Electronic Note Pad

[marinaman]

I am thinking of going paperless. I am a structural engineer that designs and provides analysis of existing buildings. I often times am completing hand calculations. Often, I will knock out a hand calculation for a beam, or column, or a footing, or something like that. I may sketch the load/shear/moment diagrams, perform the calculations by hand, and then take care of a report and/or a drawing, based upon those calculations.

I'd like to perform my hand calculations digitally on an electronic note pad by hand sketching. I've been looking at the "remarkable", but there's some things I want that the remarkable does not seem to have, and vice versa.

I want to do these calculations (by hand), store them to a file within the note pad, and eventually, when the job is done, transfer them to my desktop computer via a USB thumb drive or via direct connection to my desk top via the USB.

I do not want cloud storage. I want to store my files on my own hard drive.

I'm not interested in any subscriptions. I'd like to purchase the product, and be done with it.

Essentially, I need a note pad. I'm just trying to get away from having sheets of calculation papers all over my office.

Any suggestions here?

 

[dik]

I have a Fuji Snapscan that works great and is used for the 'odd' bit of paper. Most of my work is from the computer to *.pdf files. My default printer s DoroPDF...

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Lomarandil]

Any updates here?

I'm debating the Supernote/Boox(onyx) Note Air/Remarkable. Or of course the do-nothing option, paper notebooks and digitizing using a smartphone, then sorting in a OneNote/Evernote system.

My current thought is that the Supernote's OCR and organization is the only real differentiator over paper and scanning. Still have some research to go.

----
just call me Lo.

 

[dik]

I've only used the OCR software that came with the ScanSnap a couple of times and it's great... ABBY finereader... once used to scan a print of a program I'd written... about 30 pages with only a couple of errors.

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Lomarandil]

Alright, following a good quarter, I ended up picking up a Supernote for testing. I'll get some thoughts up here after I've used it for a few days.

 

[SeanStruck]

I picked up a Wacom Cintiq on ebay after using a Wacom Intuos Pro for a while The Intuos is super handy for backchecking drawings in bluebeam, while the cintiq is great for generating new details and handcalcs. Bonus is that they use the same stylus. I started with the small Intuos pro, and eventually got a large size (after watching ebay for months for a good deal). It now acts as my integrated mousepad / pen input.

 

[Lomarandil]

Early use has been really promising for my use case.

1. As a digital notebook, it's easy to carry around, quick to find the right file for a given project or meeting, and pretty responsive to start writing. I have had some inputs lag/hang, but not too badly. Quite nice to be able to insert pages in between other pages to extend a set of notes. They just released note linking, which I am looking forward to using.

2. As a sketchpad, while the drawing tools are limited, it's been more than adequate for a quick whiteboard explanation to a junior engineer or a FBD to wrap my head around a problem.

3. I did successfully sync the device with my work email and calendar. Haven't done anything with that yet.

4. Writing feel wasn't the most important thing to me (I'm generally fairly adaptable), but all my colleagues who have tried it have commented on how much more natural it feels than an apple pencil, surface pen, etc.

 

[bugbus]

Good to know. I just ordered myself a Supernote, will report back when I've had a chance to use it.

 

[Lomarandil]

Alright, a little more info:


The good:
I've now copied about two weeks worth of project notes into the supernote. The writing experience is superb. To me, it feels just like pen and paper. But being able to move notes around the screen, erase a messy stroke, and add space between notes after the fact is fantastic.

I've been using individual note files for each project (each linked to quick access) and titles throughout the files as section headings. Supernote picks those all up and creates a table of contents. Super handy. I haven't integrated keywords or links yet.

I'm primarily using the "notes". However, I did experiment with creating a word document using the handwriting input, then converting that to text with OCR. It was remarkably accurate for my sloppy handwriting. Then using proofreading strokes to manipulate the word file is pretty slick. I don't see doing this regularly, but might come in handy for something like meeting minutes where I expect to send the notes out to others afterward. It doesn't pick up greek symbols or equations though.

I was easily able to slightly modify a standard note template to include a company logo header.

I was easily able to sync a handful of common reference materials to the supernote using the cloud sync tool. Can just as easily sync sketches and notes back to drop into a file on my computer. (Also could be done over USB). For anyone who wants to challenge KootK's reign of timely sketches here on ET, this might be your ticket.

And it's relatively easy to navigate back and forth between a reference and a note.

The bad:
As I've used it more, I've found that the gesture erase (using two fingers on the screen to activate the eraser) is inconsistent. About half of the time it works. About half of the time it doesn't and I just end up circling what I wanted to erase. Takes a few extra taps to get the eraser from the toolbar and then back into pen mode.

Additionally, I've had it "crash" about a half dozen times, almost always when creating a new file or adding a page to a file. Each time, it has come back with all of the information saved from before the crash. Reboot time is about 30 seconds.

The ugly
If one were wanting to use the supernote to generate a calculation by itself, it's currently not possible to grab a screenshot from a document and paste that into a note. The best that can currently be done is to get a screenshot from the document, and insert that as the next page of the note (no ability to crop or trim the page either, see below). Not ideal. Theoretically, it's on their software roadmap, but no ETA.

 

[bugbus]

I recently bought myself the Supernote A5X, partly thanks to Lomarandil's good review of it.

I absolutely love it. I can see this replacing basically all my previous hand calculations and note taking.

 

[SWComposites]

Anyone have pros/cons for Supernote vs reMarkable2? Thanks.

 

[dik]

Does the supernote actually do the arithmetic?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Lomarandil]

No dik, my job is still safe.

 

[dik]

I was thinking that it adapted to the font used and actually did the sums... no such luck... even for some simple calculations, I use SMath... almost as fast as my calculator. If a real calc that I want to 'save' I often just create a project file on my calculator and upload the file to the PC...

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[dik]

Lomarandil... what is your frame text that you posted a clip from?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Lomarandil]

Agreed Dik. I do most of my production calcs in Smath, and historically also have a "scratch calc" file for each project just to run small numbers like this example. But I'm finding that the Supernote can be a reasonable option for those scratch calcs, particularly if they really benefit from being attached to a sketch. (Yes, you can put sketches into Smath easily, but that does take a minute or two).

The frame analysis screenshot is from Kleinlogel.

Small update: I mentioned my "soft crashes" (noted previously) to an experienced Supernote user. They said they'd never had that issue, and that I should contact support. A few emails and a week later, I have a replacement device. Only been a few days, but no crashes or instability so far. Supernote suspects the power button on my previous device isn't quite soldered down.

 

[dik]

I often use Windows 'snap shot'for putting pictures or formula into SMath... takes seconds... in minutes, I can do an autocad drawing and paste it in... works great. I no longer have Kleinlogel... I photocopied the book over 50 years back, with permission by my employer and came in on the weekend to copy it... but the copy has been lost to the ages. The text was in German, at the time.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[wth]

dik, I just googled "kleinlogel rigid frame formulas", and the top result happened to be a PDF copy hosted at engineering.com..