# Free hand

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559 "2018-06-22T16:39:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Leroy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Leroy)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/1 "2018-06-22T16:39:42Z")

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Is there a way to draw free hand ?

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/2 "2018-06-23T09:14:44Z")

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Currently no.

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**Author:** ![Philip](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/philip/32/1100_2.png) [@Philip](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Philip)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/3 "2018-06-23T11:42:47Z")

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> [@Leroy](#):
>
> Is there a way to draw free hand ?

This would indeed be a very nice improvement for a designer. I’d like to have two options… A hand drawn freehand arc would automagically be interpreted as a degree 2 bezier spline - and a hand drawn s-shape would become a degree 3 bezier.

As any design usually starts as a free hand sketch (in product design, architecture, etc) the above mentioned ability to interpret hand drawn free form curves as bezier splines would make this software take a giant step in usability for a product designer.

As it is now I feel that Shapr is more geared towards mechanical (boxy) design, but this added “free hand” feature would really make it much more usable for the whole design process in “free form” product design and ‘advanced’ architecture as well - perhaps even automotive design early in the design process.

We would of course also need to have the ability to combine different free form shapes (also on a surface level), blending between them (G1…G4) and so on - but that’s a different story.

What do you think @Istvan? Would free hand drawing be feasible to implement? I really think it would be a very important addition.  
Thanks!

Philip

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/4 "2018-06-23T13:29:25Z")

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Technically it is possible, but how would you use it?

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**Author:** ![Leroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Leroy](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Leroy)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/5 "2018-06-23T15:24:13Z")

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I was trying to create letters for personalization of objects. Ive seen some models at various sites that have very nice lettering.

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**Author:** ![Philip](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/philip/32/1100_2.png) [@Philip](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Philip)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/6 "2018-06-23T17:57:21Z")

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I would use it for sketching 😉 A more flexible alternative to the arc- and spline-functionality we have now - when doing “form-finding” in the early stages of the design process. To me as a designer it seems quite obvious what it would be used for, but I’m perhaps not so good at explaining it to a developer. Sorry about that…

To be able to use open curves for modelling we would probably also need surface modelling possibilities - at the moment we can’t use open curves for extruding, lofting, etc. When modelling the outer surfaces (the “A-class surfaces”, if you will) for a product you usually only need the outer surface. No need to make the ‘skin’ a solid - that would come later in the process.

Thanks for listening 😀

Philip

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/7 "2018-06-23T19:34:39Z")

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So basically you would use it as a more dynamic alternative for splines?

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**Author:** ![Philip](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/philip/32/1100_2.png) [@Philip](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Philip)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 11:32am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/8 "2018-06-24T11:32:20Z")

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> [@Istvan](#):
>
> So basically you would use it as a more dynamic alternative for splines?

Hmmm, well I guess you could say so - depending on the implementation … but yeah, that’s basically it! 👍

Philip

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**Author:** ![Giffordcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/giffordcl/32/3003_2.png) [@Giffordcl](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Giffordcl)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/9 "2019-01-13T21:05:14Z")

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Am I wrong or if you want to freehand can’t you do that on paper, scan or take pic, convert to image or sag and import and convert. I may be misunderstanding how that all works but I do understand how awesome it would be to be able to freehand a lot of those important parts or hard to get to spaces.

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**Author:** ![hamedtopic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/hamedtopic/32/3371_2.png) [@hamedtopic](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/hamedtopic)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/10 "2019-01-13T21:24:48Z")

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I like the sound of this too much. Furthermore, freeform bending of a surface is outstanding too as suggested by @Philip

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**Author:** ![Johngerard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Johngerard](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Johngerard)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/11 "2022-05-27T21:17:15Z")

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I would also like to Free Hand sketch a design. Then extrude it into a 3D shape. Trying to do a Free hand sketch is do able by drawing a lot vof small straight line and curves but not easy. Also, I like to import a picture witch you can do and works great. But this is also clunky to try to free hand draw an out line around a photo. This is a second use for the Free Hand sketching feature. Just to give you another reason why we need this feature. As I write this note I am designing a bowl with cut outs in it of Pumpkin designs. I then wanted to Free Hand my own design. Then I see that we still can not do it. I can draw the design in another app and then import the design as a picture. But then I will still have to go through the tedious process of using a lot of small lines to out line my drawing. Not very easy or quick to perform.  
LOVE SHAPr3D!!

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**Author:** ![Aquariumsetc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Aquariumsetc](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Aquariumsetc)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2022, 12:09am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/13 "2022-05-28T00:09:00Z")

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To be able to creatively free draw, then extrude the faces, for different height materials that would cut on laser or cnc after would mean a whole new and easier workflow and for prototyping designs.  
Drawing organic shapes to work with takes time, eg draw in other app or on paper then take pic then trace then import etc, having a freeform drawing tool eliminates all of this, would love to see it implemented as struggle with splines etc to draw these in the app.  
Some example pics (not mine just taken from web) to show examples of work that could be much easier.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/e/e3439d18ceabd17d1cfec75d7b189b1c08ff79b6.jpeg)  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/2X/f/f1734600d1ae404491dd90f3f9f187f31cad0075.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![McD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/mcd/32/15504_2.png) [@McD](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/McD)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/14 "2022-05-28T02:55:04Z")

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My drawings for laser, water, or plasma cutting methods, are independent of thickness. I choose the thickness of the material, and then adjust the machine settings. I export the sketches as DXF, and send them to the CNC machines.

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**Author:** ![Aquariumsetc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Aquariumsetc](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Aquariumsetc)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2022, 10:37am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/15 "2022-05-28T10:37:12Z")

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I do the same, talking about protyping designs drawn in freehand not with squares, circles, splines atc

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**Author:** ![Oregonerd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/oregonerd/32/8012_2.png) [@Oregonerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Oregonerd)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/16 "2022-05-29T18:08:53Z")

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Shapr is not the tool for this type of work. Unlikely that will change. The spline tool is too limited for artistic work like yours. Just not efficient. What are you using now? I use Corel Draw. Even putting a few simple flowers on my partners custom nameplate I use Corel. Freehand and Bezier tools are a must.

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**Author:** ![Aquariumsetc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Aquariumsetc](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Aquariumsetc)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/17 "2022-05-29T21:31:55Z")

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I know it’s not but a freehand tool would make it that.  
I use Coreldraw too but playing with auto desk graphic iPad app, seems a very good iPad equivalent

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**Author:** ![Oregonerd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/oregonerd/32/8012_2.png) [@Oregonerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Oregonerd)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/18 "2022-05-29T22:09:45Z")

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I hate AutoDesk. They buy up everything good and then make it subscription. My Corel is 13 years old still works great. I need to buy a full version again because my laptop is dying soon and I don’t have the discs to put on a new machine. Better than paying $249 a year for another subscription.

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**Author:** ![Oregonerd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/oregonerd/32/8012_2.png) [@Oregonerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Oregonerd)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 5:01am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/19 "2022-05-31T05:01:20Z")

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I hate AutoDesk. They buy up everything good and then make it subscription. My Corel is 13 years old. Getting ready to buy a full version again and it will last 13 more years.

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**Author:** ![jsc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/jsc/32/15170_2.png) [@jsc](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jsc)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/20 "2022-06-01T15:18:50Z")

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I just made a post yesterday about using CorelDRAW, exporting the result to DWG or DXF and then importing that into Shapr. Worked great.

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**Author:** ![Aquariumsetc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Aquariumsetc](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Aquariumsetc)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 9:48am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/free-hand/2559/21 "2022-06-02T09:48:57Z")

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I use Coreldraw (as my pc got to) but trying to make it so dont have to use PC. Autodesk graphic seems a capable solution for an ipad vector graphic app.

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