I had the chance to talk with ... Phil Cohen of ADAPX at COFES earlier this month about their unique pen-based solution that allows physical markups on drawings or notebooks to be transfered back to the original drawing electronically. Phil, along with industry veteran Jeff Drust, were quite a hit showing off this innovative solution.

What do they Do?
ADAPX leverages technology from Anoto and Rite in the Rain to offer a novel form of design collaboration. Most engineers have taken a drawing and marked up changes. "Change this length" or "trim this bracket" might get written on a physical drawing. Many have also had the opportunity to mark up CAD drawings using digital markup tools. These tools allow a person to look at a screen, and markup the drawing with some of the same types of comments. Of course, these tools also have the advantage of being  interactive, offering a 3D view, providing measurement capabilities, and other features that a 2D drawing can't provide. But they also require access to a computer, even if it's a hand-held device of some sort. And that may not fit the work environment of every individual, particularly field-based employees. ADAPX offers a hybrid solution aimed at offering some of the best of both worlds.

What they Offer - a Hybrid between Physical and Digital Markup
Imagine taking a drawing, such as a printed DWF from Autodesk, which was the demonstration used at COFES, and marking it up with a pen. Wouldn't it be great if those nand written updates could sync up with the original, electronic drawing? That's exactly what the offering does. It starts with the paper. The paper contains a unique pattern on it. That pattern is distinct, and allows a special pen to "know" where it is on the paper with a special sensor. So markups made on the document are understood from a positional perspective by the pen. Then, the markups can sync back up to the original drawing (via USB or Bluetooth). The demonstration (they were letting us all give it a go with the pen) was remarkable. It just seemed to work. And the paper wasn't kept under glass or in a special environment, it was just a drawing that Phil had with him. There are some other nuances in terms of adding menu options that indicate the type of markup action you are making that add to the fun. And the pen wasn't the size of your cell phone, either, it was a reasonable sized device to work with.

Who do they Work with?
Initial targets in the PLM space are Autodesk users. The solution works specifically with Autodesk Design Review, but also with Microsoft OneNote to capture freehand drawings and notes. The base technology is not from ADAPX, but the applicability to our industry comes from ADAPX.

So that's what I hear from ADAPX on marking up documents and syncing with a digital review, I hope you found it useful. What do you think? What else should I have asked them?