Apple pencil instructions

Need help? We are here.
1

I have an iPad Pro with iPadOS 18.1.1 and Apple Pencil Pro. Granted, I am a newbie to CAD and 3D Printing. I want to create models for printing with my Bambu P1S and am starting to get the hang of using Shapr3D on my Windows desktop with a mouse. But, I’m having problems using my iPad and Apple Pencil. For one, when I go into Sketch mode and select Rectangle and point and drag the pencil, I either get the selection or nothing. I’ve tried not holding the pencil too long to start, but I usually have to tap at least twice to get the rectangle and that may be after a few tries, having gotten either the selection or line drawing. Also, I can’t figure out the equivalent to shift-selection (to select multiple objects). I searched all over Google, shapr3d.com and the community forum for instructions for using the Apple Pencil with Shapr3D no luck. It would be great to have a tutorial and/or list of functions and how to use them. Thanks

2

Anyone have any suggestions? :slightly_smiling_face:

3

Hi Mark,

My guess is you need to be just a little quicker moving the pencil after locating the start point. If you get the selection tool, then there was too long of a pause before moving. But if you have selected the rectangle tool, you should either get a rectangle or the selection tool. I don’t know what “nothing” is that you mention.

To select the first, tap on it. So it makes a difference if you tap an edge or a face. Or if you want to select a body, double tap it. To select more, you select a second, third, etc., and they will be multi-selected. You do need to be careful; if you miss your target so you are essentially selecting nothing, then you deselect all.

Also, there are some areas where you can’t sketch. If you’re too close to a tool or other icon, it won’t trigger the sketch tool.

Some things that may help… Zoom in enough so you can easily hit the start target; if needed you can zoom out during the sketch using pinch gesture of hand not holding pencil. Practice making a bunch of shapes in the center of your screen to get a good feel for the timing issue.

4

Hi Bob,
Thanks for your helpful suggestions! I will give them a try. Basically, it looks like an issue of dexterity–which I may be lacking.
Mark

5

My biggest qualm about Shapr3D Apple Pencil support is that actions are too time dependent.

6

Hi Mark,

I had many of the same issues you are having with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil Pro.

Just a warning on my advice I know less than zero about CAD and the digital world in general! Having said this I have made much progress in solving these issues.

Some had advised that it was an issue of dexterity/timing/tapping/dragging on the screen. So I practiced and practiced thinking ok it’s just me, but I did not get better. I began to think I would need to give up on the iPad and pencil!

After days of frustration It dawned on me that this super duper pencil pro was maybe too smart for me! Maybe the pencil pro was over the top for Shapr3d? I was considering buying a standard Apple pencil but then it occurred to me that if the pencil pro was so smart it might have customizable settings. And oh yes the little smarty pants pencil sure does!! So I went into the pencil settings and made the smarty pants pencil as dumb as me :laughing: I turned pretty much every darn button off! and guess what no more issues for this old man :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

In addition this helped me a ton:

  1. If you zoom in a bunch your actions/selection will be considerably easer to execute.

  2. The iPad screen is tiny so make more room on your screen by hiding the bodies and history trees when not needed.

  3. don’t buy an Apple Pencil Pro for Shapr3d its just waisted money for extra features that need to be turned off. Buy the standard Pencil.

Hopes this works as well for you as it does for me.

Dave

7

Dave,
Thanks for the feedback. Alas, mine is a non-pro pencil. I will take your advice about zooming in more.
Mark

8

Mark,

The non-pro pencil should work better… did you go into the iPad settings and then go into the pencil settings (make sure the pencil is in the iPad magnetic charger on the iPad) to access all the settings. Are there settings that can be disabled on the non-pro pencil when you look at the settings? My pencil pro was almost unusable until I disabled:

ACTIONS
squeeze, double tap,

EFFECTS
hover, haptics,

PENCIL GESTURES
bottom left corner, bottom right corner

Dave

9

Thanks for the additional info. I have those settings, too, and I just turned them off, which improves things significantly.

image
image809×825 86 KB

10

Glad to hear that helped!

Dave