Last week I had my first look at Capturx for Autodesk Design Review and was favorably impressed. Capturx Forms for Excel was released on November 10^th and I eagerly awaiting its arrival.

For the past seven years my professional focus has gradually shifted from the integration of CAD and GIS to web based application development tools and enterprise application integration. Workflow automation is critical to any integration project. The best application in the world loses value quickly if the end users do not see immediate benefits.

Capturx Forms for Excel has the potential to address one of the key problems in workflow automation – assisting in moving field collected data transparently to the backend or enterprise database.

Installation

Insert the CD – follow the setup instructions, register the software using they key provided by email and presto I was done…. at least I thought I was until I did the normal Start-Programs-Adapx-Capturx Forms for Microsoft Excel. Where was the program? A user’s manual (sweet), a video file (nice) and some licensing information.

After a few seconds of consternation I realized I only had to start Excel. Sure enough there was the Capturx tab I was expecting.

Getting Started – Creating My First Form

Given my perceived complexity of Capturx Forms for Excel, I actually read the user’s manual. The good news was this was not really required. The interface is absolutely intuitive – open up Excel and start laying out your form.

I added some descriptive text, merged some cells to create larger cells for pen input, used the borders tool to identify the data input fields when printed and pressed the print preview button – OOPS my form ran across a few pages.

Here’s the trick:

1. Set the column width for all columns to a smaller size – I used 0.25”.
2. Do the same for the row height. You basically now have a grid pattern that is 0.25” square.
3. Switch Excel to Page Layout View
4. Layout your form in Page Layout View – to ensure that the entire form stays on a single page.

Once the basic layout was established, the remainder of the Capturx Forms interface was absolutely intuitive. You simply select one of the cells which will be used for data input and apply a format to it.

The Capturx Tab in Excel supports two types of formatting. The standard format shown here permits you to apply a standard Excel type to the cell.

Any cell in “general” format is ignored by Capturx.

Adding a standard format enables the cell as a Capturx cell and the text recognition software will translate the hand written input.

The specialized formatting shown here provides a framework for the text recognition software and improves the overall accuracy of the translation as the software is looking for specific input.

For example State Code automatically applies a state list to the input. Country filters the input based on a list of countries. Email looks for the @ symbol etc.

It was a simple matter to run through each of the fields applying the appropriate formatting parameters.

Pressing the highlight option allowed me to immediately see the fields that were Capturx enabled and the formatting that had been applied.

Printing the form was also a breeze with the Print With Capturx button.

Overall, the interface is completely intuitive.

 

 

 

The Proof is in the Pudding – Would Capturx Really Recognize My Writing?

We had friends from out of state visiting for dinner Sunday afternoon so I printed a number of forms, and enjoyed watching a group of completely non-technical users begin to fill in my survey form.

No instructions were required and all were amazed (myself included) when we plugged the pen into the computer and the forms were automatically uploaded into separate forms.

How did it work? Amazingly well! With the proviso that we had a small sample size of 8 we achieved the following statistics:

• Dates – 100%
• Email addresses – 87% (one email had an extra space – A OL.com instead of AOL.com)
• Street Numbers – 100%
• Free form Text – all needed some editing but overall translation was pretty good.
• State – 100%
• Country – well given that I had labeled this as County and not Country it was amazing how the software interpreted the nearest country from the county that had been entered.

An interesting observation was that Capturx worked much better with hand written script compared to printing.

I don’t think Adapx would ever promise this level accuracy and the users were likely more careful than the average person in the field – but the level of accuracy surprise me.

The Bottom Line on Capturx Forms for Excel

Getting accurate data from the field into the office in a cost effective manner with minimal field staff resistance remains an unsolved problem – Capturx Forms for Excel goes a long way to solving this problem:

1. It is natural – writing on printed forms is a familiar environment
2. It is transparent – attaching the pen to the source computer loads the data automatically
3. Review interface is quick – some interpretation is required but 80% to 90% of the data will already be there and the handwritten data is easily accessible when manual input is required.

If your forms have standard lookup lists, check boxes etc than you can expect close to 100% translation. With free form text you will need manual interpretation.

The Capturx Forms for Excel documentation includes an Appendix which provides an overview of creating customized data input formats. This appears to be one of those gems which will result in even greater data conversion precision – something I will have to look at in more detail.

Suggestion – Perhaps adding a shortcut to Excel on the Capturx Forms for Microsoft Excel tab would eliminate the initial confusion for a new user. As a minimum this step should be added to future Quick Start Instructions or as the last user prompt after installation.

Next Steps – Database Integration

Adapx’s role stops once the data has been returned to Excel.

Darrin and I have been developing and deploying web based solutions that can be configured instead of programmed for selected clients over the past 4 years. The core technology- RADE - supports simultaneous connections to multiple data sources and permits uses to configure reports, queries, charts and web based mapping interfaces. Administrators assign users to user groups and can configure and deploy reporting and mapping applications in a secure environment.

We had developed the requirements and specifications for round tripping data from a database to Excel where users could edit the data in a familiar environment and then post it back to the database.

Capturx Forms for Excel allows us to take this one step further – really full circle – where we can push structured data like a work order from the database, to a form where it can be printed, filled in by field staff, returned to Excel and then posted to the database. We have named this concept FullCircle and are experimenting with the process to allow:

1. Mapping database tables, fields and constraints to Capturx forms

2. Loading Capturx forms into the database where they can be managed and retrieved as an enterprise asset

3. Uploading and populating the source database tables with field captured data

I am looking forward to putting the FullCircle concept through its paces this week with some Oracle based application data.

I began my journey in the computer aided drafting and design (CADD) industry using AutoCAD 1.2 and a Victor 9000. At the time we were trying to automate the drafting process to improve engineering efficiency. The push to move from pen and pager to digital drafting began.

Twenty five years later I have gone full circle with the Adapx CapturX for Autodesk Design Review. I am back to writing on paper but with a twist – a digital pen that tracks paper based writing and markups and automatically associates these with the source document.

So – what led me here and what was my initial experience with this revolutionary technology?

Field Markups Remain a Problem!

Getting information from the field back into the office remains a problem.

I recall a story of a roll of paper drawings, found behind the back seat of a foreman’s pickup truck after he retired, being dumped on a draftsman’s desk. It contained thousands of markups of the power network that had never been updated in the CADD system.

Everything has been tried from notebooks to PDA’s to mobile devices both in a standalone and web enabled environments. They just don’t work in the field!  The sun is too bright, the form factor is too small, the fingers are too fat or field staff are too resistant – yet this problem has to be solved to maximize overall efficiency.

Digital Pen Technology – A Solution?

Kevin Faus – a long time Autodesk associate has recently joined Adapx as their south east sales representative. Kevin gave me an overview of Capturx and I was intrigued enough to order Capturx for Autodesk Design Review (ADR).

ADR is a free yet very powerful product from Autodesk that allows DWF files generated by AutoCAD to be marked up and then returned to designers for incorporation into the source drawing.  Below is a summary of my experience with this revolutionary technology.

Concepts

Without getting too technical, the Adapx pen contains an infrared sensor that tracks each individual movement on a piece of paper. But – the paper must first be printed with a digital “snowflake”. This snowflake is a unique series of light gray dots which uniquely identifies each piece of paper.

If you check out digital pens at Costco for example, you will notice that each pen is sold with a set of notepads. This is critical because each page in these notepads has been pre-printed with a snowflake. The pens will not work with standard paper.

When you purchase a solution from Adapx you receive a license for approximately 6,000 8”x11” pages or 2000 E size plots. When you run out of “snowflake” you must refill your supply via an on line purchase. At about 7 cents a page or 20 cents for an E size plot – this is very reasonable.

Getting Started – You Need a 4 Color Laser Printer/Plotter

I have been suffering with an ink jet printer for as long as I can remember. The net impact of which is I don’t use a lot of paper. After careful research, I was able to purchase an Okidata C6150 laser printer on-line for under $500. Pen or no pen – I can at least justify printing documents now and am getting great photographs printed in seconds.

Printers supported by Adapx can be found on the supported printers page on the Adapx web site.

Installation Process

The package from Adapx was delivered by courier within 3 days. It came with the pen and two boxes – one for Microsoft One Note and one for ADR. All went on the shelf for a week waiting for the printer and a few free hours.

All and all, installation was a snap – provided that you do READ the four page Quick Start guide with one small exception – Step 5 – “Activate your Digital Pen requires you to print a DWF file through CapturX, mark it with the pen and then dock the pen to the PC.”

This assumes that a user knows how to print a DWF file – sounds easy. I personally had not worked with DWF files although I understood the concept.

So here are the unwritten words:

1. With AutoCAD Map your can either plot to a DWF or Publish as DWF from the File Menu

a. If you want to simply plot a DWF, select the DWF6ePlot.pc3 driver as the plotter. This allows you to save the DWF file to a folder on your computer.

b. If you select publish to DWF from the more plotting options– do not accept the default of 3D DWF as I did. CapturX does not work with 3D DWF files.

2. From the Start – Programs – Adapx item – select the Capturx Control Center to bring up the application shown here.

3. From this program you can load and then plot the DWF file using the Files and Print tabs. This process adds the snowflake to the paper.

4. Mark up the plot with the digital pen.

5. Dock the pen and the markups are returned to the DWF file seamlessly

Undocumented Tip

Selecting the Print Palette Control prints a markup template that can be used with DWF files along with very good instructions.

The Pen Manager Console

Once installed the Adapx Pen Manager icon appears on the Windows Quick Launch toolbar.

Double clicking the icon exposes the Pen Manager as shown to the right.

The Pen Manager is intuitive and easy to use. Its role does not become apparent, however, until you attach the pen.

Downloading Information from the Pen

Plugging the pen into its docking station causes the Pen Manager Console to be activated and you are provided options for downloading the information

On completion, the Capturx Control Center is automatically activated where you can select the downloaded information and immediately view it in ADR. Overall – a very easy and intuitive interface but documentation would be helpful.

Viewing Markups into AutoCAD

Adapx’s job is over once the markups from the pen have been associated with the original DWF file and it does this very nicely.  But I wanted to review the markups in AutoCAD Map. A quick search through the Help file gave me the commands to do this:

1. DWFATTACH – allows you to attach a DWF file in the same way you would any XREF or similar file. But the markups are not visible which caused me some consternation.

2. MARKUP – displays all markups associated with the DWF file.

My Use Case

In my case, I was attempting to associate work orders to field assets. I wanted an easy way for field staff to identify which manholes and hydrants were inspected as part of a specific work order.

I simply wrote the work order numbers on the page in different colors and then circled the assets in that color. Different techniques could be employed of course. I also tested callouts to identify field observations.

The markups appeared in AutoCAD Map as expected. It was a simple process to select the entities in AutoCAD and then update the attached database with the work order number.

The Bottom Line on Adapx CapturX for Autodesk Design Review

Overall, this was the smoothest interface for field data collection that I have seen.

· Markups are stored with the source document and can be processed by office staff at any time.

· Paper backups are available when that is important.

Some suggestions for Adapx:

1. Improve the documentation particularly on the initial DWF plot generation.

2. It would be nice if the ADR palette could be added to paper space and be on the same page. I tried this as an experiment but the commands appear to be tied to the palette snowflake.

3. Consider partnering with a national printing firm for those customers who are hesitant to invest in a large format laser plotter for D and E size plots.