For designs with symmetrical features, you may use the Mirror command to replicate left-sided items on the right side, or vice versa. For drawing complex objects, you can import a photo as a reference to trace over it. It may seem like a minor touch, but it goes a long way to mimic the natural way engineers used to draw before the digital era. Catchbook recognizes that gesture as the erase command, so it wipes out whatever that’s drawn before. To erase an object (like a line segment or a curve), you can simply draw a crisscrossing line over it, the way you might indicate people to disregard something in a pen-and-paper drawing. The Mirror function in Catchbook lets you replicate geometry easily in symmetrical setups. This feature makes Catchbook ideal for concept exploration, where you can morph and deform a design into an entirely new one with geometry realignment. For instance, if you drag and reposition your circles and arcs, the lines attached to them will adjust themselves to retain their coincident, concentric, and angular relationships. So even though you may be drawing semi-straight lines, imperfect circles, and squiggly arcs, your drawings are converted into mathematically accurate lines, smooth curves, and well-defined circles.Ĭatchbook is not a parametric CAD program, but the objects in the program exhibit some parametric-like behaviors. Once this mode is activated, the software automatically converts your freehand drawings into precise lines, arcs, and circles. The automatic shape conversion makes all the difference.Ĭatchbook gives you the option to draw in the auto-convert mode (my name, not the company’s).

So I downloaded it onto my Microsoft Surface Pro to test it out. Built on top of its Drawing Constraint Manager technology, the company’s Catchbook app is available for touch-enabled tablets running on iOS, Android, and Windows. Siemens PLM Software, the makers of NX and Teamcenter, takes on the challenge. Catchbook from Siemens PLM Software is a 2D drawing app for tablet users.

2d drawing software