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Drawing with a Stylus pen


AlanW

Question

So what do you think about the idea of sketching into a Vectorworks drawing using a stylus pen to get the concept going??? and being then able to convert this to a drawing. If I can do it with Marionette then its just a small (I say just a small) matter of connecting the pen to the program like the new Ipad Pro. I could use this with the designers in the office who use a pen still. Rather than use a mouse its more intuitive for a non cad operator to use a pen. Imagine drawing a box, walls etc etc with a pen and then  push pull with the pen to create the design, all possible.
Food for thought.

Edited by Alan Woodwell
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I think sketching at the beginning of the process is always the best way to start - though I am not sure that sketching in  VW is necessary.  There are already sketching apps, one by Adobe, that allow you to sketch or even take a picture of your sketch and turn it into a vector drawing that you could then import that into VW.  

The great thing about sketching is not being bogged down too much by precision and scale - both things that I want VW to have a lot of.  Maybe I am closed minded, but it seems like a good sketching app and a good CAD/BIM solution are, while related, doing two very different things. 

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I think sketching in VW would be useful, but only if hardware got to a point where it allowed you to sketch on the screen (eg. a Wacom Cintique or iPad). I've experimented a lot and I find there's still too much disconnect otherwise. I'd be happy if the VW mobile app when this way (eg. a sketching interface that turned your sketch into a starter VW drawing for your desktop).

Kevin

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We talk about that a LOT here. A huge number of users and many of our specialists still start a design drawing by hand. A lot of the time the first calls we get from new users are on importing scanned images or drawings from sketch apps, but I think we could offer a better workflow.

Nomad has some markup but it isn't what I would consider robust enough to accommodate the needs of an initial sketch. The real trick would be enabling an easy conversion workflow from the sketched geometry directly to Vectorworks objects like walls, doors and windows at the very least.

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I scan freehand sketches and import them into Vw all the time. Personally, I don't see the need for freehand drawing with a stylus inside the Vw application.

Like Kevin mentioned, I also see value for stylus input in a Vw mobile viewer app. During presentations on a tablet, it would be useful to sketch over 3D views or write notes inside a Vw mobile viewer app. But I can do this currently by exporting to PDF and presenting a static PDF using BlueBeam.

(Vw does have the Freehand Polyline tool, but I know it's not what is being discussed here).

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I import scanned sketches regularly as part of my workflow too. I would be looking for something that had the fluidity of using a Wacom style pen with its pressure sensitivity. I think Wacom has some products that do exactly what we're talking about in a consumer sort of way - draw in the real world and it converts to digital (Bamboo Slate for example). I've never tried them.

Kevin

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