Architect Magazine: The importance of line weights cannot be underscored in architectural drawings. Whether they are executed through a cherished set of technical pens or pencils, or through a well-loved reference sheet of plot styles taped to one’s monitor, line weights can add a substantial amount of information—depth, hierarchy, space, cut locations, materiality, door swings, reference points—to a drawing without requiring the addition of more objects or text. As Life of an Architect blogger Bob Borson, AIA, puts it: “You can incorporate more information into a single drawing and still have the document be legible.”
6 comments:
With photoshop and other digital drawing mediums being so abundant, it’s no wonder that they made one just for architectural (or theatrical!) drawing. In photoshop, while you can get different line weights with a stylus, often it will fade to a thin line on each end and not being consistent because that looks better with organic drawing. This app really simplifies and streamlines this process by having the eight most important pens. However, I know that in photoshop especially, and possibly other iPad based drawing apps, you can set your favorite pens and create your own brush styles, so you can really do the same thing there as you can here. The cool thing with this app is that when you pick a scale to draw in, it will give you the 10 best pens for that size so when you print or zoom in the line weight will always look right. That is a convenience that I can see being really important.
THIS IS AWESOME!!!! First of all, I have never heard of this app before and the second I submit this comment I will open my iPad and download it. The app seems like a great resource to view and work with drawings and could be useful on the shop floor instead of countless plates that will get torn and lost. This app allows you to have a lot of freedom with how you view a drawing and draw on it and the pen feature adds a whole new level. I have viewed drawings in different apps but those apps have no clue when I zoom in and don’t adjust. Also, if I try to draw on them, first of all, all the pens I use suck, and second there is no ability to draw fine lines, until this development. I hopefully can test out the drawing capabilities of this new development on the shop floor (even though I know there are down sides to an ipad as the plate).
This sounds amazing. I’ve never heard of this company or its app before but if I get myself an iPad or the next time I have my hands on a family member’s I’m going to have to try this app. Their pen sound great too, since as much as I like drafting on a computer as opposed to by hand line weight and type, however you chose to go about achieving them are more complicated than by hand. I can’t just change how hard I press or lift my pencil to make lighter lines or dashes. Yes, the computer will make a more consistent line weight or evenly based line than I ever will but its still an added level of complexity. This company’s products sound like they could be a great bridge between handcrafting and computer drafting. Not to mention I really like the idea of being able to draft on a tablet. It seems like a very convenient way of doing things if there was an easier way to manage lines types and zoom levels. I’d certainly rather show someone else my drawings on a tablet than a computer.
This technology is exactly why I am jealous of the professionalism architects possess. Us in the theatre world have just been living with the autoCAD toggle button that will show or hide line weights while in the meantime, architects have been manipulating their software to suit their needs. And while I don’t think I could ever be 100 percent comfortable with this kind of stylus drafting, I would love to have my zoom be appropriately scaling my line weights as I navigate my drawings, especially as they grow more complex and reliant on layer differentiation. I think this program would really benefit designers in particular who use their drafting software as sections especially are very reliant on layers and line types as well as line weights. Also designers typically being more visually inclined people would probably like the scaling function of the line weights so they don’t have to lose integral information as they navigate.
This app looks really cool and no one who has taken Dick’s freshman drafting class can dispute the value of good line weight. I have never actually use this app before and I am surprised that they have managed to cram so much drawing functionality into a mobile app that still allows an accurate drawing experience. I am intrigued by the possibilities that this technology has to offer but I am still a little skeptical that it will ever be nearly as fast as a desktop solution like AutoCAD or vector works. It might however be worth it to see if I can reach out to them and find if they offer a free student version so I could get my hands on an I-pad and try out yet another way to draft. Maybe this one will let you capture the beauty of hand drafting with the precision of CAD.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about this app. On one hand, I appreciate the fact that the app automatically scales the pen size when drawing at different zoom levels. On the other hand, I don’t think this is anything new. In the CAD programs I’ve used, typically there is an option to scale line weight when zooming in or out. Choosing a specific line weight when drawing ensures that you get the proper line weight when plotting or printing a drawing. I suppose the difference is that the new app assigns lineweights to use at certain zoom levels. When I use a CAD program, I’ll either draw everything and then adjust lineweights or adjust lineweights as I go. I typically don’t pay much attention to the weight I’m drawing in until I start dimensioning. For basic drawings, I usually only use two weights – a thicker line for my drawing and a thinner line for my dimensions. I haven’t used the app, but I’m not impressed. Maybe if I used it that would change.
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