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Slim, sleek, and stylish, the tablet PC is the supermodel of the computing world. These portable, lightweight machines are built with rugged screens that let users draw directly onto them with a penlike device, rather than using a mouse and keyboard to enter information (although most offer attachable or built-in keyboards for those who prefer to work traditionally from time to time). Software available or under development for the tablet PC includes everything from typical productivity applications like Microsoft Office to design tools. Tablet PC makers and developers are even targeting the AEC market specifically because they know architects are comfortable working with pen in hand. Should firms take the plunge and invest in these techno-tools? And what can they expect to gain by using tablet PCs rather than traditional computers?

Ease of use, new ways to work

As a laptop or as a tablet PC, Acer’s TravelMate offers multiple methods of input.

Among architects, early adopters of tablet PCs include Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), whose associates and partners were pilot users of HP’s tablet PC, with Autodesk’s Architectural Studio (a design tool well suited to pen-based computing that allows users to sketch 3D architectural elements and interact with architectural design information) while the tablet was still in development. Henry King, SOM’s chief information officer, says the firm initially purchased just a few machines for select senior staff to test-drive. Now SOM owns 21 tablet PCs and counting. They are used by people of several ranks, from partners to associate partners to project architects, for dashing off handwritten e-mails, making presentations, sketching preliminary designs using design software like Architectural Studio, viewing Cad files on-site, and running traditional office applications.

Compaq and HP teamed up to develop the Compaq Tablet PC TC 1000.

“Once we got used to not having the keyboard, we really preferred working that way,” says King. “And we find them lighter and more durable than traditional laptops, so they’re very well suited for traveling.” Architects, notes King, use tablet PCs on-site when they want to take compressed Cad files with them, giving them the ability to perform mark-ups straight onto the tablets. Associate partner Jeff Holmes is excited by this new process, especially because of its ability to communicate information. “You can show guys pouring foundations for the project; it gets them more excited,” he says. “It’s not that you couldn’t have done it before, but it’s more convenient. It’s hard to work on a laptop standing in a puddle.” Holmes also finds the tablet to be an excellent new tool for sketching 2D and 3D architectural elements on Architectural Studio. “The format’s just the right thing.

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