Minor tweaks to the user experience

I hate to make suggestions because the software is pretty great as is, but these are small tweaks that I think would streamline creation.

  1. When turning off “Line/Arc (Automatic)” the one button could be replaced by a “Line” and an “Arc” button to reduce the number of clicks to access the command.
  2. Use your finger as a modifier; e.g. when drawing a spline, instead of having to press down on the Apple pencil to drop control points, allow them to be placed with a finger tap on the screen.
  3. Add the ability to select radius or diameter when dimensioning a circle, like when you assign a length to a line and can select from absolute/horizontal/vertical.
  4. When moving objects, the center point disappears and is replaced by dashed lines showing the movement of the object, which makes it really hard to accurately place them. It would be nice to have the center point remain visible or replace the dashed lines with solid lines. This especially evident when trying to place text accurately, because text cannot utilize constraints.
  5. Instead of a double-tap selecting all lines in a sketch, have a double-tap select all lines attached to the one that is tapped on, and a triple-tap select all lines.

Just throwing them out there. Thanks for the great software.

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+1 for the disapearing center point, annoying

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Great suggestions, thank you!

We have recently improved the Spline interactions. Now you don’t need to press the Pencil anymore, just start drawing from the last point. Try it out and let us know what you think!

For accurately positioning objects relatively to other objects, I’d almost always use the Translate and the Align tools.

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Hey Istvan,

Thanks for the reply.

I’ll play with the spline tool tonight when I get home. The issue I am having with the spline tool, and I admit that it is totally my fault and would probably go away as I use it more, is I would ever so slightly lift the pencil and the spline would stop. I know…noob mistake :smile:

As for using translate and align…do they work with text?

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Ah I see. I didn’t know that you are referring to text. Makes sense. We should have a better way for positioning text.

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Yeah, currently when I want to place text accurately I’ll draw two lines perpendicular to one another, move the text center point close to that joint, then zoom in, move it some more, zoom in again, move it some more, etc.

Yep…I’m that obsessive-compulsive with the placement of my text :rofl:

I’ve never paid attention to the translate function. Just looked at it and yes it may work in a number of cases. Still I agree with the OP that it is a bit annoying to loose references while moving items around.

Another little annoyence, if I may. I often find that when I want to use a certain tool, while having items selected, I first need to deselect the items. Would be nice that one can go to any tool, without having to deselect whatever is selected.

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And what should happen with your selection in that case? Should it be discarded?

You are quick!
No, I would like to keep it, because that selection of items is where I want to point the tool to.

If the current selection can be used with the tool, then the tool will be among the automatically recommended tools. If it’s not there, it’s because the current selection could not be used for the tool that you want to use.

I don’t think so, at least not always.
Just tried to make sure.
I have 4 bodies selected and want to do a Union:


Unfortunately there is no Union in the list and it does not show up unde More…
I have to deselct them to get the Tools option displayed in the toolbar. Then select Union, then select all bodies again and press done.

Union is the 6th item in the menu for this selection on your first screenshot. :slight_smile:

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haha, certified blind. How could I miss that?

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Hey Istvan,

One more request and a question for you. How about a timelapse feature like Procreate has where Shapr3D takes screenshots at set intervals that can later be stitched together into a timelapse. That would just be a nice to have.

Question…what screen capture software do you use to make your iPad videos? How are the Apple pencil button presses inserted? Thanks!

FWIW, I typically edit Shapr3D iPad screen videos with iMovie. To show the Pencil and finger moves (red dots), go to Settings and turn on tutorial mode in the Shapr3D portion. Then you need to restart the Shapr3D app for the Pencil to show. Do the reverse to get out of tutorial mode.

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For those who are not so familiar with the iPad yet (like me), this guy shows what Mike just wrote:

Cheers Matt

Good lord…another Shapr3D YouTube channel I need to start watching. Thanks @TigerMike and @Matt_the-Rathje