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Thread: Vector designs on the ipad anyone?

  1. #1

    Vector designs on the ipad anyone?

    I have been trying out new apps for the ipad. I have found that although many of the available apps are rather simplistic, they are actually very easy to learn and therefor keep one focused on the basics. For vector drawing I am using an app called iDraw, by indeeo inc. I don't remember how much is cost, $10 or 15 maybe. It is very much easier to use than my $1000 CS2 illustrator.

    We also use some of the autodesk apps, like sketchbook, and my kids are currently playing with 123creature.

    I am wondering if other users are also using the ipad for design work, and if so, what are you using and how?

    Cheers M

  2. #2
    Martin James,

    A large proportion of choosing applications need to be reverse engineered from the expected result. With CAD, the questions are > what is the scale, complexity, precision, and being designed? Are you designing furniture, buildings, or cars? Rendering? Do you need to display dimensions or annotations? What is the reason for the portability?

    I've never used it, but at first glance what appears to me to the best application to me for the iPad is Autodesk SketchBook Pro. However, this program this doesn't appear to also display dimensioning, annotations etc.

    Overall, for versatility, and complete features like dimensioning, mirroring, annotations, transparent and colors, various materials and textures, simple rendering (via the free Maxwell add-on), and walk-through / fly around animations- and the ability to download thousands of 3D models from the "3D Warehouse" and create backgrounds from JPGs, I'd suggest using the free version of Sketchup on a desktop system- and with a 24" or larger monitor. Sketchup is very easy to use- I downloaded and just started trying the buttons. Eventually, I needed to look up how to do things, but I produced this quite complex model to scale without any instruction in the first two hours of use. As a design and drawing it's a mess of impossible colliding forms, but I could still make fly-through animation scenes of driving up to the motor court and walking into the entry hall, through the living room. Notice the Aston Martin and 1957 Corvette- plucked out of the 3D Warehouse. It's kind of addictive > I would rather play around randomly with Sketchup than video games of killing aliens.


    TBase_ Mockup_whole_Tl_11.24.10.jpgSketchup software Test_Whole house at back porch.jpgSketchup Test_Entry Door an dLiving Room 75.jpg


    Alan Caro

    HP z420 (2013) > Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB ECC 1600 RAM > Quadro 4000 (2Gb)> Samsung 840 SSD 250GB /Western Digital WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > AE3000 USB WiFi /> HP 2711x 27" monitor/ Windows 7 Professional 64 > AutoCad, Revit, Architecture, 3DS, Sketchbook, Inventor Pro, Solidworks, Adobe CS MC, Corel Technical Design, Sketchup Pro, WordP Office, MS Office Pro
    Last edited by Alan Caro; 01-05-2014 at 11:00 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Alan,I didn't know you are Greek!! Well,at least,it's all Greek to me. And,I speak some Greek!! Well,at least a bit of Greek in the cypriot dialect. Ana molivi and toe harte are about my speed(pencil and paper). I had 2 off the boat Greek boys from Cyprus when I taught shop in 1963. They spoke no English,so they learned English while I learned Greek. They made A's in English while American kids in my wife's English class were making the usual C's and D's. Could it be that their parents MADE them study? One made a violin in my class. The other made a guitar. We became great friends for years afterwards.
    Last edited by george wilson; 01-05-2014 at 11:59 AM.

  4. #4
    thanks alan. I posted my thread in the engravers forum where i am studying laser cutters. Some moderator type moved the post over here. I am looking to use the easy ipad vector programs to outline shapes captured by the ipad camera before sending them off for refinement. So far I like idraw because the pen tool is easy to use with your finger. I will look at sketchup, thanks

  5. #5
    george wilson,

    I sincerely wish "Compugreek" was a language I didn't speak. When I went to architecture school in the late 70's, all you needed was a flat surface, T-square, 30. 60, and 45 degree triangles, a scale, and three pencils of varying hardness > a complete business for $62. Now, with the shift to 3D CAD and renderings > a high performance workstation computer- $12,000, CAD software- the Autodesk Bulding Design Suite Ultimate for example is $13,000, rendering programs, plus Adobe CS- $2,500, and Office, plus the flat surface, and scales- $35,000. If you're an industrial designer, a program used to design aircraft-called Catia alone- $25-35,000.

    Acquiring the computer, deciding on software, and learning how to use it is bad enough, but then come the system failures and, it's like having a British sportscar- if you want to use it, you have to know how to fix it yourself or you'll be metaphorically (from the Greek metaphora "a transfer") standing by the side of the road- out of business. It's the last thing I ever wanted to be involved in and of course, as I was forced to learn the repair, I've ended up having to fix everyone elses'. My analogy (from the Greek analogia "proportion,") in this aspect- never tell anyone you have a big van or pickup or you'll be going into the free removal business.

    You bring up an interesting point which is the relationship between the complexity of using tools and the restraint that might impose on creativity- are those not "speaking the Greek" left behind? In some way, 3D CAD is very liberating in that complex forms can be described and detailed, but there is an increasing separation between the person that imagines the forms and the person who describes it and works out how to make it > computers to a varying degree are fracturing the chain of concept > description /detail > craft as the required focus on the tools is so specialized. I may be old-fashioned but it seems the more direct and intuitive the tools are- pencil in hand, the more the imagination is liberated to the resulting desing than how to make the computer show it.

    The need for speak Greek will increase!

    Alan Caro

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Martin James View Post
    thanks alan. I posted my thread in the engravers forum where i am studying laser cutters. Some moderator type moved the post over here. I am looking to use the easy ipad vector programs to outline shapes captured by the ipad camera before sending them off for refinement. So far I like idraw because the pen tool is easy to use with your finger. I will look at sketchup, thanks
    Martin James,

    That makes sense from the portability aspect. A way to do that same task with more control and detail is to make JPG photos and import to a tracing program like Corel Trace. Ther must be several versions of this kind of program. I have Trace but haven't used it. CAD-like tools are used to trace over the image which is converting it to a vector drawing that you can then import into CorelDraw, Sketchup, or AutoCad and etc. There's a subprogram that if you set the length of one part, it will make everything else in the drawing to that same scale and you can go on to dimension and detail.

    I really recommend Sketchup for quick 3D design, but for setting up a laser-also more in the line of 2D- you need a vector drafting program that will covert the drawing to the proper control format that you laser- or router or milling machine -uses. I'm far from an expert on those so the thing to do is to see which formats your laser reads and then look at drafting programs that can convert files to that format. Sotos Patistas, who posts on the CNC and engravers forum of this site has both a laser and CNC router and uses CorelDraw to make *.STL that can be read by the router (not sure if that is the laser format as well) and that creates the pattern /order of the cuts, and the stepping- gradual cuts and z-axis shaping.

    George, here I am speaking Greek again !

    Alan Caro

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    Deep South
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    3,970
    Corel Draw is a 2-D only program. It can't be used to design, convert or represent 3-D graphics as required for relief carvings. The drawings can, however, be imported into true 3-D applications which can then be used to create a 3-D image.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Art Mann View Post
    Corel Draw is a 2-D only program. It can't be used to design, convert or represent 3-D graphics as required for relief carvings. The drawings can, however, be imported into true 3-D applications which can then be used to create a 3-D image.
    Art Mann,

    Yes, CorelDraw is a 2D program and you're correct to make clear that a intermediary program is necessary for laser cutter 2D or 3D control. To clarify > Martin James, the originator of this thread on the engravers forum, requested a program "to outline shapes captured by the ipad camera before sending them off for refinement", for a laser cutter. His use reads as 2D engraving, not 3D relief carvings.

    CorelDraw files processed through an appropriate control software for example in *.STL format (and you can save CoreDraw drawings as *.STL) can run stepping sequences that will create 3D cut runs. With a refined stepping application and proper setup, you can process CorelDraw files to produce relief carvings. CorelDraw can also directly read DXF and DWG (native AutoCad).

    I believe this information is correct although currently I use Corel Technical Designer (X-5) which is a 3D capable version of CorelDraw, but for technical illustration / animation, not for automated tool files.

    Alan Caro
    Last edited by Alan Caro; 01-05-2014 at 11:04 PM.

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