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Most digitizing operations require data input, and the majority of that will be numeric. A digital takeoff program will have you switching between the keyboard and the mouse constantly. Entering data in a spreadsheet, you can happily tab, arrow, or enter your way around for most of the day without needing the mouse for anything. Neither of those functions are actually getting the work done, yet a good half of my mouse movements are spent this way.
#PLANSWIFT 10 REVISE PLAN UPGRADE#
The upgrade affects your performance as soon as you lift the handlesĭigital takeoff programs require a lot of “horsing” to simultaneously see what you’re doing, and get to where you need to be. The spacebar toggles between takeoff and select, but it’s clumsy and it would be awesome to engage “pan/grab” without the all-too-distant toolbar. If anybody at On Center is reading this, it would be HUGE if you could assign keyboard shortcuts to change cursor functions. The lack of coordination makes this VERY frustrating. The problem is that you’re making gross corrections within a display window that’s maybe 1/10th the size of your working window. I should mention that the keyboard arrows do technically work, and that you could also use the OST overview window to “grab” and move the sheet. You can however zoom out, place the cursor where you’d like to center the display, then zoom in. This method prevents moving longitudinally and laterally at the same time. You can shift the displayed area in with the scroll wheel to move the display up or down and Shift+scroll to move the display left or right.
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OST does have a “grab” tool which they call “pan” but it’s only activated through a toolbar at the perimeter of the display area.
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Planswift assigned the right mouse button as a “grab” that let the user move the sheet around within the display window. Actually moving the displayed area on-screen can be a surprisingly counter-intuitive process. Zooming in and out to see what’s going on is only half the struggle. I’m currently using On Center’s On Screen Takeoff which doesn’t recognize the zoom toggle. It’s been a while since I used Planswift, but it used to allow zoom commands from the zoom toggle on my Microsoft Wireless Comfort keyboard. Mousing across the entire screen to access the buttons is slower than using the scroll wheel. You’re forced to stop everything you’re doing to futz with the zoom buttons so you can see where to continue your work. It’s unspeakably frustrating to be focused on items in the middle of the displayed area and controlling the zoom with a toolbar button that’s somewhere on the perimeter of the program window. Waiting at the edge of the border will occasionally cause the program to side-scroll but it’s almost always too fast or too slow to be useful. A continuous measurement like a long wall, or a large area will quickly reach the border of the displayed area. The reality is that most accurate measurements will require zooming in. I’m sure someone out there uses the toolbar buttons, but I’ve never met them. Most programs offer the user two ways to adjust the zoom toolbar buttons, and scroll wheel. The current solution is to adjust the zoom in and out as needed which feels like you’re trying to read the plans with a periscope.Īs you might have guessed, there are some design issues… Imagine holding an open newspaper at arms’ length and trying to read the top left paragraph of print and it will be obvious why bigger isn’t always better. Typical architectural standard sheet sizes like ARCH D (24″ x 36″) or ARCH E1 (30″ x 42″) would require a 46.47″ and 51.63″ monitor respectively to display at 100% size.Įven if your company would pay for such a large monitor, it wouldn’t be convenient to work at the extreme corners of the display. Digital takeoff systems are run on computers just like those used in accounting, project management, scheduling, or marketing.ĭigital takeoff systems have one obstacle that creates a unique user experience, the plan area is nearly always larger than the computer’s monitor. By extension, the familiar scales, calculators, measuring wheels, digitizers, and ubiquitous colored pencils all get used much less now. For many estimators, the shift from paper plans to digital or “on-screen” takeoffs brought about a fundamental change to how they spend their days.