still use them as a complement to the desktop version of the software. Even with mobile apps that offer all the same features as the desktop, it seems most users prefer to use mobile apps for viewing, collaborating or tracking design data, rather than for mobile modelling.
This isn’t just a phone phenomenon; even tablets, despite having larger screens and supporting peripherals like keyboards and styli, are generally used to supplement desktop CAD tools rather than replace them.
Again, for intensive design work, most prefer a workstation. However, the ability to make tweaks to a design on the fly could prove valuable in certain circumstances. Even for users that don’t plan on modeling much on mobile, the more features a mobile CAD app offers, the more useful it will be.
As mobile devices continue to mature, it’s possible that tablets—and who knows, maybe phones too—will become appealing options for doing more design work.
In the meantime, mobile CAD apps are excellent companions to desktop CAD software. If you’re away from the desk and need to view or markup your models, or even make small changes, there’s an app for that.
Learn more about Autodesk Fusion 360 for mobile devices from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
