Since there is a call out for beta testers, I hope I am not too late for a suggestion from all the architects in the world.

Here is our boggle, we want to create sketches that both captivate the client but also explain details. For instance, this means we would draw a floor plan in strict geometry, but also add plants, sofas and other stuff in to make it look better. At this stage time is of importance, the longer someone waits for your doodles, the less likely they are to be interested, or in a design meeting, the others just move on without you.

So what I would really love is a think-through of ways to create geometry fast. One extremely simple solution would be that when the ruler is placed on the canvas, holding down the shift key would lock the pen strokes in alignment and perpendicular to the ruler instead of the canvas. This would make drawing fast sketches of grid layouts incredibly easy and effective. You could just put the ruler in a corner and use it to adjust your grid. Also, a 45 degree option for the shift-lock would be welcome for isometric views, as a small tickbox for on/off along the ruler? Being able to specify the degree would also be an added bonus.

Another note on the shift-lock, it would be very nice if you could end the shift-lock in mid-stroke. Start by holding it down, draw straight, let go and the line flows smoothly into a freeform. Also you could draw a line and constrain it mid-stroke by holding down shift. As I understand, SPB now constrains the line based solely on shift-press as you start a stroke.

These two features would tremendeously help architects and others who need to sketch grid like stuff on a daily basis but still want the freedom of digital.

But since I am already jotting down ideas, here are some extra suggestions for your consideration:

Holding down some ridiculously unused button would make the ruler like a real world ruler, meaning it would not only draw a line, but you could also butt your pencil against it. For instance the pencil would only draw on the side of the line at which you started the stroke. This is a very effective and fast way architects create shading in corners and grass in sections when we want them to look more...ahem....pretty. Alot of people use the technique on windows as well.

Now on to some other ideas, I reckon you guys are familiar with the warp tool in photoshop. Lets say you take a regular grid and warp it, lets say to illustrate the curvature of a car hood, and afterwards you could draw lines that would be locked into that warped grid. One side of the grid blends to the opposite side just like illustrators blend tool with two lines. This is just an idea, but it would make it a lot easier to adjust curved lines to a an existing comp, be that a car hood or a freeformed building.

Another very interesting concept is using the new Bamboo touch and pen tablets (and undoubtedly others that will follow) to enable two fingers on the tablet to be the end points of a ruler, while drawing with the pen. I have no idea if this would work, but call wacom and have a chat.

Keep up the good work.

Regards, A

Those are some interesting ideas in regards to ruler functions, I like them. I was elated when I found out SBP 2010 would have a ruler function, but overall I wish it was faster/simpler to use. The two point Bamboo touch sounds perfect, as long as you don’t have to find the points blind - maybe press, drag to the right spot, and release.

Another quick way to create a ruler could be to press some shortcut then press, drag, release, then release the shortcut; the resulting ruler would be on a line going through the press point and release point. And while you were dragging SBP would preview the line, similar to how it does with lasso selections.

What would be incredibly awesome for a product design guy like me would be to have 3 auto-rulers corresponding to the 3 3D axis, making it really easy to draw in perspective. It wouldn’t have to actually create a 3D workspace, just let me define 3 vanishing points. Then when I hold some shortcut key and start drawing it would constrain my marks to a line between the start/pen press point and a vanishing point. Ideally, this vanishing point could be located off-canvas (especially needed for the vertical axis). And ideally SBP could auto-detect which direction I was moving and automatically choose the right ruler, but having three shortcut keys (x,y,z? or three in a V-shape, like d,f,c?) wouldn’t be the worst thing ever (except then I couldn’t just assign the shortcut to a Wacom tablet button, would have to reach for the keyboard - definitely not ideal).

Maybe it’s a little late for these suggestions, and hopefully Autodesk is already cooking up something similar or better.

A little unrelated, but something else I’d like would be a really simple text tool, even one only on par with MS Paint, where the type becomes raster and uneditable. The only extra control I’d really want is line spacing, so I can scrunch up the lines for notes. This way I could go directly from SBP to client presentation, without any Photoshop for basic sketches.

Also, having multiple instances of SBP open would be great, allowing much easier copy/paste.

From my point of view, these are some of the most interesting suggestions that I’ve seen on this forum.

These are some of the best suggestions for SBP 2010 that I’ve seen. I have often wished for them.

Thanks, these have been simmering in my head for quite a while (as is probably the case for Aalto as well). The lack of easy copy/paste has made for some really awkward workflows, especially if I want to paste things from multiple layers, and want to preserve the layers (I often make many sketch variations off of a common base - so much easier working digitally, but I sometimes want to combine two variations into a third). And I don’t do much to my sketches in photoshop, sometimes nothing, so the extra step of opening that program just for text is annoying (my handwriting is awful, so that’s out of the question). And I want the rulers to speed up my work, not slow it down. I’m still very grateful for them though, they’ve helped a lot. Thanks SBP!

Photoshop has a really nice ruler feature that I wish was present in SB: You click to establish one end of the line, then shift-click to draw a line to the second point. Utterly fast and simple, and since a multitouch Cintiq didn’t turn up at CES this year, it would be a great interim solution until we can implement a two-finger ruler.