Morpholio will separate drawing sets into multiple individual sheets, requiring the user to close one drawing sheet to open another. It’s generally great, but it does has one significant and highly annoying flaw.
Workaround: import pdf into page layout app and fix, so can’t do on iPad.Īs an architect, I use the app all the time multiple times daily. You can’t crop base images to control document aspect ratio or eliminate unwanted parts of a base plan, at least not in-app. There are workarounds, but it would be wonderful if these things were built-in. As far as I know, you can’t control page layout, and sometimes the app gets it wrong: vertical plan in horizontal layout with too much blank space on the page. blending modes for imported images and paper styles, especially multiply with Kraft paper and grid textures The export function could use some form of layer sets to export plan and sketches without having to go back and turn off/on layers. At the end, the client gets an annotated PDF file showing a concept, complete with annotations.
Plus there’s a nifty perspective drawing tool that you can use over a site photo. From there, it’s like using trace paper: sketch out concepts, refine, illustrate, label and export. I create base plans with a laser and another iPad app, then import this as a base plan into Trace. But then, this isn’t something I use for production.
No, it’s not “real” CAD: it’s raster based, for one thing. If you want a higher resolution zoomed in, you have to create a new layer but then you can’t merge layers, so you end up with tons of layers. Layers are really frustrating you can’t merge layers or copy selections to new layers, if you want to draw on a lower layer you have to turn off the ones above rather than select the lower level. This is completely unacceptable and makes the perspective function useless for anything other than very rough concept sketching. If zoomed in even a little the pencil won’t draw or draws on the wrong projection line while in perspective. With perspective turned on the apple pencil has serious parallax and lag. Lines don’t snap so your perspective lines can be way off.
The perspective tool is so frustrating due to lack of detail and raster images. It’s really just a sketching app, nothing you can do any precision with, and Procreate is FAR BETTER to sketch with.ĭon’t expect any kind of precision measuring or drawing detail. Although I’m a millennial, I’ve had a lot of old school training in the architecture profession and Morpholio Trace allows me to think through that processes I’ve developed, while having the power of undo and digital sketching. The subscription is also worth it in my option for all the features. In my opinion a lot of effort and thought has been given to how people think while using the app, it’s very intuitive.
The Multi PDF importer is one of my favorite features, and being able to swap out individual background pages and update sketches is a huge time saver. The power in it for me is the simple yet powerful tools and being able to easily switch between them, almost like using my analogy drawing tools. Morpholio has allowed me to create repeatable styles, that in turn, has allow me to do even more professionally with the app. Being an architectural designer I am constantly asked to quickly produce visual ideas to help communicate ideas to clients and the pubic. Morpholio Trace is an amazing app that I’ve integrated into my everyday workflow. It was quite refreshing to talk to a member of the team who cared about the outcome instead of simply navigating some automated system of troubleshooting. To my surprise a member of the team emailed me back shortly, conversed with me about the tool that had been removed, asked my opinion about reinstating it, and later even followed up just to let me know that an update was coming out that would restore what I was looking for. I recently had a function I couldn’t get to work so I reached out. One of the most impressive things though is the customer support. Equally as important, sketching over massing or just doodling is as simple or complex/refined as you want it to be. Marking up plans is easy, though we did have issues at first with the legibility of our markup upon export but just had to learn a few tricks. This app so quickly integrated itself as an essential tool for us. I own a design-build firm, so my team and I spend time both conceptualizing/developing designs as well as redlining plans.