Potential time-saving app lets you get your scale right, right away
Archisketch is a drawing and sketching application that provides the ability to draw to scale, which is helpful for architects and designers.
Usage: This app is a simple one: Users can use it to draw or sketch. It allows the user to set a scale for drawings and thereby creates the ability to draw in a more “technical” sense with CAD-like attributes. The app organizes your drawings by projects; it’s downloadable as a demo version with limited storage, with the upgrade to the full version available as a one-time in-app purchase. This allows for more projects and essentially limitless drawings. As with most tablet sketching apps, the use of a stylus is recommended.
Pros: Archisketch possesses several functions that set it apart from other sketching applications. It has the ability to set the scale of the drawings as they’re created, and it also provides layering. Archisketch comes with a few preset “shapes” that may be useful; users can also create symbols or content to be used across projects. The user can take or import a photo to allow for notes and drawing on top of an image. Other useful features include the ability to set up grids in various patterns: horizontal, vertical, axonometric, and isometric. The app allows the user to snap to these gridlines as well, which is helpful when wanting to maintain scale. Text can be typed in various sizes, and the font selection is robust. Archisketch uses a good zoom interface that allows for small details to remain with image scaling.
Cons: The main deficit of this application is its inability to move drawings off the tablet; its exporting function is not abundantly useful. The app basically allows the user to place a drawing on a specified (and limited) sheet size and export via email as a JPG. There was previously talk of PDF exporting, but it has not been updated. In fact, the app in general has not been updated in over a year. This is not a good indicator for the future, as iOS has been updated several times in that time. Fortunately, this version remains more than functional.
Platforms: iOS only
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Andrew Hawkins, AIA, is the founder and principal of Hawkins Architecture, based in College Station, Texas.
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