iPhone apps for engineers 1

[trainguy]

Hi guys.

I just recently joined the iPhone club, and now that I've had my fix of cool games, I was wondering if anyone knows of apps that I can use for actual work (Struct design / stress analysis, math, pdf document review...)

Any ideas?

tg

 

[casseopeia]

I recommend these;

Convert - free, for quick, easy conversions

Google Earth - free

myLanguage - the best free translator app I've found. You can not only dial in the language, but the dialect as well. I entertained myself for an hour waiting for someone at the dentists office toggling between French (France) and Haitian Creole. Do NOT get freetranslator. I don't think it gets anything right

abc speller - free - I like it because it will guess the word you want if you are really off, not just tell you that you are wrong.

My iPhone came with Maps, but when I got a Mobile Me account, they are now combined in a single app called navigation. Mobile Me costs $99/year. For me it is worth it's weight in gold.

Your iPhone also comes with a calculator app. When you turn the phone sideways, the calculator goes from simple arithmetic to scientific. There's not much in the way of financial functions, but i don't use those that offen.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[bithkits]

Rather get an HP 50g graphing calculator IMO. Then head over to

http://www.hpcalc.org

for many many free programs...

Adriaan.
I am an Engineer/part time student (Mechatronics) from South Africa.
Advice from lecturer: "Be warned - when you go into industry your boss will give you a thousand things to do and he wants them done yesterday!" So far he is right...

 

[MintJulep]

GraphCalc is a pretty nice free graphing calculator.

 

[IRstuff]

Don't know if the iPhone will run it, but SMath is sort of like Mathcad, but free:

http://en.smath.info/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=425

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[casseopeia]

Mostly I've been using MobileMe to sync calendars and contacts. Last night I uploaded a 6 minute video of various stills of my BF's 6 yo daughter that I edited and set to music so that her mother could share it with her rather large family. In the past I've used YouTube, Break, Photobucket and a couple more forgettable sites.

MobilMe was so much easier and faster than anything I've used before. And they didn't give me a hard time about not having rights to the music like that PITA YouTube. I'm liking Mobile Me more and more. I also like the more private nature of the site. Although my video is available to view by anyone and downloadable, someone would have to go to extreme measures to find it.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[dcStrucEng]

If you do a search for "rc beams" in the App Store, two programs come up for reinforced concrete design. I haven't used them, has anyone else?

 

[shawnpeter]

- Matrin sprocket, pretty good app with formalae, etc.

- mecalQ, calcs, etc.

- ThomasNet, good news, links

- Drawvis Free, cad app

- Measures Lite, interesting app for sending people pics and dimensioning them

- ResistorCC, color code resistor app

- Engineering News, pretty obvious

-Pi Cubed Lite, nice math app

- APOD, astronomy pic of the day

- 5-0 Radio, listen to police, fire, etc around the world

- Wings, fun flight sim

- TapFarm, ohhhhhhhhhh

and Paper Toss if you are really bored at work..

 

[trainguy]

Thanks, all.

Keep 'em coming...

tg

 

[shawnpeter]

and BTW, an iPhone will not help you "Improve Myself to Get Ahead in My Work"... If anything, it has seriously hindered my productivity from 3pm onward.

I then made the dumb choice of forwarding my work cell to my iPhone so I'd have an excuse to keep it on me all day long. One of our salesmen has the same problem. It's like crack for engineers.

 

[trainguy]

Agree 1000 (quick game of iPhone Real Racing as I take a break from this post...OK I'm back) percent, shawnpeter!

I don't do crack, but I know what you mean...

tg

 

[DRWeig]

Kele calculator -- a really nice engineering units converter (free).

Good on ya,

Goober Dave

 

[TGS4]

GraphiX48 - it's the HP-48GX calculator. When mine (HP-48SX) died, a little piece of me died too, until I found this app.

 

[casseopeia]

trainguy, I just reread your original list and you mention pdf's I hadn't checked recently but that was one of the problems I had initially. You couldn't see pdf's on your iPhone. But there are a few pdf readers, none for free. There's also something called GetPaid that claims to do pdf invoicing and time sheets. Could be useful if you do a lot of field work and need to track your time. I can't imagine doing invoices that way. Kinda pricey too at $4.99.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[VEBill]

I open PDF files (via Internet links) all the time on my iPhone 3GS. I had never noticed that you couldn't.

What's new is that you can file them away in the iBooks app.

 

[VEBill]

Search the App Store for "structural", it looks like there's at least several dozen apps for wood, steel and concrete engineering.

 

[shawnpeter]

Yeah I never have had a problem with PDF's. Check iTunesU (university) for a lot of engineering lectures. Also search for podcasts about engineering in iTunes.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Yeah, I'd pay cash money for an iTunes that actually worked worth a crap.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[beej67]

Dropbox: Free instant cloud computing.

You install it on your phone and on any number of computers, and it creates a subfolder under your 'my documents' folder called 'my dropbox.' Any document you put in here instantly appears on all your other computers and on your phone. It's free to a size limit (couple gigs I think)

Soulver: A better calculator

It calculates in realtime as you type in expressions, and you can do different ones on different lines, and can reference lines back to each other. Like a cross between a calculator and a simple spreadsheet.




I'm looking for something I can use to do open channel flow calculations with - maybe a spreadsheet or formula manager I can plug Manning's Equation into. Anybody know of a good one? I don't want to pay for an app that won't work.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[swearingen]

The GraphiX48 app has been taken down. I would bet it has to do with copyright issues - the developer must have ported at least some of the code from the original.

Unfortunate - I love my 48, but I don't carry it with me...


-5^2 = -25 ;-)

http://www.eng-tips.com/supportus.cfm