The new drawing tool in the top-rated Trace drawing application from Morpholio adds virtual perspective girds, to scale, anywhere — making complex sketching easy and accessible. Called “Perspective Finder”, the scaling of projected grids is only possible through the newly released power of Apple’s augmented reality toolkit, ARKit, to analyze and decode physical spaces for the user. Trace (direct link) is designed for architects and designers and has been a front-runner in using digital tools to bring old-school instruments (technical pens, rulers, triangles and stencils) to the very edge of current technology.

The uses for Perspective Finder are as endless as the opportunities that AR has opened up. Stand in your kitchen to sketch a renovation, or in an open floor plan to layout a new office space. Look down over a plaza, garden, or streetscape to cast a grid and create a new landscape or planting plan.
— Anna Kenoff, Morpholio Co Founder

The family of applications from Morpholio have been in development for years and we have been thrilled to report on their evolution (direct link to all our past Morpholio posts). Architects and designers have been using these applications in the creation of new projects and embraced Trace to sketch over computer-generated models, mark up PDFs of construction drawings or sketch ideas. With the addition of ARKit capabiliites, Morpholio is set to redefine the ways creatives use iPad.

After launching the iPad’s camera from within the Trace application, the device will automatically register a found surface and present a grid. This grid can be rotated and centered to create a scaled grid that can be virtually presented to select a perspective view. Trace takes the specified view and automatically sets up a drawing with the background, grid and vanishing points ready to draw over.

You can download Morpholio Trace for iPhone and iPad in the App Store here. (iOS App Store link).

Drawing with Trace, especially when using the new 3D tools, could mean that quick creation of sketches of new ideas and important markups can evolve without complicated desktop software. Trace makes it simple and allows anyone, not just professionals, to bring a kit of architecture tools into construction projects.