Just four months ago we saw the first release of eDrawings for iPad. This was followed up six weeks later with a significant upgrade. Still it was just a viewer missing the features to make it a fully productive tool!
Until today with the release of the eDrawing Pro for iPad which includes the ability to Markup, Annotate, Measure and Section. (full list below). This is a new App and not just an upgrade of the eDrawing for iPad
Priced at $4.99 for the first 90 days 30days (Edited: We were given a bit of false information) then $9.99 as it’s regular price. Although you can see priced in the Australian App store for some strange reason at $5.49. Considering the AUD was buying $1.02US this morning. Hardly worth worrying about, just a little strange!
This morning I had the opportunity to load eDrawing Pro for iPad on one of the works iPad2 to see what it could do.
There is the new Sidebar on the left which contains the selection for the new Markup, Measure and Section tools. Along with the Home, Play and View features. The tools are intuitive, select the Pencil icon which opens an additional toolbar. It was a simple task with the dimension tool selected to the hover over and select the edge to add a dimension. Selecting the Annotation tool opens a dialogue box (and the keyboard) to add text. Arrows can be dragged to location and additional arrows added.
Dimensions and Annotations
There is also a “free” Annotation tool which gives you the ability to free hand sketch!
Selecting the Tape Measure Icon opens the Measure Tool bar, which gives you the option of selecting faces, edges, holes and points. It’s then just a matter of dragging the Measurement icon over, in this case, the edge to highlight and then select.
There is the ability to Measure distances
Section can be viewed through X-Y, Z-Y, Z-X Planes and positioned via the slide bar
Section Views
Section with Plane Hidden
It’s limitations now appear to be hardware driven. Although this was just a 4.4MB EASM it does have 387 parts which equates to more than a few surfaces! At times when using the Measurement Tool I would get a “Low Memory Warning”
That was my first brief look at the eDrawing Pro for iPad. It’s features now mimics much of the eDrawing desktop version, which makes it quite the productive tool!
Michael Lord 