7 replies to this topic

[Murray Loewen]

A good set of drawings should have all the dimensions a builder needs, but every once in awhile a situation arises when you just need to scale a drawing to get a dimension that's not shown. Let's say you don't have a blueprint hard copy right in front of you, but you do have a digital copy accessible on your phone. For these situations, I'd like an Android PDF viewer with the ability to set a scale for a drawing and then determine a measurement between any two points. Does anyone know of an app that can do this?

[Murray Loewen]

Since there have been no replies on this thread, I have to assume that the situation I described in my original post is one that nobody else has run into. I'll keep searching, though, for a PDF viewer that will suit my needs.

[Tom Rogers]

Have you tried Softplan Review?  It is not quite a PDF view but I think you may be able to scale to it.  And it is interactive, a builder can make notes that you will be able to see

[Murray Loewen]

We do design some of the houses we build, for which SoftPlan Review would work as Tom mentioned. Occasionally, though, a customer comes to us with plans already drawn by someone else. In this situation, we're usually able to obtain a PDF copy of the construction drawings. It's for these pdf's that I'd like a viewer app with measuring capability. I could import the pdf's into SoftPlan and then use Review, but I'm not sure this would be very user-friendly.

[Tom Rogers]

If you need it for a tablet I use Morpholio Trace.  It imports PDFs and you can set a scale and draw on top of them.  It is like tracing with trash paper.  It is only for Apple though.  Unfortunately I am not sure if it works in Android but I know they dont have anything for my surface.  

[Brian Berzinskis]

I don't have a method to use on the phone but on the computer, Adobe's PDF Reader does have the ability to measure a PDF with scale measurements built in. I use it all the time. I do bring my Surface Pro out in the field but I do admit that I do not often find myself using that feature out there. I use it often when at my desk only. I also often bring an 11x17 scaled copy to job meetings during construction and here in New Jersey they basically always keep a field copy on site at all times for scaling as well.

[ANTHONY SLOAN]

I can tell you what works really well for me. If you have softplan+ export the model or just the individual floors to Sketchup. Sketchup has an Android App that is awesome and will enable you to take precise measurements in the field without the need for the plan. I do this all the time.

[Kevin Rabenaldt]

Plan reviews by the permit departments must be using something to scale off my pdfs that are generated to scale, usually 1/4" - 1'-0.  They sometimes check span distances because they occasionally will say something is overspanned for the size given. ?? I'm guessing they actually take a measurement.