Very nicely done! But I wish you could have watched over my shoulder as I bumbled around at the UI. Since I bought the export function and therefore own you as a developer to execute my every whim delivered as free updates until eternity ends[1]…<p>• If you can attach text to a bezier connection, I couldn't make it happen. I want this. Code faster, sleep less.[2]<p>• I kept trying to move objects a little bit without the double pump of first selecting. This makes tiny fly dropping lines which have to be undone or deleted. I think a short, brief gesture from the center of an object might be safely interpreted as a drag. You must already be deciding if it is a connection or a line. What's one more logic branch?[3]<p>• I'd like to select several objects of a class and have the option to "make same shape" in order to tidy up. Say, grab 3 rectangles and make them the same dimensions. Easy context menu item, but you have to figure out how to select 3 arbitrary rectangles first. Perhaps in select mode a brief touch adds or removes from the set of selected objects?<p>• For reshaping rectangles and ovals, I think a horizontal or vertical pinch should change just that dimension, diagonal can still resize preserving aspect ratio. This gives a natural way to change aspect ratio without all the mode-i-ness of the vertex.<p>• I find myself wanting to connect more than 4 things to a rectangle, I want them to come in at right angles to a side, but not overlap their lines on the way in. That will take a day of thinking to imagine a solution to rendering that. Having them spaced pleasingly, near the center of the side, in an order to minimize crossovers would be lovely. Good luck.<p>• I keep making fly specks on my drawing by touching the surface. I want that not to happen, but I suppose I might eventually want to make a tiny line too. Please resolve my ambiguous actions like an oracle. I expect this to be done so well I never realize you are doing it.<p>• Xcode-esque snap to other stuff on the page would be nice, particularly snapping to "things I am connected to" would help keep those horizontal and vertical lines tidy.<p>• I think adding "shake to undo" would be nice. That undo button is so far up in the corner, it feels like a context switch to me to go hit it, while a shake is just part of my flow. How strange is that?<p>Well that should keep you busy until December 1st. I'll get back to you with my next set of demands then.<p>EOM<p>[1] I kid, But I don't get to be the "user" end of these very often and I'm going all out.<p>[2] The Omni Group NSBezierPath extensions might be helpful here, they have a getPositionForPoint: method that tells how far along the path a point is, and a corresponding getPointForPosition: so you could glue the text to a relative position along the curve. They also have hit testing for NSBezierPath, but you already crossed that bridge. <a href="https://github.com/omnigroup/OmniGroup/blob/master/Frameworks/OmniAppKit/OpenStepExtensions.subproj/NSBezierPath-OAExtensions.h" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/omnigroup/OmniGroup/blob/master/Framework...</a> [4]<p>[3] Plus a time machine so you can draw the feedback as a line or drag without knowing if it is going to be short or brief. Your problem. Not mine.<p>[4] You realize if you give me this I am going to come back and ask for the ability to drag the text along the bezier curve, right? Best plan for that from the start.
Rajeevk - please please create a version of this app that is modified into a virtual whiteboard so that two or more people can update the same plan at the same time. I have engineers spread over multiple offices and find it hard to do meetings that should be whiteboard sessions if everyone was in the same office. Meeting rooms could then have a couple of ipads with styluses for my guys to use. This is an app I would buy in a heartbeat!
Here is youtube demo: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPLRRt79uo" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPLRRt79uo</a><p>For more info: <a href="http://www.avabodh.com/lekh" rel="nofollow">http://www.avabodh.com/lekh</a>
Rajeevk, this is absolutely fantastic, great job!<p>But… why don't you support DOT as an export type? It would be so unbelievably awesome for me to prototype in Lekh and then finess with DOT.<p>Anyway congratulations on the release!
App Store marketing suggestion: say what makes you distinct as near as possible to the beginning of the description text.<p>Which here I think means, get your sketch-recognition feature as near to the beginning of your description as possible. Only the first sentence or two show up in the web and desktop-iTunes store (don't have ipad with me now), until you hit "...More" to expand the description.<p>Maybe replace "with extreme ease" with something along the lines of "simply by sketching shapes with your finger".<p>You could also use the first screenshot slot to show a nice illustration of the UI procedure. For example, a photo montage of a finger sketching a freehand shape, and then that shape re-rendered by your app.<p>The icon too, could be used for some rendering of the freehand concept.<p>Maybe I'm missing what makes Lekh distinct, but if it's this, show it off as much as possible -- don't bury it in text!
Instaviz does the same thing, but yours is free, and your execution is better, great job...<p><sarcasm>Cue to patetent lawyers in 3...2...</sarcasm>
This is very good!<p>What I miss is a "snap to grid" feature.<p>Some comments:<p>- dragging object feels slow on iPad 3<p>- the line and text options give too much choices, maybe you could have an advanced toggle to enable fine-grained parameters, and a default with simpler options (like just 5-10 colors, no transparency and no line width)
Rajeevk, great job!!
Things I'm looking forward to:
- snap to grid
- object grouping<p>Your app needs a bit more polish, and your icon could do with a bit more work, but for a first version its fantastic.<p>Your app has replaced grafio as my goto diagramming tool.
There is something very pleasurable about drawing flow charts like this. It hits a sweet spot between actual drawing and presentation programs/lucid chart. Great work!
Do you take into consideration the direction of the strokes? I can't seem to get it to recognize anything but a rectangle. Lefty here, hence the direction query.
I would love to be able to export images as an SVG file. That way, this could be used for creating simple assets to integrate into a site design or wireframe.
Your screenshots don't have to be literal screenshots. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything special about your app. Its main feature is un-advertised!<p>I would suggest some sort of transitional photo. Show the sloppy drawing fading into the crisp flowchart. Maybe a little text on the image. "Draw flow charts in seconds!".
Installed and very interested. Every once in a while I get the desire to diagram on my iPad. I don't do it often because I haven't found the right tool yet, so hopefully this is it. I like what I see and look forward to future updates.
Downloading now, but I'd change the description of the in-app purchase so people can read it on the app store; it currently truncates. Instead of 'Feature to enable export' just say 'Export diagrams'. Looking forward to trying it out.
Very awesome.<p>You may want to consider making the dash/color/fill tappable, instead of relying on the tiny disclosure button. It would definitely speed up access to those features.<p>edit: It feels a little naked without pinch-zoom.