iPad Pro + Pencil + Procreate

Do you mean rendering sketches? I use photoshop directly on the surface, I do the linework in Leonardo. Do you mean CAD Rendering? I don’t do that on the Surface. No way I will inflict that pain on me. I mean, yeah, technically you can. But you don’t really want to. After all it is an Ultrabook so it has as much power as an macbook air or maybe the smaller macbook pros if you spec it out. Nowhere near workstation capabilities.
Wacoms products are clearly priced for businesses, so I would never pay for it with my personal money. It is just has a horrible bang to buck ratio, so let your company buy one for you if you can :wink:

@R
You mean with the latter option you would save 150 bucks? Then I would take that one. I haven’t witnessed it myself but people say the display in the 2017 version with the high refresh rate gives a nice fluid feeling when sketching. And, this is my personal opinion, I never use much of my storage on iOS. I stream everything, I don’t play games and I don’t download silly apps. To this day I use a 16GB iPhone 6 and have enough space. I wouldn’t even know what to put on 64GB. But you might be different. Also you could spend the 150$ on the pencil and some case, which is both not really optional. So you can get the full package.

Opposite. Latter options costs $150. Good point about the refresh rate with sketching. Never thought of that and was going to ignore refresh as I don’t play any games. Hmmm… I guess can never go wrong getting the latest tech possible. Usually that’s my approach. I drove to the US to get the first iPad before it was available in Canada and couldn’t even download any apps as there was no Canadian App Store (workaround with a US iTunes GC, but anyhow).

With Cellular and Dropbox (good) and iCloud (sucky) I think less storage is important. I used to go to the max as I have 30,000+ pics on my camera roll, but iCloud cuts that down. Current phone is the 256GB iPhone 7+. I’m using 50Gb after moving storage to the cloud…

R

Yes, I meant CAD rendering. That’s what I thought, just making sure. I’m sure the Surface could do some test renders in a pinch, but it would take forever to do final renders.

Agreed… Wacom is very much priced for business. Its nice to see products from other companies creating some competition.

So I pulled the trigger! 12.9" 64Gb Wifi+ Cellar + Pencil.

First time trying Procreate and overall I’m liking it, but still getting used to it.

Anyone have any tips, tricks? missing the ellipse and ruler guides, but the brushes and layer options are really nice.

…I’ve heard a few things about custom brushes… ?

Any suggestions for workflow, hints, tips, etc. please let me know.

R

PS. Why is there still no Instagram for iPad?

Nice, congrats!

The no eclipse guides and rulers thing is a total miss. Have to stay with sketchbook for that.

You can get straight lines though if you draw your line and then hold the pencil still on the end point. A straight line will snap.

i think I’m going to switch back to sketchbook, not only to support our friend Blaster, but also because the predictive stroke feature:

You can make circles and straight lines with Shape brushes apparently. Still playing with that…

Will be trying Sketchbook as well for sure! Hating the subscription thing though so might not go that route.

R

dude, I know. I hear you. Am I an old man because I just want to buy it once? It is great for fusion 360 though where a 3d program is usually thousands of dollars. Sketchbook used to be like 100 bucks though. Blaster told me they are doing a lot of continual updates though so the subscription is good for that.

Pretty much every other iOS app you buy once and it’s continually updated. Heck, even OS X is constantly updated and Free!

Looks like there is a single purchase option and in app upgrade to pro tools. Not sure what that includes and how it’s different than the subscription. Confusing.

R

EDIT - took me lots of searching, but I think I figured it out. Sketchbook is free. Upgrade on mobile is an in app purchase of Pro Tools for 6.99. On Desktop, you have to buy a subscription.

I’m going to try the mobile one. Staying away from the subscription on desktop. Not sure the app difference between mobile and desktop.

They really make it difficult, don’t they…

R

So the mobile upgrade is a 1 off purchase? Might also be pulling the trigger on an Ipad soon.

Something that annoyed me the last time I used the desktop version was that I couldn’t adjust the canvas size without a pro subscription.

I think I’ll have to disagree here - my SurfaceBook (i7, loaded, max RAM, max SSD, etc) is an awesome machine that runs everything I put at it and is a great sketching machine to boot. You’ll find other observations of mine regarding my workflow in different topic conversations on this site - but the summary is that I use it as a laptop for almost 90% of my workflow and it’s faultless. Definitely not buggy.

I 'd highly suggest zen brush 2 app for ipad pro. Procreate is amazing but mostly for rendering for me. I still find it less natural compared to pen+paper sketch feel. Zen is pretty good for quick dirty sketching. Feels super natural.

I’ve also put a non-glossy matte screen protector on the screen. Feels a lot more like paper with added friction.

https://www.amazon.ca/Protector-Tech-Armor-Anti-Glare-Anti-Fingerprint/dp/B016B12TSW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501614763&sr=8-2&keywords=ipad+screen+protector+matte

I have seen your posts on the SurfaceBook and am very happy to hear that it works for you. However, I do remember looking into other reviews of the Surface Book and Pro products at several times over the last couple years and finding that not everyone had the same experience as you. My comments were also based on a co-worker that had a Surface Pro 3 with maxed out specs that tried to make it work as a Solidworks CAD machine. He had some limited success, but his $1700+ machine ultimately ended up sitting in his closet unused due to a variety of complaints that made it impossible for him to do useful work on it. I think his model ran Windows 8, which was notoriously buggy, and so maybe his issues were related to that.

Either way, thanks for reminding me that there are Windows options that exist and work well. Someday I’ll pull the trigger on one of these devices and have something useful to report myself!

I’ll just throw in my 2 cents. I have an i7 Surface Pro 3. I run Solidworks, Rhino, SketchBook Pro, and Adobe CC. Works great with one exception – the pen tip is too slick to sketch well. I have tried the Pro 4 and I know the new pen has changeable, different durometer, tips to get better feel. My wife has an iPad Pro, it’s a beautiful gadget but you can’t get any real work done unless all you want to do is sketch and even then I don’t think it’s better than the Surface Pro 4. Plus it has a kickstand, can be connected to monitor, a mouse, and you can add additional storage.

Can we keep the thread on topic, please? Pretty sure there are enough other threads on Windows machines and CAD.

Here’s a few sketches recently on the iPad. Loving the Procreate App so far! have yet to try the latest version of Sketchbook mobile.

R


Nice sketches! I’m considering purchasing an iPad as well and trying to decide between the two sizes. How do you like the 12.9 size? I tend to carry a smaller sketchbook around, so the 10 inch one appeals to me, but wondering if that would feel too constrained.

I like the size. Don’t carry it around much, but doesn’t seem to be to huge. Like the old large black hardcover sketchbooks. More space seems good for easier sketches I think.

R

I like the bigger size (the original one). The screen is very close to the size of A4/Letter paper, which is an interesting design detail.
R, those sketches have so much energy! I used to use Procreate, but now that Sketchbook has the ellipse tool, I can’t go back. I like the Sketchbook UI more too. Easier access to brushes. Fewer taps to switch between pencil/eraser/airbrush.

What is the best way to get files on or off the iPad to use downstream on my workstation PC in the office?

This has always been to me one of the biggest issues I have working on the iPad. I’ve never found a way that felt as organic as saving a file on a standard computer does.

I either airdrop it to my laptop or save it on iCloud