Committee of Corporate Architects and Facility Management

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The AIA Corporate Architects and Facility Management (CAFM) Knowledge Community consist of architects working within and for businesses and corporations. Our mission is to share expertise in the strategic, tactical, and operational activities of real property and facilities management in order to deliver value to the owners we represent. 

  • 1.  Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 05-28-2014 05:29 PM
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee of Corporate Architects and Facility Management and Technology in Architectural Practice .
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    Has anyone come across apps for the Android or iPad that work well for collecting building assessment information?  Ideally the information would be tagged to floor plans and have the ability to include reference photos.

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    Bart Trudeau AIA
    President
    TRUDEAUarchitects PLLC
    Latham NY
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  • 2.  RE:Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 05-29-2014 05:50 PM
    Unless someone has a better idea, I would try Evernote. You can upload the floor plans as image or PDF files and annotate within the program. You can also take photos directly from within the app.

    In order to use it to its full potential, you have to get the premium version, but it's only $45 a year. There is also a business version for multiple users.

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    Ronda Bernstein
    Historical Consultant
    APT WASHINGTON CHAPTER INCORPORATED
    Washington DC
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  • 3.  RE: Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 05-30-2014 10:40 PM
    I use Good Notes on the iPad. Can annotate by hand/ stylus or by regular keyboard. PDFs can be uploaded as well as exported via email or to iTunes, can insert image files using photo library or camera. It has options for regular pens and highlighters. Should cost around $5. Good luck! ------------------------------------------- Haresh Vibhakar AIA Chief Architect L&T Construction Ltd. Mumbai, India -------------------------------------------


  • 4.  RE: Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 05-29-2014 06:09 PM
    Newforma has a product for that, although I haven't personally used it. If you aren't using their project management software, I would imagine it could be cost-prohibitive.

    http://www.newforma.com/products-services/newforma-mobile-apps/capture-app/


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    Sam Watkins AIA
    Corgan Associates
    Dallas TX
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  • 5.  RE: Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 05-30-2014 06:26 PM
    VFA (http://www.vfa.com/) as a complement to their VFA.Facility product, has an app called VFA.Auditor specifically geared towards assessments - definetely has photo capture capability (with some limited photo editing, like rotating, designate as primary photo), and synchs with the VFA.Facility database.  From a tablet (Android & Ipad) you have access to a system library to see system definitions (uses Uniformat II).  I haven't used it, only seen online demos.
    Don't know about geo tagging or associating w/ drawings . . .
    An interesting trend I've noticed in these sorts of applications (talking about condition assessment software now) is the move away from checklists.  Used to be that there was a checklist for every subsystem and sub-subsystem out there, so many and so cumbersome that only the true die-hards would ever complete them.  The trend now seems to focus on remaining life, duty cycle, maintenance practices and records to assess building systems.  On one hand this puts a heavier burden on the assessor as the SME, but on the flip side, more assessments are getting done vs. only a few with the long, laborious checklists.  Making the assessments as consistent and objective as possible has always been a challenge.

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    James Rodriguez AIA
    Project Manager
    Boeing
    Torrance CA
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  • 6.  RE: Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 06-02-2014 10:30 AM
    Try PlanGrid. There's an app for the Ipad and android. I believe the Ipad version is more solid, as the android app has just come out of beta. It allows you do tag photos to a plan and add custom notes and symbols. You can run custom reports to identify particular conditions.


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    Steve Davis AIA
    Canizaro Cawthon Davis
    Jackson MS
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  • 7.  RE: Apps for Building Assessment

    Posted 06-04-2014 01:56 PM
    Hello. Bluebeam Revu is great. Works on a PC desktop and iPad, I'm not sure about android.


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    Beth Bailly
    Building Conservation Associates, Inc.
    New York NY
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