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Catchbook is first consumer app from software giant
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Enables anyone to quickly turn sketches/tracings into accurate 2D drawings
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So intuitive “even an adult can use it”
Siemens introduces Catchbook™ software, a powerful new drawing and tracing app for tablets and smartphones that converts freehand drawings into accurate 2D designs. The new app provides a simple and intuitive user interface that works with both touch and stylus enabled Android™, iOS and Windows ® operating system devices. Catchbook was designed to be a digital version of the proverbial napkin sketch, the birthplace of many amazing inventions – and even more home remodeling projects. Catchbook can be used to simply sketch ideas, just as one would do using pencil and paper, yet it’s smart enough to create precise, to-scale drawings that can be used for planning and construction. Even better, the drawings are completely editable via simple push and pull, making Catchbook far more powerful than any piece of paper. Developed by Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software business, Catchbook is built on the company’s leading industrial sketching technology. Catchbook is available for download today, from a version available at no charge, to the full function app for $5.99.
Anyone who has an idea that they need to depict accurately and efficiently will benefit from Catchbook. The app can be utilized for personal use or to communicate and collaborate with others. It can be used for creating sketches and cutting diagrams, or as a tool to teach children geometry, or to design furniture and remodel a home.
“Catchbook is designed to be simple and extremely powerful. Using it is intuitive and natural,” said Chuck Grindstaff, President and CEO, Siemens PLM Software. “The children of our employees – some as young as six years old – pick-up Catchbook and create drawings in no time. They particularly love to trace. However, it wasn’t until I shared it with some friends, and they used it with the same ease that I knew we had achieved our goal. It’s so easy to operate, even an adult can use it!”
Catchbook gives users the ability to draw freely, or import an image or photograph and sketch over it to add details. Users rarely have to activate a menu or command. Instead, everything focuses on direct interaction with a finger or stylus. While there are many apps on the market that facilitate artistic visual representations, Catchbook is the only app that converts freehand sketching into mathematical curves representing precise drawings. Catchbook combines the simplicity of freehand sketching with the power of computer-aided design (CAD). It helps users create accurate CAD-compatible representations of their ideas.
Catchbook enables everyone from the casual home user to the professional engineer to accurately and efficiently depict ideas. For consumer do-it-yourselfers and aspiring designers, Catchbook helps convert sketches into accurate 2D drawings without the need for any CAD knowledge or experience. At the same time, professional design engineers can quickly capture ideas with Catchbook and collaborate more easily with non-CAD users. This helps combine the ideation and initial design phases to further compress the design cycle. Inspired by a need from Siemens’ manufacturing customer base for a tool to bridge the gap between idea capture and design, Catchbook quickly developed into something more – a tool that anyone can use.
Beneath its intuitive user interface, Catchbook employs some of the same sophisticated technology used in most of the world’s leading CAD applications. Siemens’ D-Cubed™ software component works behind the scenes as a 2D geometric constraint solving tool to capture and preserve relationships between geometry. This is what enables users to interactively manipulate Catchbook drawings. These drawings can be shared directly via social media or email, or exported as images. Users can also directly export drawings as a sketch to virtually any graphic design or commercial CAD system including, Siemens’ NX™ software and Solid Edge® software.
For information on Catchbook, please visit www.catchbook.com.
