EXCLUSIVE: AUTODESK BRINGS AUTOCAD TO ANDROID PHONES AND TABLETS

There’s almost certainly not a creating or main movie that wasn’t touched in some way by AutoCAD, the laptop or computer assisted style sofware put out by Autodesk. If you’re someone works with CAD files, you’re almost certainly the type of person who wants access to them from anywhere you go.

These days Autodesk will announce that it is AutoCAD software is accessible for Google’s Android smart phone and tablet platform. The formal announcement will come right after the close of the market today.

I talked last week with Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, Platform Solutions and Emerging Organization at Autodesk and he told me that there’s a growing demand for AutoCAD users, whether or not they’re architects or construction managers at a job site, or just somebody who spends a lot of time away from their desk to have access to their CAD files from a mobile device. The answer was AutoCAD WS, which is essentially a mini version of AutoCAD, released very first for Apple’s iOS devices.

When released for the iOS, Autodesk saw a million downloads and 8 million sessions. A browser-based version of AutoCAD WS followed. “We clearly saw the require we had been hearing about,” Hanspal said. Moving to Android, which has a significantly larger presence in emerging companies, is another massive step in that access-anywhere direction.

“When the iPad and iPhone became far more of a trusted environment, we felt this was a excellent platform from which to allow access,” he told me. AutoCAD WS doesn’t support all the commands of AutoCAD, but it is built with collaboration, and standard edits in mind. “After we got the iPhone version out, 1 of the massive issues our customers asked for was support for Android. We believe this ought to very productive simply because in particular geographies there’s a lot of anticipation around it.”

Hanspal says it will run not only on Android phones, but also on tablet devices like the Samsung Galaxy and the Motorola Xoom. That wasn’t easy he said since of the variations in the Android platforms across distinct devices and manufacturers. “We’ve had to test it across some thing like 15 distinct devices and tweak it a little to run on them all,” he said. “That’s why it took us a small longer than we would have liked to get it done. The complex part of creating for Android is not creating itself. It is the testing.”

AutoCAD users will be able to view anything they’ve developed on that software program, and you’ll be able to zoom in on details. You can also make simple edits and modifications. Say you’re at a job site and realize a pilar needs to be moved a little. The app lets you mark it up, or add further bits, and send the adjustments to the original file. The software will be available later this month and it will be free.

Tagged: Arik Hesseldahl, NewEnterprise, Amar Hanspal, android, apple, AutoCad, AutoCAD WS, Autodesk, Google, ios, iphone, intelligent phones | permalink