Structural Calcs hand written 5

[JStructsteel]

Anyone use a electronic tablet for hand calcs? I dont usually do formal hand calcs, usually try to do a spreadsheet for that. But, sometimes just a quick calc, or a down and dirty calc i will do on paper and refine later.

Was thinking of a paper tablet to do this....if you dont know what I am talking about, one I am looking at is called ReMarkable, check out the website.

It will save and create a pdf, that I can then dump into my file folder, and reference back when needed. otherwise I find i have loose paper everywhere, and sometimes spend too long looking for it. (yes, I should be more organized).

Let me know if you think it would be worth it.

 

[SWComposites]

Just get a scanner to scan in paper pages to pdf files.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I use BlueBeam (though most any PDF should work), to add headers and footers to my hand calc pages. Then combine them with other output (from Excel, or analysis, or wherever) for a total electronic calc package in PDF form.

 

[Celt83]

I’ve almost purchased the Remarkable a few times now, my hang ups are:
- I like to clip images into my calcs
- I have a ton of old book scans I like to reference

The first isn’t possible on Remarkable and the second from my research tends to be troublesome with e-ink displays.

If all you want is digital paper then it may be a good fit. Check through the subreddit for various user input on the device: Link

For now I use a Huion tablet and Onenote on my office and personal computers.

I'm making a thing:

http://www.thestructuraltoolbox.com

(It's no Kootware and it will probably break but it's alive!)

 

[TLHS]

I've got lots of things with styluses. I never end up using them for calcs. It's what I thought my paperless solution would be when I initially tried going that direction several years ago, and it has just never felt right. It's hard to write small enough to get enough on the page. I don't end up seeing enough of the math at a time to really work well with it. The interface never seems great to flip around quickly between things to make up for that.

If I have a computer in front of me, I'd rather use MathCAD or SMath. If I'm just at my desk, paper and a photo of the calc or a scan of the calc seems to work better. I rarely do the latter anymore, though.

 

[bones206]

Yea I just tried this with an Asus Flipbook and OneNote. It was an abject failure. So much potential, but the actual execution of using the stylus for hand calcs is far too clumsy and finicky. Spend half the time erasing all the little dots where my wrist touched the screen, or dealing with some other inadvertent little thing that messes up my flow.

 

[Greenalleycat]

I can't directly answer your question but will chuck in my 2c anyway in case it helps

I do a lot of hand calcs (50-100 pages for jobs is fairly common) and always prefer pen and paper
Mixed in with that I make use of plenty of computer assistance (spreadsheets and printouts from analysis software) but use this to complement hand calcs rather than doing everything on the computer itself

I have not really tried doing full calcs on a tablet, but I have an iPad pro that I use for all my uni notes, so I do lots of handwriting on that
IMO I would be investing in something like an iPad or possibly a newer model Surface Pro
The writing experience isn't exactly the same as paper but it's pretty darn good given the flexibility
It's pretty easy to import your office's calc pad as a template (I did it with ours) and do calcs
I have found that my hand calcs are not as neat as my pen-and-paper calcs (which are pretty snazzy, if I may say so myself)

I had a Surface Pro 4 at uni and it was too slow and buggy to be useful, whereas the iPad is so fast it works perfectly - whatever you buy, make sure it has lots of power, the biggest thing that will piss you off is a slow machine
The Surface pen is better than the Apple Pencil though IMO - but iOS has better writing apps

 

[Lomarandil]

We're experimenting with this at our office. Have two colleagues, one using a Surface go 3, one using an iPad. Both are content with their setups, but the edge seems to go to the surface pen.

They're both using their devices as a semi-laptop replacement. If your use case is simpler, I've put a decent bit of research into the Supernote over the Remarkable for digital notebooks (apparently better writing feel, and I think the OCR/organization of notes would put it over the top). But I'm having a hard tine replacing a $5 notebook and phone scanner app with a $350 device.

----
just call me Lo.

 

[phamENG]

I have a pen display on my desk and was using that for this purpose. It was okay. I hadn't found a great program to use it with, and it probably needed to be a little bigger (bought the small one to test out the concept - didn't want to spend $400 on a failed boondoggle). It's also wired, so it's clunky to move around. When my laptop bit the dust a couple months ago and I switched to using my desktop, the wires don't reach (they're proprietary split connections) so it's sitting there doing a whole lot of nothing now. I bought a spiral bound calc book and use that now.

I restored my laptop and it's doing it's job again, but I don't completely trust it. In a year or two I'll probably buy a new one, and I'll be looking for a 2-in-1 or Surface that I can pull into service for that and try again.

 

[kostast88]

iPad (Air v4 or better) + apple pencil 2.0
Use OneNote and you can pre-set it to A4 size with Template. For new page, just add page in a section. Then you print all section pages to PDF.
Graphics take a lot of space, so then you just compress the PDF to a normal size.
I do all my hand calcs like this.
No issues with iPad, palm rejection works great.
Only issue: the pencil is hard and ipad is glass. So buy a paperlike film to put on the screen.
Also great apps for sketches, PDF markups and even BIM360.

I also do SMath & Excel, and then take snapshot and addi it in OneNote. The overall result is pretty good. Very versatile.

 

[WinelandV]

From the "How to improve myself" sub-forum, there is this thread, which looked at a similar question:

thread731-497244

For myself, I use an iPad pro with the apple pencil. The screen is almost the size of an 8-1/2 x 11, so I can see the whole sheet. I use the notability app - I picked it up when it was $10. However, it is now subscription based and I have no idea if it's worth the subscription cost (my access was grandfathered in).

Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[JStructsteel]

Thanks everyone.
Its never going to be used to submit a calc...more for my notes when doing prelim thoughts, or even when on the phone and jotting down items. I like the idea of the device because its less than 1/4" thick, battery lasts for 2 weeks, BIG PLUS.

I envision I jot a set of notes, hit a button, and in some folder on One Drive ( I use one drive for project files) its there. i can then just move to project file.

I find myself using the 8.5"x5.5" (half sheet) note pads, and they get put everywhere.

Scanning each page would be too time consuming. Im trying to get away too from a paper file.

Sort of a moot point now too, the device is 300$, pen 130$, case 100$. Definitely not an investment i am going to make, if I dont like. I am going to see if Amazon Kindle has a sim device.

Thanks

 

[Celt83]

Do you want mobility freedom with the device?

Do you want to be able to look at the pen and see the result directly beneath it (Remarkable vs traditional drawing tablet)?

Do you want to clip images into your notes?

Do you want to do any other activities on the device or just take notes?

Are you invested in any of the mobile app markets currently (Apple or Google)?

The current kindles are not pen enabled and the screen size isn't great for anything other than novel reading, Amazon has their new Kindle Scribe coming out in November which adds pen capabilities. For Remarkable you could forgo the case and get the standard pen (the upsell for the marker plus is only the single additional feature being the eraser nib) that will knock the total down the $379ish which makes it nearly the cheapest device in that market, there is a referral thread in the subreddit where you could ask for a coupon code which I believe works out to $20 off as well. If you answer the above questions I can offer some device recommendations?

phamENG:
Give Krita a shot it works fairly well for digital calcs that I file directly into the job folder, parallel guides and custom brushes for things like CMU, steel shapes, etc. are pretty easy to get setup. For shared or more structured notes Onenote is the unfortunate leader in the windows ecosystem still.

I'm making a thing:

http://www.thestructuraltoolbox.com

(It's no Kootware and it will probably break but it's alive!)

 

[JStructsteel]

It will be strictly for what I write. No images clipped in, no charts and graphs. Just a way to save what I write without having to scan. Something I can pack with my laptop, so mobile.

I use apple phone.

I saw the Kindle Scribe. Perhaps a Xmas gift when they black friday it.

ReMarkable is off the table, I am not paying a subscription to save items to the cloud.

 

[Lomarandil]

Remarkable actually did step back on the subscription bit about a month ago. Most of their features don't require it now.

----
just call me Lo.

 

[dik]

With my TI calculator, I create a file... do my calcs in it, and afterwards save the file to the project file... no explanation of what the calcs are, but can easily go back and see what I did. Same with scanning... my Fuji ScanSnap works great... it's also small and sits on my desk, really handy. I don't use the cloud, at all... don't need to. It's amasing how much stuff you can put on a 10T HDD, and they are cheap.

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

-Dik

 

[EZBuilding]

During the WFH Covid time I got sick of having to contain a mountain of hand calculations at my small apartment. I purchased a Samsung Tab S7 - and it is has been great for my hand calculations.

Pencil and paper is still better as a writing/drafting option - but the capability to have access to all my calculations on the go and on my phone is a huge plus. It is also has a good use case for viewing PDF standards and design guides. It also is a functionable entertainment device, which I think gives it a leg up against other platforms like remarkable/kindle.

If I were out on my own, I would be looking at having a robust desktop and a tablet in liue of just a laptop.

 

[JStructsteel]

@dik...u dont worry about loosing everything? I have my files on the laptop locally, but they are also backed up into the cloud. So if I loose my laptop, I can download everything again.

Ill update when I get one, let everyone know how its working.

 

[Brad805]

I had the same experience as Bones206. How well this works boils down to how much time and patience you have. The remarkable solution seems like about the only way to make a digital pen function like a pencil. As soon as you start scaling or zooming in other software you have problems creating nice text. There are those that have gave it enough time to go all digital. Agrent666 mentioned his process in a thread not long ago how he has been using Onenote for many years. I am taking a programming course, and the professor in that draws on the Apple onenote equivalent just like it were paper. I experimented with a Microsoft surface and found that the pen works very well. I was able to create decent notes in Onenote once I had setup a few standard pages with the settings that worked for me. The problem I found is it is very much baked into us to grab a pad in those times when we need to do something quickly. For me it also meant working with multiple devices, and that was not ideal.

 

[dik]

I have 3 backupss... not too concerned. I lost a critical document about 30 years back and since have gone overboard. I don't do sequential backups... just the latest. Back up daily and back up to USB stick for current (that day) stuff. I use FreeFileSync with a batch file for backup... does all three disks. and about once a week, send the data to a larger HDD.

The two Sabrent Rockets are M.2 drives on the motherboard... fast...

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

-Dik