Hi Toby,
I just bought a surface pro 7 i5-8g-128ssd yesterday for the purpose of getting as-built floor plans, at a work site, with a laser or tape, and into the chief software platform.
So far, it works perfectly as I only need to work out the floor plan in 2D. Floor plan, window size, location, elevation; door size and location; are all in the 2D format. I thought the i5 machine would probably do the job as needed. Turns out I was right. The machine was really snappy, and drew up the basic floor plan very well.
For fun, I opened the 3D perspective view. It took a few seconds for the render to complete, so a bit laggy there, but once it came up I could 3D view from orbit, view in, and look around smoothly. I don't really need this when working remotely, but I did snap a picture of the initial rendering with my phone, to send to a friend who was duly impressed with the results. As was I.
Note: I plan to upgrade to "Premier" on the desktop, but I purchased Home Designer "Suite" exclusively for the Surface Pro. It was only about a hundred bucks. This was primarily because of the single device restriction. I didn't want to have to keep switching the license back and forth between the desktop and the Surface Pro. Also, I don't need all the bells and whistles provided in the upgraded versions to work on the Surface Pro. I just needed a 2D planner that works well in the field. Additionally, I think the bigger more capable programs are... well... BIGGER and I don't see a need for a huge machine with huge capabilities in the field. The 128ssd is likely able to hold 10- 30 floor plans at a time before they will be off loaded to the desktop. Way more than this dedicated device will ever be needed for.
My one disappointment with the Surface Pro is that it doesn't interface with my Bosch Bluetooth Laser. I can't get the slick automatic wall adjustments that you see in demo videos. I have to manually enter the dimensions that I read on the laser, but I don't think the added time is a big difference. I may change my mind though.
Total cost for the Surface Pro w/ keyboard and pen, (somewhat useful when drawing initial layout: $1400.00 + Designer Suite $99.00=$1500 bucks.
I hope this helps you. I did try to use the Surface Pro without the attached keyboard, and found the onscreen interface to be very cumbersome. Looks like the laptop configuration is probably the best way to go. Good luck.
I'm wondering if anybody is able to charge for this as a service. I'm thinking $.30 per foot, so $300.00 for accurate floor plans on a 1,000 sqf home. Any thoughts?
James
