An architect's and engineer's scale rule for iPhone and iPad, with a construction calculator. Every scale is drawn at true physical size, so you can lay the device on a drawing and read it like the scale on your desk.
Every ruler has a tile listing its scales, one line per side. From the top:
| Tools | Calculator · CAD · Notes · Unit Converter · Scale Converter · Board · Tape · Level · Compass · Protractor |
| Recently Used | The three scales you opened last (the most common ones until you have used three) |
| US | Architectural (ft-in) · Engineering (ft) · Mechanical (in) |
| Metric | Architectural · Civil & Survey · Standard Sets (the rulers as sold: Architect 1 and 4, ISO, Vocational, Mechanical DIN, Surveyor) |
| International | UK & Japan |
| Special | Enlargement · Maps · Models |
| My Scales | Your own rulers, and New Custom Scale |
A ruler shows one scale along the left edge and one along the right edge. Zero sits at the bottom edge; the name of each scale is printed along it just above zero, with its unit (1:100 m, 1/4" = 1').
A triangular scale has three faces and six edges. On screen you see it as you would on your desk: one face in front, the next face turned away into the shadow. So each side shows four scales: the two edges of the front face, and the two edges of the face beyond it. The inner two are printed smaller and narrower, as they are seen at an angle.
The buttons turn the scale exactly as you would in your hand. ‹ rolls it to the left: the side face comes round to the front, and its groove and its two scales move with it, to the left edge and the inner left. › rolls it to the right: the front face turns away into the shadow on the right.
↕ shows two lines across the scale. Drag each by its handle in the middle; the distance between them appears on both sides, in the left scale and in the right scale.
= prints, beside each edge scale on the same face, the same reduction in the other system: next to 1/4" = 1'-0" (1:48) you read 1:48 in metres; next to 1:100 you read 1" = 8.33' in feet. The face between the edge and the groove is shared: the edge scale in the outer half, its equivalent in blue in the inner half. The inner perspective scales stay. Measuring lines then show both readings.
On a real metric or engineer's rule, one edge serves several ratios: 1:20 is also read as 1:200, 1" = 20' as 1" = 200'. Tap the scale's name at the top and choose how to read that edge. The name then shows the ratio you are reading, with "read from 1:20" underneath, and every label and measurement follows.
By default zero is the edge of the screen. Switch to device edge (••• menu, or Settings) and zero moves to the outside edge of the device, so you can butt the device against the corner of a sheet or a wall and read from there. Scales HD knows how far the screen sits from the edge on each model.
Scales HD already knows the exact screen density of every iPhone and iPad, so most people never need to calibrate. Calibrate to fine-tune, or when Scales HD asks on a model it does not know yet.
The board is a cutting mat with a 1 mm (or 1/16") grid, heavier lines every 5 mm and every centimetre, and a numbered ruler across the board every 10 cm (12" on the inch board), as on the original Scales HD boards. It is exact in both directions, so you can measure across as well as along.
The tape measure has centimetres on one edge and inches on the other; turn it with ‹ › to swap them.
| Convert | Pick the drawing's scale and type a length on the drawing (mm, cm, inches) or a real size (mm, cm, m, inches, feet-inches). The other fills in. |
|---|---|
| Redraw | See the same length at another scale, with the enlargement or reduction for the copier. |
| Find Scale | Measure one known dimension on a drawing (a door, a grid, a scale bar), enter its real size, and get the scale plus the closest standard scales. |
Type lengths the way you would write them: 12'6", 3 1/2, 1-1/2, 2,5.
Calculator ft is a calculator that thinks in feet, inches and fractions as well as metric: add a length in centimetres to one in feet and inches, multiply two lengths into an area, lay out stairs, find a rafter length or a roof pitch, and turn a measurement on a drawing into real size. Open it from Tools → Calculator.
Type the number, then its unit. Feet, inches and a fraction go one after the other. Between whole inches and their fraction press in or the space key ␣: both 1 ft 9 in 7/8 and 1 ft 9 ␣ 7/8 in give 1'-9 7/8". While you type, the display already shows the length written out.
| 5 ft 3 in 1 / 2 | 5'-3 1/2" |
| 5 ft 3 ␣ 1 / 2 in | 5'-3 1/2" (the same, with the space key) |
| 11 ␣ 3 / 4 in | 11 3/4" |
| 7 / 8 in | 7/8" |
| 5 ft 3 | 5'-3" (a number after ft is inches) |
| 12 . 5 ft | 12'-6" |
| 2 . 5 m · 80 cm · 12 mm · 3 yd | metric and yards |
| 42 = ft | a unit after an answer labels it: 42'-0" |
A number without a unit is a plain number (a count, a factor). ⌫ deletes the last digit or part, C clears what you are typing, AC clears everything (including Rise and Run), ± changes the sign.
× and ÷ are worked out before + and − (2 + 3 × 4 = 14). Press another operator straight away to change your mind. The answer is shown in the unit you entered first, with the same value in the other system underneath.
| 5 ft 3 in 1 / 2 + 80 cm = | 7'-11" = 2.4129 m |
| 12 ft 6 in × 14 ft 3 in = | 178.125 ft² = 16.5484 m² |
| … × 4 in = | 59.375 ft³ of concrete |
| 144 ft × 1 ft = √ | 12'-0" (the root of an area is a length) |
| 200 ft + 10 % = | 220'-0" (10% of 200 ft added) |
Conv shows the current value in the next unit, round and round:
Enter a rise and press Rise, enter a run and press Run. They stay in the orange note until AC. Then:
Diag is also how you square a layout: 3 ft and 4 ft give 5 ft.
Enter the total rise, floor to floor, and press Rise, then Stairs. Scales HD divides it into equal risers of at most 7 3/4" (the US residential limit), with 10" treads, and shows the riser height with the count, treads and total run. If you stored a Run, it is shared out among the treads instead.
Scale opens a menu: Choose Scale (every scale in the app, including your own), then Drawing → Real or Real → Drawing at that scale.
| 2 in · Scale → Drawing → Real at 1/4" = 1'-0" | 8'-0" |
| 5 m · Scale → Real → Drawing at 1:100 | 50 mm |
Feet-inch answers round to the nearest 1/16" by default. Tap 1/16" at the top to cycle ½, ¼, ⅛, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, or set it in Settings → Calculator, where you can also hide the other-system line.
A notes pad for the measurements and calculations of the day. Tools → Notes opens straight into the note you had open last (a new one when there are none). ☰ shows all your notes, most recently saved first; the first line of each is its title. ✕ goes back home.
Tools → Unit Converter has the units of Calculator ft+: length, area, volume, mass, force, pressure, energy, power, speed and time, and temperature too. Pick a family, then type in any row: every other row follows at once.
| Length | km, m, cm, mm, ft, in, yd, mi, nmi, and feet-inches (type 12'6" or 3 1/2") |
| Area | m², cm², ft², in², yd², km², mi², acre, ha |
| Volume | m³, ft³, yd³, in³, L, mL, US gal, qt, bbl |
| Mass · Force | kg, g, mg, t, short ton, lb, oz, slug, grain · N, kN, MN, kgf, gf, lbf, kip, dyn, pdl |
| Pressure | Pa, kPa, MPa, bar, psi, atm, mmHg, inHg, Torr |
| Energy · Power | J, kJ, cal, kcal, Btu, kWh, therm, ft·lbf, eV · W, kW, MW, mW, hp, Btu/h, ft·lbf/s, cal/s, tons of refrigeration |
| Speed · Time | m/s, km/h, mph, ft/s, ft/min, m/min, cm/s, in/s, knots · s, ms, µs, min, h, d, wk, mo, yr |
| Temperature | °C, °F, K, °R |
Touch and hold a row to copy it, send it to the calculator (lengths, areas and volumes keep their unit) or add it to a note. ↺ clears. The converter remembers the last value of each family.
Tools → CAD opens straight into the sketch you had open last (a new one when there are none). ▦ shows all your sketches with thumbnails, most recently saved first; Select there picks several to share as PDFs, duplicate or delete; + starts a new one; ✕ goes back home. CAD is for quick drawings on site: freehand like a notes app, plus walls, doors, windows, furniture, fixtures and dimensions at real size. Every sketch has units (feet-inches or metric) and a drawing scale (e.g. 1/4" = 1'-0" or 1:50) that sets text sizes, the PDF and SVG print scale, and "View at scale".
Top: ✕ home, ▦ all sketches, the name (tap to rename), undo, redo, ⤓ save, ⇪ export. Under it, every option as a button, wrapping onto as many rows as needed: the drawing scale, units (ft-in or metric), Grid, Snap, the snap step, Paper (white, graphite, black, legal yellow or blueprint, as in Notes), View at Scale, Fit and Clear. Scale, units and step open their choices as a row of buttons right underneath (the current one lit); tap the button again to close the row. The tools live in floating palettes; the bar along the bottom switches them on and off.
The bottom bar is the switchboard: Select, Draw, Annotate, Ink, Modify, Style, Colour, Linetype, Weight, Hatch, Snaps, Rulers and Input each open a floating palette of tools, Library opens the object palette, Layers the Layer Panel and Command the command line. The toggle of the palette holding the tool in use shows that tool, in colour. Drag a palette by its title bar anywhere over the drawing; let go near a side and it docks against it. ⌃ (or a double tap on the title) collapses it to its title bar, 📌 pins it open, ✕ closes it. An unpinned palette closes after a pick and gives way when another opens, which keeps a phone clear; a pinned one stays open through picks and other palettes (the default on iPad). Palettes that are a grid of tools (Select, Draw, Annotate, Ink, Modify, Hatch, Navigate, Snaps, Rulers, Insert) have a grip in the lower right corner: drag it sideways for more or fewer columns, up or down for more or fewer rows. It snaps to the grid and every tool always shows; a double tap on the grip goes back to the usual layout. The others size themselves to what they hold. Where each sits, its columns, collapsed and pinned are remembered.
Switching on Select, Draw, Annotate or Ink also picks the tool you last used from it (its first tool the first time). The toggle of the palette the tool in use belongs to shows that tool, with a dot in the palette's colour in its corner. With a palette pinned, its toggle no longer closes it: a tap brings it to the front and switches to its first tool (unless you're already using one of its tools). Touch and hold a toggle to open its palette already pinned, or, if it's pinned, to unpin and close it; closing it with ✕ also releases the pin. Commands (the searchable list) sits next to Command (the command line).
| Select | Everything to do with selecting: the Select, Window and Lasso tools, Unlock and Show; Select All, Deselect, Invert, Similar (everything of the same kind), Same Layer, Nodes, Group, Ungroup, Lock, Hide, Edit in Place; and the Pick row (objects, segments or points). |
|---|---|
| Draw | Wall, Line, Polyline, Sketch, Pen (Bézier), Spline (drag through the curve, or tap the points it passes through; it shows the curve as it grows), Arc (3 points), Arc Centre, Rectangle, Circle (from its centre), Ellipse (corner to corner), Polygon, revision Cloud, Hatch, Arrow, Grid Line. |
| Style | As in Illustrator: the fill square behind and the stroke frame in front — tap one to make it the one you colour (the Colour palette opens) — with swap, none, default and an eyedropper (tap it, then an object, to take its colours, line and hatch; with something selected, the selection takes them). Below: the linetype, weight and hatch in use, each opening its palette. It shows the selection's look when something is selected, otherwise the look of what you draw next. |
| Colour | Stroke or Fill, then a swatch: 12 greys and 12 hues in 6 tints, AutoCAD's colours 1–9, your recent colours, By Layer (stroke) or None (fill), and Picker for the system colour picker (grid, spectrum, sliders, hex, eyedropper). |
| Linetype | Continuous, Dashed, Hidden, Center, Phantom, Dot, Dash Dot, Border, Divide, Long Dash, Dense Dot (AutoCAD spacing, scaled to the drawing), and No Outline for shapes and hatches. Exported to PDF, SVG and DXF. |
| Weight | Pen widths on paper: Auto (by kind), 0.09 to 2.00 mm, each drawn at its width. |
| Hatch | Every hatch with a preview, and None: fills the selected shapes, and is what the Hatch tool and the Paint bucket put down next. |
| Annotate | Dimension, Angle, Radius, Leader, Text, Area, Measure, Paint. |
| Ink | Pen, Pencil, Marker, Eraser, Ink Lasso. |
| Modify | Four tabs acting on the selection: Edit (Duplicate, Delete, Size, Explode, Join, Close / Open, Reverse, Smooth, Group, Ungroup, Lock, Hide), Transform (Move, Rotate, Rotate 90°, Scale, Scale to Length, Mirror, Offset, Array, Polar Array, Corner, Nodes), Trim (Union, Subtract, Intersect, Exclude, Trim, Extend, Lengthen, Divide, Break, Chamfer, Fillet, Join Walls, Heal Walls) and Arrange (align, distribute, front, back, Match Style). |
| Snaps | Snap on or off, each object snap, the polar step, and All / Points Only / None (below). |
| Input | Apple Pencil, keyboard, mouse and trackpad (below). The Apple Pencil always selects, moves and drags handles and nodes like a finger, with every tool but ink. Drawing: Finger and Pencil both draw, or Only Pencil (a finger then pans, pinches and selects, and never draws). Double-tap (Pencil 2 and Pro) and Squeeze (Pencil Pro): follow the system setting, switch to the eraser, to Select or back to the last tool, open the tool's palette, undo, or nothing. |
| ☝︎ Select | Tap an object; drag it, drag its round handles (ends of walls and lines; a corner to resize, the teal handle to rotate, the blue handle of a dimension to move its line off). The bar above shows Rotate 90°, Flip, Size (type exact lengths), Style, Layer, Explode, Duplicate and Delete. One finger elsewhere pans. Empty outlines (a sheet border, a room or zone rectangle, a big background hatch) are picked only by their lines: touching inside them pans the drawing, and a tap there deselects. |
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| ⬚ Window select | Drag a box. Left to right (blue, solid) selects what lies completely inside; right to left (green, dashed) selects anything the box touches or holds, as in AutoCAD. Grouped objects come along with their group. |
| ◌ Lasso select | Draw around objects; everything completely inside is selected. With several selected, drag any of them to move them all (snapping in whole steps), or use the bar: Group, Ungroup, Join, Explode, Line, Pattern, Style, Layer, Duplicate, Delete. |
| Pen · Pencil · Marker | Freehand ink, with colours and Fine / Mid / Bold. With these, two fingers pan and pinch to zoom. |
| Eraser · Lasso | Erase whole strokes; circle ink to move, copy or delete it. |
| Wall | Pick a wall type in the row above, then drag from end to end. Feet-inch sketches offer 2×4 (4½"), 2×6 (6½"), 2×8 (8¼"), exterior 2×6 (7¼"), 8" and 12" CMU, brick veneer on 2×4 and 8" concrete; metric sketches offer 75 and 100 mm studs with boards (100, 125), 150 and 200 block, 250 concrete, 300 external and 350 cavity walls, and 70 mm partitions. Custom… takes any thickness (a plain number is inches or millimetres). Changing units swaps the list. Select walls and tap Wall Type to change them. |
| Library | The library button opens the object palette above the toolbar and keeps it open: one row per group, each object drawn as it appears in the plan; tap one to place it in the middle of the open drawing area. Drag the handle on top of the palette up for more rows or down for fewer (remembered). Tap the button again to close it. Doors and windows; living, bedroom, dining and office furniture; kitchen, bath and laundry fixtures; Structure (stairs, square, round and W14 steel columns, spread footing); Site (car, tree); Annotation (north arrow, level marker, section and elevation markers, room tag); Trees & Plants (oak, maple, birch, willow, magnolia, olive, fruit, Japanese maple, spruce, pine, cypress, palms, bamboo, shrubs, grasses, succulents, perennials, vines), Garden & Sculpture (pots, planters, urns, fountains, birdbath, reflecting pool, sculptures, statues, boulders, stepping stones, pergola, gazebo, fire pit, loungers), Accessibility (ADA) (turning spaces, clear floor spaces, wheelchair, grab bars, accessible lavatory and sinks, showers, hi-lo fountain, detectable warnings, curb ramp, signs, pool lift, handrails), Hatches & Materials, a 4' square of each hatch to stretch over an area; and about 190 standard symbols on their NCS layers: electrical (receptacles, switches, panels, data, AV, security), lighting, plumbing fixtures and valves, HVAC (diffusers, units, thermostats), fire protection (sprinklers, alarms, extinguishers), site and landscape, and annotation (keynotes, revision clouds, section and detail marks). Each is placed at its common real size; change it with Size. Doors and windows drop into a wall when moved onto it: centred on it, turned with it, the opening cut. |
| Polyline | Tap point to point (snapping to ends, 15° and the grid). Tap the first point again to close it into an area, the last point to finish an open line; or use Close, Finish, Undo Point and Cancel in the bar. A closed polyline shows its area and perimeter and can be filled with any hatch. Select it to drag its corners. |
| Paint | Pick a material (concrete, earth, gravel, sand, steel, brick, block, stone, wood, wood floor, insulation, rigid insulation, glass, water, grass, tile, roofing, siding, solid, a colour only, or Clear), then tap. Inside a shape (rectangle, circle, closed polyline, hatch, wall, furniture) the shape takes it. Anywhere else, the area around your finger bounded by walls and lines is found and filled, with door and window openings counting as closed, and furniture staying on top. The area shows in the hint. |
| Grid | Drag a structural grid line. It is drawn as a centre line with a bubble at the top or left end, numbered 1, 2, 3… when vertical and lettered A, B, C… when horizontal (I and O are skipped). Edit changes the label. |
| Dimension | Drag between two points; the length is written along it in feet-inches or metres and updates when you move the ends. |
| Measure | Tap point to point to read distances along the way; tap the first point again for the area and perimeter. Nothing is added to the drawing. |
| Arc | Tap the start, a point the arc passes through, then the end (a 3-point arc). It is a fine polyline, so it snaps, trims, offsets and exports like any other line. |
| Polygon | Pick 3 to 12 Sides in the row above, then drag from the centre to a corner; the side length shows as you go. A closed polyline: fill it, hatch it, edit its corners. |
| Sketch | Draw freehand and it turns into clean drawing. Becomes (in the row above): Shapes reads a line, arc, circle, ellipse, rectangle, triangle or polygon; Polyline straightens it into corners; Curve smooths it; Lines gives a separate line per stroke of the pen. A stroke that ends near where it began is closed. |
| Pen (Bézier) | As in Illustrator: tap for a corner point, press and drag to pull out handles for a smooth one. Tap the first point to close the shape, the last to finish; Undo Point and Cancel are in the bar. |
| Arc Centre | Tap the centre, where the arc starts (that sets the radius), then where it ends, counter-clockwise. |
| Hatch | Tap the corners of an area; tap the first point (or Close) and it closes into an area filled with the hatch from the Hatch palette. To hatch an area already drawn, use the Paint bucket. |
| Circle · Ellipse | Circle drags from the centre out to the radius (radius and diameter show as you go); Ellipse drags corner to corner. |
| Spline | Tap the points a smooth curve passes through; tap the last point to finish, the first to close it. |
| Cloud | Drag corner to corner around a change for a revision cloud. |
| Angle · Radius · Area | Angle: tap the corner, then a point on each side, for an arc and the angle. Radius: tap the outline of a circle or an arc for a leader with its radius. Area: tap inside a room or closed shape for its area and perimeter (a room bounded by walls counts). Each is grouped. |
| Leader | Drag from what it points at to where the note goes, then type the note. The arrow and its note are grouped. |
| Line · Arrow · Rectangle · Circle · Text | Drag to draw; for text, tap where it goes. Text is sized for the drawing scale. With these tools (and Polyline and Grid) the row above the toolbar sets what you draw next, in tabs: Line (linetype), Pen (weight in mm), Colour, and Fill for rectangles, circles and closed polylines; for text, Size (small, normal, large, title) and Colour. Reset goes back to the standard look. |
Select a line, arrow, rectangle, circle, polyline, grid line or hatch and tap Line for a row of linetypes (continuous, dashed, hidden, center, phantom, dot, spaced as in AutoCAD's acadiso.lin and scaled to the drawing scale) and pen weights in millimetres on paper (0.18 hatching, 0.25 dimensions, 0.35 doors, 0.50 walls, 0.70 cut lines, 1.00 borders). Hatch boxes and closed polylines have Pattern: concrete, brick, concrete block, earth, gravel, sand, batt and rigid insulation, wood framing and blocking, finished wood, steel, glass, stone, water, grass, tile, brick and block in elevation, lap siding, shingles and solid. Linetypes export to PDF, SVG and DXF (with a proper LTYPE table); hatches export as lines on layer A-PATT.
Layers in the top strip opens the layer manager. Objects start on the standard layer for their kind (A-WALL, A-DOOR, A-GLAZ, A-FURN, P-FIXT, S-GRID…). Add your own with +, then tap a layer to draw on it (the chip shows which). For each layer: the eye hides or shows it, the lock stops its objects being selected, and the swatch colours everything on it. Swipe to rename or delete; deleting moves its objects back to their standard layers. Select objects and tap Layer to move them. Layer names go into the DXF.
Layer Panel (next to Layers in the top strip) keeps a floating list on the right of the drawing while you work, also in View mode: every layer in use with its colour and object count, an eye to show or hide it, All On and All Off, and a long press on a name to show that layer alone. Hidden layers are not drawn, exported or picked.
Style sets the pen colour and the fill of the selection. Fills work on rectangles, circles, closed polylines, hatches, walls and furniture, and draw under any hatch pattern. Pattern now works on rectangles, circles and walls as well as hatches and closed polylines.
Select one or more objects and tap Transform for exact edits:
| Move By · Rotate · Scale | Type a distance, an angle or a factor. |
|---|---|
| Mirror ↔ · Mirror ↕ | Flip the selection about its own centre. |
| Array · Polar Array | Copies in rows and columns at set spacings, or around the centre over any angle (chairs round a table, columns on a grid). |
| Offset | A parallel copy of a line, wall or polyline at a distance (negative for the other side). |
| Corner | Two lines or walls are extended or trimmed to meet. |
| Align · Distribute | Line up left, centre, right, top, middle or bottom; space three or more evenly across or down. |
| Front · Back · Match Style | Change the drawing order, or give everything the first object's colours, linetype, weight and pattern. |
Select objects and tap Modify:
| Union · Subtract · Intersect · Exclude | Combine closed shapes (rectangles, circles, hatches, closed polylines and walls) into one outline. Subtract keeps the first shape you selected and cuts the others out of it, so a circle subtracted from a slab leaves a real hole that hatches and fills skip. The result is a closed polyline with the first shape's colours and pattern. Needs iOS 16. |
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| Join Walls | Walls that nearly meet close into clean L corners, a wall stopping short of (or running past) another meets its centre line as a tee, and collinear pieces of the same thickness merge into one wall. The joined walls are grouped so they select as one. |
| Heal All Walls | The same pass over every wall in the drawing. |
| Break at Crossings | Splits the selected lines and walls where they cross. |
| Trim · Extend | The first one selected is the edge: Trim cuts the others back to it (the shorter side goes); Extend stretches them to reach it. |
| Chamfer… · Fillet… | Cuts the corner between two lines or walls straight, a set distance back, or rounds it with an arc of a set radius. |
Walls that touch always draw as one: their outlines merge at corners and tees on screen, in PDF and in SVG.
With the Text tool, tap where the text goes: “Text” appears there, selected and ready to type over, with the keyboard up and the drawing slid (and zoomed, if the letters are small) so the text sits clear of it. Type; Return starts a new line; Done, a tap elsewhere or Esc finishes, and an emptied text is removed. Double-tap any text (or its Edit button) to edit it in place. The keyboard's bar has smaller, larger, bold, italic, alignment and the Text palette. The box grows with the text and keeps its left edge (left-aligned), right edge or middle. Leader notes are typed in place too.
The Text palette (in the bottom bar) sets, for the texts selected or being typed (or the next one): size (Small, Normal, Large, Title, A− / A+), Regular / Bold / Italic, Left / Centre / Right, rotation, colour and a background mask (white or paper) that hides lines behind the text. Style and alignment carry into PDF, SVG and DXF.
The chevron in the top bar folds the option strip away for more drawing room and brings it back; it stays as you left it. Dark in the strip turns the paper dark with light lines, and back (it remembers which dark and light paper you used; Paper lists them all: black, graphite, white, legal pad, blueprint). Colours drawn in black show white on dark paper; exports always print on white.
Every palette has its own colour, none repeated: its title bar is that colour (words and buttons white) and its toggle in the bottom bar has a thin edge of it — black when the palette is closed, filled with the colour when it's open. Inside, buttons are black when off; the tool in use is filled with its palette's colour. Select blue, Navigate steel blue, Snaps cyan, Rulers teal, Annotate green, Text lime, Hatch mustard, Draw amber, Modify orange, Command red, Layers maroon, Ink raspberry, Colour pink, Style purple, Linetype indigo, Weight brown, Library grey, Input khaki, Commands navy.
The Insert palette: the object Library, Import (objects or a whole template), a Photo or Image File to trace over, Blocks, Paste, Text, a Guide, Replace Block (swap the selected placements for another block, keeping their place, turn and scale), a PDF page to trace over, a DXF to bring in, and Sheet, Sheets and Publish.
Pictures go under the drawing, half see-through. In Properties: Opacity (25–100%), Calibrate (tap two points on the picture a known distance apart, type the real distance, and it scales to the drawing), Lock (so tracing never moves it) and To Back. They show on screen and in PNG and PDF exports.
The Properties palette shows what's selected, live: what it is (a door's size, a block's name and placements, a picture), its layer, centre X and Y (from the origin, y up), width, depth and rotation, or length and angle for lines and walls, a wall's thickness, text, opacity, a polyline's area and perimeter, its style, and whether it's grouped or locked. Numbers and text are editable in place: type a value and press Return. With several selected: how many of what, and their centre and overall size (typing a width or height stretches them). With nothing selected: the tool in use, the current layer, scale, snap, the wall thickness for the Wall tool, and the look it draws with.
Copy Style takes the selected object's look — stroke and fill colours, linetype, weight, hatch, and a text's style and alignment — and Paste Style puts it on everything selected (each kind takes what it can: a line no fill). In the Style palette, Modify › Arrange, the right-click menu, ⌥⌘C / ⌥⌘V, or COPYSTYLE (CS) / PASTESTYLE (PS).
A press and hold on the drawing no longer opens a menu (it could appear while starting a line); PencilKit's own Select All / Insert Space menu only belongs to the ink lasso. With a mouse, a right click still opens the menu.
A block is a named drawing you place as often as you like; change the block and every placement changes. In the Blocks palette (or the Make Block pill, or the BLOCK command):
Attributes: write a tag in braces — {ROOM}, {MARK}, {AREA} — in a text inside a block. Each placement then shows its own value, typed in the Properties palette under the tag's name (until then it shows the tag).
A tap on empty canvas only deselects what's selected, with any tool: no menu comes up. Menus come from touch and hold.
Two rows, each scrolling sideways. The first row makes things: Esc (cancels whatever is under way, deselects, back to Select), Previous (the tool you used before, with blue rewind arrows: tap to go back to it, and again for the one before; with a line chain, polyline or typed command in progress, a tap finishes it first), Current (the tool in use; after going back, tap it to go forward again), then Select, Draw, Annotate, Ink, Hatch, Insert, Library and Blocks. The second row changes and views: Edit, Transform, Trim (each its own palette now), Style, Colour, Linetype, Weight, Properties, Layers, Navigate, Snaps, Arrange, Constrain, Tools, Text, Rulers, Input, Command and Commands. On a keyboard, Return finishes what's in progress or, with nothing to finish, repeats the last command.
With the pen, pencil or marker, the ink row has six colours and a palette button for every other colour.
In the Select palette (or QSELECT, QS): pick Kind, Layer, Colour, Linetype or Block, then one of the values in the drawing (with how many of each) to select all of them. Locked and hidden objects are left out.
In the Annotate palette, the Dimension tool draws Aligned (along the two points), Horizontal or Vertical dimensions, or Diameter (tap a circle, or two points across it; shown with Ø). With dimensions selected, the same buttons (and the chips in Properties) change them. Continue chains: each tap adds a dimension from where the last one ended. Baseline measures each new point from the same start, stacked further out. Esc ends either.
Dim Style sets, for the whole drawing, the text size (× 0.75 to × 2), the ends (architectural ticks, arrows or dots) and the rounding (as drawn, or to 1, 5, 10 or 50 mm; 1/16″, 1/8″, 1/4″ or 1″).
Dimensions are associative: one drawn from an end, vertex, centre or corner of another object (snaps make that easy) stays attached to it, and follows when the object is moved, stretched or turned. Properties says how many of its ends are linked.
Schedule counts the blocks and library symbols in the drawing — doors, windows, fixtures, furniture — by name and size, and places a table (Mark, Item, Size, Qty) in the middle of the view. Table places an empty grid of the rows and columns you ask for. Both are grouped lines and text, so they print, export and edit like anything else; place a schedule again after changes to update it.
Sheet frames what's on screen (or the selection) as a named, numbered sheet, on A3 (Tabloid for feet and inches) at the drawing's scale — or the largest standard scale that fits. Frames show on the drawing as dashed outlines with their number, name, paper and scale. Sheets lists them: show one, change its paper (A4, A3, A2, A1, Letter, Tabloid, ARCH D), rename or delete it. Publish makes one PDF with a page per sheet, each on its own paper size and at its scale, with a border and a title block (project, sheet name, scale, date, sheet number and “n of N”).
PDF places a page of a PDF (you choose which) under the drawing to trace over, sized as if it had been printed at the drawing's scale. If it was printed at another scale, Calibrate it from two points a known distance apart. DXF brings a DXF file (ASCII, R12 to 2018) in as ordinary objects you can edit: lines, polylines with their arcs, circles, arcs, ellipses, splines, text and multiline text, leaders, and block placements and dimensions drawn out in place and grouped. Layers come in with their colours and linetypes, and the size follows the file's units (a file without units is judged by its size). Hatches come in as filled or patterned areas (solid fills in their colour, patterns as the nearest material). A message lists what came in and what didn't (images, 3D). DWG files open the same way, straight from AutoCAD: every version from R13 to 2018 (R13, R14, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2018), with the same entities, layers, blocks and units. Scales HD reads and writes DWG with its own code.
Modify › Constrain keeps geometry true while you edit: Horizontal and Vertical (a polyline's nearly level or plumb sides), Parallel, Perpendicular and Equal (the first selected leads), Coincident (the nearest ends of two objects stay joined), Concentric, Fix, and the dimensional Length, Distance and Radius, whose values you can change in Properties. Auto adds the obvious ones (level and plumb lines, touching ends, square corners). Whatever you select and move leads; the rest follows. Small badges show them (Show / Hide); Delete takes the selection's off. Commands: GCHORIZONTAL (GCH), GCVERTICAL, GCPARALLEL, GCPERPENDICULAR, GCEQUAL, GCCOINCIDENT, GCCONCENTRIC, GCFIX, DCLINEAR, DCDISTANCE, DCRADIUS, AUTOCONSTRAIN, DELCONSTRAINT.
Point (tap to place; the Node snap finds them), XLine (a construction line through two points, endless both ways), Ray (endless one way), Donut (a filled ring; set its size and ring width in Properties), and in Annotate the Ordinate dimension (the X or Y of a point from the origin). In Select, Stretch: drag a window round the ends to move, then tap the base point and where it goes — ends inside move, the rest stays.
Modify › Tools: Path Array (copies of the selection along the line or polyline selected last, turned with it), Measure At (points every so far along a path), QDIM (chained dimensions across the selection, both ways), Wipeout (a closed polyline or rectangle that hides what's under it), List, ID Point, Area (area, perimeter, centroid and second moments of closed shapes), Layer States (save and restore which layers show and are locked), Purge (unused blocks, empty layers), Audit (fixes broken objects and references), Script (commands separated by ;), Macros (named scripts: type the name to run one), Attr. Table (every block placement with its attribute values), History and 3D View.
Snaps added: Extension (along a line past its end), Parallel (from the last point, parallel to a slanted line), Node (points), Insertion (where text, blocks and symbols are placed from) and Tracking (level or plumb with points you snapped to lately, or where two such lines cross), each with dotted guide lines.
Fields: a text can show {TITLE}, {DATE}, {SCALE} and {UNITS}, and on published sheets {SHEET} and {SHEETNO}. Sheets now print text, dimensions and linetypes at their own scale, and a set of sheets opens with an index page. Export offers a black-and-white plot.
The Angle tool now makes a true angular dimension: drag its points to change the sides, and it re-measures. In Annotate, Arc Length dimensions the selected arcs (⌒, and follows the arc when it changes) and Jogged gives large circles a zigzag radius from a stand-in centre. Leader Style sets every leader's head (arrow, dot, tick or none), a landing shoulder and the note size.
Text Styles (Modify › Tools, the Text palette's Named styles, or STYLE): make a style from a text — letter height on paper, weight, alignment — apply it to others, and redefine it to change every text that uses it. Gradient fills closed shapes with a two-colour gradient (sky, sand, grass, stone, sunset, water; down or across), on screen and in PDF, PNG and SVG. Hatch Bound. hatches the selected closed shapes so the hatch follows when you stretch or edit them.
A block can have visibility states (a door open or closed, a table with 4 or 6 chairs). Edit the block, add states in Block States, and choose which state each selected piece shows in. Each placement then picks its state in Properties or Block States. Flip mirrors placements and symbols in place.
Comment drops a pin (orange while open, grey once resolved) with your note; Review lists them to jump to, resolve, reopen or delete. Share for Review sends a web page of the drawing with the numbered comments — anyone can open it in a browser — together with the drawing as a .scalessketch file. When it comes back, opening that file in Scales HD adds the reviewer's comments to your drawing.
A version of each drawing is kept every ten minutes of work (the forty newest), and History › Save a Version Now keeps one by hand. Pick a version to Compare with Now — added objects show green, removed red, changed orange, until Esc — to Restore it (one undo takes you back), or to open it as a copy.
3D View (Navigate or Modify › Tools, or 3D) raises the plan: walls to the ceiling height, doors and windows at their usual heights, furniture as boxes. Drag to look round, pinch to zoom, and export it as USDZ, USDA, OBJ, glTF, STL, PLY, DXF 3D or JSON.
A PDF page can go under the drawing to trace, or Convert to Lines: its drawn paths (from a CAD-exported PDF) become lines and polylines on the layer PDF-IMPORT, sized as if printed at the drawing's scale.
Room Scan (on the home screen) uses the LiDAR scanner of an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro. Walk slowly round the room pointing at the walls, doors, windows and furniture; on iOS 17 Next Room carries on into the next room in the same scan. Each scan also reads the compass, so rooms scanned at different times turn to the same north. A scan's page shows it in 3D and opens it in CAD as a plan with every wall's elevation (or the plan only): walls with their thickness outside the scanned faces, doors and windows in them, furniture as symbols, a room tag with area and ceiling height, dimensions, a north arrow, and elevations with doors, windows and furniture at their real heights. Select several scans to stitch them into one plan: each turns to north, and rooms line up through the doorways they share. Export a scan as RoomPlan's USDZ (model or scanned mesh), USDZ, USDA, OBJ, glTF, STL, PLY, DXF 3D, a DXF / DWG / PDF / SVG plan with elevations, or JSON. In a drawing, Insert › Room Scan brings saved scans in and Scan Now scans straight into it. Without LiDAR, try the sample bedroom and bathroom.
With Settings › iCloud on, your sketches, the pictures traced in them and your room scans stay the same on every iPhone and iPad signed in to your iCloud account. Everything also stays on each device and works offline. If two devices change the same sketch before syncing, the newer wins and the other is kept as “(conflicted copy)”; something deleted on one device is deleted on the others.
The Navigate palette: Pan (drag with one finger to move around; nothing gets selected or moved; also PAN or P), Zoom In, Zoom Out, Fit All, Fit Selected (fills the screen with what's selected), Window (drag a box around what should fill the screen; a tap zooms in there), Previous (back through earlier views), At Scale, Origin, and panning by a third of the screen left, right, up and down. It shows the screen's width in drawing units and the zoom.
Every command (about 160), searchable by name, alias or what it does; tap one to run it. The same commands work typed in the command line.
By default a drag never grabs something that isn't selected, so panning across a busy plan moves the view, not the furniture. Tap to select, then drag the selection to move it. Handles and nodes work the same way: tap one to pick it (a red ring shows it), then drag it. Drag: Anything (in the Select palette, or the row under Select) goes back to grabbing whatever is under your finger.
Move and Copy (Select palette) work as in CAD: select what to move (or tap it), tap a base point, then the destination — or drag from one to the other. Both snap. Copy keeps its base point for more copies until you pick New Base. Distance… types the move.
Rulers run along the top and left of the drawing in feet-inches or metres, measured from the origin (the red X and green Y arrows) with y up, as in CAD. Drag out of a ruler for a guide: from the top ruler a horizontal guide, from the left a vertical one. Drag a guide's marker along its ruler to move it, back onto the ruler to remove it, or tap the marker to type its position. The Rulers palette shows or hides the rulers, guides and coordinates, locks guides, turns Snap to Guides on or off, sets or resets the origin, adds a guide at a typed position or along the selection's edges, and clears them. Points snap to guides and their crossings; To Guide ↔ / ↕ (Modify › Arrange) slides the selection so its nearest edge or middle meets the nearest guide. The coordinates of the last point touched show at the top left. Guides and the origin are saved with the sketch; guides don't print.
As in AutoCAD: Command in the bottom bar (or ⌘K, or just start typing on a keyboard) opens a command line above the dock. Type a command or its alias and Return; suggestions come up as you type, HELP lists everything, Return on an empty line repeats the last command (or finishes what's being drawn) and Esc cancels.
Lengthen makes lines, walls and open polylines longer (or shorter) at their end by a typed amount; Divide splits lines and walls into equal parts; Reverse flips their direction (an arrow points the other way); Smooth turns polylines into curves through their corners; Close / Open closes or opens polylines; Rotate 90° turns the selection a quarter turn; Scale to Length scales everything selected so the first line (or polyline, or the selection's width) is a length you type — the way to bring an imported plan to size. A hot node is the base point for these, as for Rotate and Scale.
A selected line or wall has a small square midpoint handle: drag it to move the whole line. Each side of a polyline has one too: drag it to move that side (both its corners).
Tap the selection again and it shows its nodes, as grips in CAD: four corners, four side middles and the centre, on the object's own turned outline (one piece of furniture, a rectangle, text) or on the upright frame around everything selected. Drag a corner to resize from the opposite corner, a side to stretch just that side, the centre to move. Tap a node to make it hot (red): it is then the base point that Rotate, Scale, Mirror and Polar Array work about, shown with those in the row above. With nodes showing, a tap on a polyline side's midpoint adds a vertex there. Tap the selection again, or Hide Nodes, to go back.
With a selection tool and nothing selected, the Pick row chooses what you pick, as in form·Z: Object (whole objects), Segment (edges of walls, lines, polylines, rectangles and hatches) or Point (their corners and ends). Tap to pick one; with Add on, taps add and remove. The box tool picks left to right what lies inside and right to left what it touches; the lasso picks what it surrounds. The picked set gets its own dashed bounding box: drag the centre handle (or any picked point) to move, a corner to stretch, all snapping as usual. Delete removes points or segments (a polyline opens or splits), Insert Point adds a point in the middle of each picked segment. A rectangle or hatch edited corner by corner becomes a closed polyline.
Import in the top strip opens a searchable list of every template and every library object. A template comes in as one group in the middle of the view, drawn in the sketch's units, so you can combine them: drop a kitchen into a house plan, a detail next to a section, or a title block around everything. Ungroup to edit its parts.
Under your sketches the list has Templates, with a Feet-Inches (US) / Metric switch and a search field: every word you type must match, and it looks through names, sizes, categories, descriptions and keywords with their synonyms, so ADA sports, pool section or basement egress find what you mean: about 700 ready-made drawings, each built from real objects at real size, so you can move walls, change doors, dimension and export them like your own. Swipe a category sideways; tap a template to make it a new sketch (the template itself never changes).
| Full Projects | Complete drawing sets of 17–22 sheets, each with its own title block: cover and sheet index, site plan, floor plans, four elevations, two building sections, door, window and room finish schedules, foundation and framing plans, power, lighting, plumbing and mechanical plans, and fire protection for commercial work. Cottage, ADU, tiny house, ranch with garage, two-storey four-bedroom with basement, modern flat-roof house, duplex, townhouse, office fit-out, café, retail shop and garage workshop. |
|---|---|
| Kitchens | One-wall, galley, L, L with island, U, G with peninsula, open kitchen and dining, walk-in pantry, double island, kitchenette (NKBA aisles 42"–48"). |
| Bathrooms | Powder room, 5×8 full bath, ¾ bath, 8×8 bath, primary suite with water closet, Jack-and-Jill, accessible (ADA) bath with 60" turning space, bath and laundry. |
| Bedrooms | 70 sq ft minimum, with closet, guest, king primary, primary suite with bath and walk-in, kids', nursery, dorm. |
| Living & Dining | Living room, great room with fireplace, dining for six, breakfast nook, open living-dining-kitchen, media room, home offices, library, sunroom. |
| Utility & Garages | Laundry room and closet, mudroom, walk-in, coat and linen closets, mechanical room, one-, two- and three-car garages, carport. |
| Apartments | Micro unit to three bedrooms, open loft, corner and accessible units, live-work loft, four-bedroom co-living, junior one-bedroom, split two-bed, three-bed corner, penthouse, accessible studio, metric flats of 45, 70 and 95 m², and whole buildings: a double-loaded floor plate with eight units, stairs and elevator, a garden walk-up and a mixed-use ground floor. |
| Townhomes & Duplexes | Two-bedroom townhome (both floors), townhouse, a row of four mirrored units, side-by-side duplex and stacked over-under flats. |
| Basements, Attics & Dormers | Finished and unfinished basements, egress window well, walkout basement section, attic conversion plan and section (7' headroom rule), dormer types, gable and shed dormer sections, dormer framing. |
| Accessible Design (ADA) | Reach ranges, wheelchair dimensions, turning and clear floor spaces, door clearances, ramps, parking and routes, single-user and multi-stall restrooms, showers, kitchen, bedroom, hotel room with roll-in shower, office suite, accessible homes and apartments, pool entry, wheelchair seating in stands, routes to courts, detectable warnings and signage. |
| Ergonomics & Human Factors | Body dimensions standing and seated (5th–95th percentile), workstation and standing heights, kitchen reach zones, bathroom fixture heights, circulation widths, field of vision, children, walking aids, hardware and controls heights, seat, sofa and bed heights, stairs. |
| Pools & Water | Olympic 50 m, semi-Olympic 25 m and short-course 25 yd pools with lanes, flags and targets, Olympic section, diving pool, lane markings; residential pools with spa, kidney, freeform lagoon, lap pool, sections (residential, infinity edge, spa), plunge courtyard, equipment pad, safety barrier. |
| Houses | Tiny house, ADU, cottage, duplex, ranch, two-storey and townhouse, plus starter home, Craftsman bungalow, split-bedroom ranch, shotgun house, lake cabin, narrow-lot house, accessible home, four-bedroom farmhouse (with power, lighting, plumbing and HVAC plans), in-law suite, small modern house, ranch with finished basement, garage with apartment above, split-level, Craftsman two-storey, cottage with loft, Prairie ranch, saltbox, dogtrot, pool house, modern box, Cape Cod (1½ storey), center-hall colonial, modern farmhouse, contemporary L-shape with garage, courtyard house, barndominium, A-frame cabin, container home, four-bedroom with three-car garage, raised beach house, retirement ranch and mid-century modern. |
| Offices | Private and executive offices, workstations, benching, conference rooms for 4 to 20, huddle rooms, reception, break room, suites, law office (with power, lighting and sprinkler plans), coworking, medical and dental clinics, architecture studio. |
| Commercial & Hospitality | Restaurant, café, bar, retail store, hotel rooms, classroom, exam room, public restrooms, commercial kitchen line, training room, bakery, bike shop, yoga studio. |
| Interior Design | Furnished layouts with finish keynotes: living rooms, bedrooms, dining, kitchens, baths, library, offices, closets, foyer and mudroom; interior elevations (library, media, fireplace and headboard walls, lockers, closet, coffee station, reception desk); boutique, café, bar, hotel lobby, reception, breakout, salon, spa and fitness interiors; floor patterns (herringbone, chevron, plank, offset tile, grid, diagonal, hexagon, basketweave, carpet tile, terrazzo); reflected ceilings, coffers, cove and kitchen lighting; a finish board and a furniture schedule. |
| Space Standards | Neufert-style clearance sheets: dining and seating, beds, kitchens, WCs and baths, offices and meeting rooms, classrooms and auditoriums, restaurants, hotel rooms, healthcare rooms, human dimensions, passage widths, wheelchair reach ranges and stair ergonomics (2R + G). |
| Sports & Recreation | FIBA basketball, tennis, volleyball and beach volleyball, badminton, pickleball, futsal, handball, squash, table tennis, 25 m and 50 m pools, bocce, Little League diamond. |
| Vehicles & Circulation | Car turning circle, car dimensions and door swing, garage ramp section, bicycle and motorcycle parking, bus lay-by, drive-through lane, 12 m rigid truck turning, loading bays, drop-off. |
| Site & Landscape | Garden plans (cottage, Mediterranean courtyard, Japanese, modern, xeriscape, pollinator, rooftop, side yard, potager, orchard, woodland, formal parterre, entertaining, sculpture garden), a site plan with tree shadows, streetscape, tree and shrub sizes in elevation; Topographic survey with 1' contours, index contours labelled, bearings, spot elevations and benchmark; contour landforms (hill, depression, ridge, valley, saddle) with profiles; grading plan with existing and proposed contours; cut and fill section; slope guide; corner-lot site plan; eight-lot subdivision plat with cul-de-sac; site utility plan; detention pond; erosion and sediment control; septic system; street section; front-yard planting plan with plant schedule; backyard with patio, pool and deck; tree, shrub, paver, retaining wall and rain garden details; irrigation plan; vegetable garden, courtyard, playground, parking-lot landscaping, plaza, driveway turnaround and plant symbols. |
| Stadiums & Arenas | Two-tier football stadium round a FIFA pitch, 400 m standard track, seating sightlines (C-value), basketball and hockey arena, NHL rink, baseball park, NFL field and a 500-seat grandstand. These keep their true size and official dimensions in both unit systems. |
| Museums & Galleries | Museum floor plan, gallery enfilade, hanging heights, viewing distances, display cases, temporary exhibition layout, art storage, top-lit gallery section and a small storefront gallery. |
| Site & Parking | 90°, 60°, 45° and parallel parking, accessible car and van stalls, residential site plan with setbacks, cul-de-sac, 20-stall lot, loading dock. |
| Stairs, Ramps & Access | IRC straight stair, L and U stairs, fire-rated stair, elevators and lobby, egress corridor, door clearances, 1:12 ramp, turning spaces, stair section, spiral stair. |
| Structure | Steel, concrete and timber grids and framing, foundations, pile caps, frames and trusses; steel base plates, shear tab, moment connection and splices; beam, column and stair reinforcement, rebar hooks and laps (ACI or Eurocode), slab reinforcement; joist hangers, post caps, shear-wall hold-downs and a nailing schedule; joist span and header tables, I-joist, deck, gable roof and truss framing plans, cantilevers, a load path, platform vs balloon framing, a steel beam and column schedule. |
| Wall Types · Floors & Roofs | 32 wall types and a curtain wall, walls drawn in plan (2×4 and 2×6 studs with corners, tees and openings, advanced framing, CMU cores and grout, brick veneer, ICF, metal studs, double stud), 16 floor and roof assemblies, each layer named with its thickness and fire rating. |
| Sections & Elevations | Wall sections, building sections from one storey to five-storey mixed use, offices, warehouse, gym and garage with bonus room; elevations from ranch and colonial to storefront, mid-rise and barn; house sections on crawlspace, basement and slab, cathedral ceilings, Cape Cod attic rooms, shed-roof, flat-roof townhouse, split-level; Cape Cod with dormers, saltbox, gambrel, Victorian, Georgian, Prairie, Tudor and split-level elevations. |
| Construction Details | Footings, basement wall and drain, pad footing, sill and anchor bolt; window head, sill and jamb; door threshold and head; header framing; eave, rake, ridge vent, gutter, step flashing, skylight curb; residential and commercial stairs, guards and handrails; slab joints, deck ledger and post; brick veneer base; shower curb; curb and gutter, paving, fence post. |
| MEP & Systems | Legends for electrical, lighting, data, plumbing, HVAC, fire, site, annotation, doors and windows; residential and office power, lighting, plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler plans; single-line diagram, panel schedule, riser, DWV isometric, solar PV and EV parking. |
| Schedules & Sheets · Details & Legends | Door, window, finish and hardware schedules, cover sheet, general notes, code summary; hatch and linetype legends, title blocks, door and window types, clearances, every library symbol. |
The two systems are drawn to their own standards, not converted. US templates use feet-inches, IRC/IBC/ADA/NKBA sizes, 9' × 18' parking and 7¾"/10" stairs. Metric ones use the 300 mm module (a 12' room is 3.60 m, 16" o.c. is 400), European and ISO objects (600 mm counters and appliances, 1600 × 2000 and 1800 × 2000 beds, 1700 baths, 900 doors), 2.5 × 5.0 m stalls with 6.0 m aisles, 175/280 stairs, Ø1500 turning circles, metric lumber (45×145), rebar (Ø12) and steel (HEB, IPE), and EI/REI fire ratings. Sizes follow common practice (NKBA, IRC, IBC, ADA, ISO 21542 and typical US and European plans). Standards cited in the drawings (IRC, IBC, ADA, NKBA, ACI 318, AISC, TCNA, EN 1992, FIBA, ITF and others) are from general knowledge, not a live code search. They are starting points: check the editions and local amendments that apply to your project.
For reference only. All plans, details and template drawings are for reference only. They are not construction documents: verify dimensions, codes and local requirements, and have a licensed architect or engineer review any design before it is built or submitted for a permit. Full project sheets carry the note “For reference only · Not for construction”.
With Snap on, points snap as in CAD, each snap switched on or off in the Snaps palette (long-press Snap to open it) and marked with its usual glyph and name: Endpoint □ (ends, corners, vertices, wall faces), Midpoint △, Center ○ (circles, shapes, symbols, closed polylines), Quadrant ◇, Intersection ✕, Perpendicular ⊥ and Tangent from the last point, and Nearest ⧗ (anywhere along a line). With none in reach, Polar tracks angle steps from the last point (5°, 10°, 15°, 30°, 45° or 90°, drawn as a dotted ray with the angle), in whole snap steps with Grid on; otherwise points go to the grid. The grid adapts to the zoom (1" … 100' or 1 cm … 100 m, heavier lines every few); Snap Step can follow it or be fixed (1", 3", 6", 1' or 1 cm … 1 m). Ink is never snapped.
| PNG | A picture of the whole sketch, 3000 pixels on the long side. |
| At the drawing scale: print at 100% and it measures true with your scale rule. A title line, the scale and a scale bar are added. | |
| SVG | Vector, sized in millimetres at the drawing scale; ink as vector strokes. Opens in Illustrator, Affinity, Inkscape and browsers. |
| DXF | For CAD, at real size (inches for feet-inch sketches, millimetres for metric), with layers A-WALL, A-DOOR, A-GLAZ, A-FURN, P-FIXT, A-EQPM, A-ANNO-DIMS, A-ANNO-TEXT, S-GRID, S-COLS, S-FNDN, A-PATT, SKETCH and more, and linetypes. Library symbols and your own blocks go as blocks (one definition, placed wherever it's used), dimensions as real dimensions with their style. AutoCAD, Revit, Vectorworks, ArchiCAD, SketchUp and others read it (DXF R12, the most widely read kind). |
| DWG | AutoCAD's own format (DWG 2018, the current one: AutoCAD 2018 and later, and today's other CAD programs and viewers), with the same real size, layers, colours and linetypes as the DXF, and what AutoCAD has its own objects for: blocks for symbols and your blocks, dimensions you can stretch and restyle, hatches for fills and line patterns, multiline text for notes of several lines, each object's own colour exactly as you picked it, and names and text in any language. Checked with AutoCAD's own audit. Opens straight in AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, BricsCAD, DraftSight, Revit and most CAD viewers. Also DWGOUT on the command line. |
| Copy Drawing | Copies the drawing as a picture, to paste into a note or another app. |
| Add to Note | Puts the drawing, captioned with its name and scale, into the latest note, a new note, or any note you pick. |
On an iPhone or iPad with LiDAR, Tools → Room Scan measures rooms by walking around them with the camera. Each scan becomes a floor plan, wall elevations, a room schedule and a 3D model. Without LiDAR, Add Sample Bedroom and Add Sample Bathroom show what a scan gives.
Tools → Blueprints reads PDF drawing sets. + brings PDFs in from Files (several at once make one set); a PDF opened in Scales HD from Mail, Messages or AirDrop becomes a set too. Sheets are read by their numbers (A-101), with search across the whole set and bookmarks.
Every screen has a microphone in its bar (the CAD, Room Scan and Blueprints have their own). Tap it and speak until you pause, or hold it while you speak; it lights while it listens, and what it heard and did shows in a caption in the corner. Speech is understood on the device; nothing you say is sent anywhere.
Scales HD knows the iPhone Duo's two screens and its hinge.
New Custom Scale (under My Scales) makes a ruler with any architectural (x" = 1'-0"), engineering (1" = x') or metric (1:x) scale on each edge, a name and a color. A true-size preview shows it as you type. Your scales also appear in the converter and in the calculator's Scale menu.
Spirit level: stand the device on any edge for the vial, or lay it flat for the round bullseye bubble. The degrees, the slope in percent and the rise in inches per foot are shown; the marks, the rings and the reading turn blue at level (lying flat, rings every 2.5°), with a tap on arrival and a pulse for each degree as you close in.
To calibrate, place the device on a surface, tap Set Zero; for the most accurate result, reverse the device end for end on the same spot and compare. Hold freezes the reading.
Compass: the bearing of the top edge when lying flat, of the back camera when held up, with pitch and roll. It ticks every 10° and firmer at N, E, S and W. Keep it away from magnets and metal.
An angle finder three ways; the chips under the reading choose. Every reading comes with its supplement (180° less the angle), its half (the miter for two pieces meeting at that corner, each cut at half the angle) and the saw setting (how far from square to set a miter saw). The reading turns green on 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° and 180°, with a tick every 5° on the way.
Hinge (iPhone Duo): the hinge is the pivot and the two halves are the arms, as a sliding T-bevel. Open the phone against the two surfaces with the hinge in the corner and read the angle live; Set Zero reads from wherever the hinge is now (for an angle between two positions), Reset goes back to the hinge's own zero, Hold freezes the number. While the phone is open the reading is also offered to the outer screen, where the system shows it.
Tilt (any device): a digital angle gauge. Lay the device on the first surface, tap Set Zero, lay it on the second: the angle between the two, from gravity. Before Set Zero it reads the resting face's own angle from level (lying: the back, 0° flat to 180° face down; on an edge, that edge's tilt).
On paper (any device): the protractor itself, drawn at true size with its base along the bottom edge and the pivot at the middle of it (at the device's edge when zero is at the device edge, so a line can run out from under the phone). Put the angle's vertex on the pivot, one line along the edge, and drag the red arm onto the other line; the second arm, the base, can also be dragged for an angle between two lines anywhere. The caption gives the radius, so you know the size you are reading at; the reading also comes in radians.
| Measuring | Screen calibration · zero at the device edge · snap measuring lines, snap step (tick, ½, ¼), snap to (main, equivalents, both) · US ↔ metric equivalents |
| Display | Invert colors · keep the screen awake · music controls on the home screen |
| Calculator | Inch fractions (½ … 1/64) · show the metric ↔ imperial line |
| Feedback | Haptics: a tap on buttons and keys, a click as lines snap, pulses from the level and compass |
| Spirit level | Reset level calibration |
| Help | This guide · About · version and device |
Reset to defaults puts everything back as Scales HD ships; your own scales are kept.
| US Architectural | 1/32", 1/16", 3/32", 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/2", 3" = 1'-0" (triangular); 6" and 12" = 1'-0" (flat) |
| US Engineering | 1" = 10', 20', 30', 40', 50', 60', 80', 100', 120' |
| US Mechanical | full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 size; decimal 10ths and 50ths |
| Metric | 1:1, 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:25, 1:33⅓, 1:50, 1:75, 1:100, 1:125 |
| Metric civil & survey | 1:30, 1:40, 1:150, 1:200, 1:250, 1:300, 1:400, 1:500, 1:600, 1:1000, 1:1250, 1:1500, 1:2000, 1:2500, 1:5000, 1:10000 |
| Metric sets | Architect 1 (1:20–1:125), Architect 4 (1:100–1:500), ISO (1:1–1:50), Vocational, Mechanical DIN (with 1:15), Surveyor (1:500–1:2500) |
| UK & Japan | UK rule 1:1, 1:5, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200; Japanese architectural, civil (with 1:350) and general |
| Enlargement | 1:1, 2:1, 5:1, 10:1, 20:1, 50:1 (ISO 5455), read in millimetres |
| Maps | 1:24000, 1:25000, 1:50000, 1:62500, 1:100000, 1:250000, read in kilometres |
| Models | Rail Z, N, TT, HO, O, G; kits 1:12, 1:24, 1:35, 1:48, 1:72, 1:144 |
| Tools | construction calculator, sketch pad, notes, unit converter, scale converter, board (cm, inch), tape (cm, inch), spirit level, compass |
Any metric or engineering edge can also be read ×10 or ×100 (chapter 06).
Scales HD collects no data: no accounts, ads, analytics or tracking. Your settings, custom scales, notes, sketches and calculator tape stay on your device. The level and compass read the device's motion sensors on the device only.
Questions or suggestions: support@macdevstudio.com · macdevstudio.com/scaleshd