[pd_drawexpress]

I like to share this gesture recognition app for those who like to draw ideas, concepts and designs fast. It is designed purely for speed and simplicity. Almost everything is using gesture so check out the youtube video, our website and the starting tips. Please provide any feedback to help us improve it.



Lite Version: BlackBerry World - DrawExpress Diagram Lite
Full Version: BlackBerry World - DrawExpress Diagram

Here are some helpful starting tips:

� To Pan the surface, you use two fingers and maintain the same spacing between them. Using the thumb and the index finger seems to be the easiest for me.
� When selecting a shape or a group of shapes, you can delete it by drawing �x� or copy it by drawing �+�. You can draw anywhere on the canvas but don�t draw it bigger than 1/3 of the screen.
� You are likely to draw unwanted lines or unrecognized shapes in red strokes. Simply touch the surface with two fingers will clear those lines. However, you should ignore it and continue to draw over it with a successful shape or action and these unwanted lines will automatically go away. Do NOT Use the �undo button� for these red strokes.
� When drawing connectors, you should try to start in the middle of the first shape and end your connector stroke within the middle of the second shape. Any point within the shape is still ok.
� You can select a boundary box by touching its border only. Likewise, you can double tap on the border for labeling.
� Check out our website tutorial slides for other drawing gestures (DrawExpress).


Here are some of typical diagrams you can draw:

Software and Network Designs:
- Use case
- Sequence Diagram
- Class Diagram
- State Diagram
- ER Diagram
- Data Flow Diagram
- Network Diagram

Business Processes and Mind Maps:
- Flowchart
- Organization Chart
- Process Flow
- Mind map
- Feature List
- Decision Tree
- Visual Notes

Some sample screenshots:

[FF22]

Looks fascinating. Good luck with the app.

added: Getting an error for the free version from appworld. Other apps seem to be there! Now another error: "No supported by your current device profile." Is this a pb app?

[pd_drawexpress]

Hi F2,

it's a playbook app. I just downloaded on my Playbook (2.1) ok. Although it does take a few tries. Maybe not all server got propagated. Also, there are only a few list of countries so if you are not on the list please let me know.

[FF22]

US, here. just closed and reopened appworld. Still not available but it is probably not your fault. May take some more time.

[nguyenanhnhan]

hi, pd_drawexpress
I want buy your app. But i live at Viet Nam.

[Herve5]

I'm definitely going to try it. Can we export to pdf or other 'exchange' formats? [edit: from the demo version, there seem not (but maybe in the paying one?)]

Can we deal with larger-than-screen drawings? [edit: yes, and easily visible thanks to the change in underlying grid]

Could we import things, e. g. images or even vectorial pdfs? [edit: probably not, but there is a (very small) library of preexisting shapes and icons, that probably will grow. Also, as one can handle various drawings or projects separately, in separate folders if need be, there may be a way to copy part of a preexisting file, but I didn't find yet]

The difference between the free and the pay version is a limit on the number of diagrams one can handle.
BTW i didn't find where the recorded files are located on the PB?

All in all this looks like an already very mature app, which probably comes from its android origin (for once this is an advantage , and indeed while android the startup is almost instant)
Thank you for porting this clever app to Blackberry!

[Blackman91]

Looks great, I was planning on buying it, sadly when I open the link to the appworld I get : "Not supported by your current device profile." Looks like my country is not supported, I am from Mexico.

[pd_drawexpress]

Thank all for trying it out. Right now this is a new release even for the android version. I do have a blog on my site that I will put any future development there.

I'm definitely going to try it. Can we export to pdf or other 'exchange' formats? [edit: from the demo version, there seem not (but maybe in the paying one?)]

- Righ now you can export to PNG and I am planing to add SVG support in near future. I am not sure about PDF yet since I am planning to allow large canvas drawing.

Could we import things, e. g. images or even vectorial pdfs? [edit: probably not, but there is a (very small) library of preexisting shapes and icons, that probably will grow. Also, as one can handle various drawings or projects separately, in separate folders if need be, there may be a way to copy part of a preexisting file, but I didn't find yet]

- I do have plan for supporting custom image. But for now I hope to expand the existing image library from user feedback. In term of linking to other drawing, I will allow global clipboard and hyperlink.

The difference between the free and the pay version is a limit on the number of diagrams one can handle.
BTW i didn't find where the recorded files are located on the PB?

- The file is an application private files. The upcoming version will let you manage files better which will let me introduce workspace concept afterward

All in all this looks like an already very mature app, which probably comes from its android origin (for once this is an advantage , and indeed while android the startup is almost instant)
Thank you for porting this clever app to Blackberry!

[/QUOTE]
My android app is just 2 weeks old so I am happy to get more feedbacks.

As for language support, the app can only support ISO/IEC 8859-1. If your language is belong to this group I can release it based on request.

nguyenanhnhan - sorry I can't fully support Vietnamese yet.
Blackman91 - It seems like Mexico official language is Spanish. I'll open up the app without the translation but you can still label your drawing in Spanish.

[FF22]

Herve:

I was able to export a png file from the free version (only converted to jpg for the upload to Crackberry). It was saved in the

photos/drawexpress folder

(not in an android folder)

[nguyenanhnhan]

I don't need support Vietnamese in app. Just open sale in Vietnam so that I can buy. I appreciate your app for my work. Thanks.

[Herve5]

I saw one can instantly create an email containing a drawing, through any email app present (not only the default one), which I find very nifty!
H.

[dmlis]

Ukraine: not available in BB World yet.

[pd_drawexpress]

Sorry to those who couldn't download my app due to country code. I just doesn't want to give a false impression that I can support all languages. However, I'll check with Blackberry to see if I can put a warning disclaimer or properly restricting the app to supported certain character set rather than the entire country. I'll update once I get more informatioin about this.

nguyennhananh - I tried to test out Vietnamese but my Playbook doesn't come with one. Does your version have the Vietnamese Language keyboard? I just want to make sure that nothing crash when people try to run unsupported language.

[Blackman91]

I still get the Not supported by your current device profile message when opening the link to the app in my playbook.

[pd_drawexpress]

I still get the Not supported by your current device profile message when opening the link to the app in my playbook.

I did made a request this morning around 9:50 am ET for you. I am not sure how long Blackberry takes to provision these kind of changes.

[BKillar]

I would like to first say - nice job on this app - the gesture UI is really unique - simply fantastic in the execution. I feel like some variation on your approach could be applied to other tablet apps and improve the user experience.
One simple request would be a way to hide the right hand if not both tool bars. Being that Playbook has a 7" screen, we could use all the screen space we can get and with the gesture input managing most of the work - not much of a need for the tool bars during much of the editing.
Nice work - I look forward to coming updates

[pd_drawexpress]

Great suggestion on the collapsible menu bar. What do you think about the learning curve of this app? I like to have some ideas regarding to building out the tutorial and how much time I should focus on it.

I would like to first say - nice job on this app - the gesture UI is really unique - simply fantastic in the execution. I feel like some variation on your approach could be applied to other tablet apps and improve the user experience.
One simple request would be a way to hide the right hand if not both tool bars. Being that Playbook has a 7" screen, we could use all the screen space we can get and with the gesture input managing most of the work - not much of a need for the tool bars during much of the editing.
Nice work - I look forward to coming updates

[BKillar]

I was able to master the controls after viewing the video - learning curve was short.
Without the video I was a bit lost beyond drawing the shapes and the connecting lines- did not get the grouping tool, text entry, color fill etc. until I viewed the demo.

[Blackman91]

I did made a request this morning around 9:50 am ET for you. I am not sure how long Blackberry takes to provision these kind of changes.

Thanks, just bought it, the app is available for my country now.

[vserghi]

This is exactly what I was after, well done.

The upcoming additions look good.

The gesture based operation is not obvious when you use it for the first time, and you end up getting a little frustrated. I needed to go to your website and watch the youtube clip before I could use it. After that, it is very easy. I think you need to offer a short tutorial at the start of a fresh install.

The text formatting options could be easier to use. Remembering the different nmemonics could be a problem for some. Maybe add a short toolbar when adding text with the options available.

[pd_drawexpress]

We are considering a similar tutorial slides of our website for the app and a shorter version of the video. I am glad you spend the time learning it. Personally, I used this app for all of my software development and hopefully improve it further over time.

The text formatting isn't there yet and we are exploring a rich editor type. As for now it is more like a wiki style.

[Herve5]

OK, just bought it. Dev, thank you for being so reactive here!
Like some others I think including the screenshot tutorials within the app would be nice, even if it'll probably concern those "not so frequent users" only.
DrawExpress has no competitors on the Playbook; I wish it a long career and lots of evolutions
Herv�
P. S. if I had a single wish, it would be the possibility to copy/paste selections from one document to another. This would allow creating and evolving personal drawing/symbols libraries among others...

[pd_drawexpress]

Thanks Herve, I am glad that we can support Blackberry. So far I am getting a lot of great feedback already from the crackberry crowd .

We do have plan for a global clipboard. It is in our to do list after the next release sometimes next week.

[Herve5]

(...)We do have plan for a global clipboard. It is in our to do list after the next release sometimes next week.

This really is an excellent news. In this area you may possibly consider contacting the dev from the app 'ClipBoard' whose ambition is to allow handling multiple successive clipboards (at this time he does this only for text, of course). Combining the two of you may become a step ahead of any others...

Apart from this I'm having a hard time with your 'Projects' function. First I spent quite a time before discovering one is to switch between different project tabs by sliding over them not just 'clicking' (would definitely be worth telling) .

But I have more difficulties: at the time being, it seems that, erratically, when switching from one project to another, the associated files just do not appear (in fact you see no file at all). Then, after some frantic tab-switching again, the files sometimes miraculously reappear. Some other times the files from the previous project continue to appear when I switch to the next, but are then not selectable. Last thing: how can I delete a project or a specific file?
All in all I feel a bit like I shouldn't create new projects, or I may lose files
So, there may be something I didn't understood, but I'd appreciate some kind of 'how-to' that would tell me exactly how to locate a given file in a given project, then switch to another project, see the distinct associated files, and choose one to edit...

[pd_drawexpress]

The project list is a circular horizontal scroll list. The active project is the left most (grey tab) and only files within that project will show. We are improving this flow right now to include way to remane,move,copy and delete files. It should be available before the end of the week. We'll also try to make project switch clickable as well instead of scrolling.

PS. our horizontal scrolling maybe a bit sensitive so you may just scrolled to an empty project (just make sure that the project you want to be in is the left most (grey tabbed)