There has been lots of activity at Gravity Sketch in recent months, including preparing for the app going free on January 25th and an overhaul of our iPad app (sign up for the beta here). Development on the VR app has also continued, and we’re delighted to introduce the latest major update to Gravity Sketch, releasing on January 20th, 2021. You can download Gravity Sketch from one of the following stores:
The latest version of the tool is the result of 6 months of development, and is available across all platforms (PC VR and Oculus Quest 1 & 2). These updates have all been driven by feedback that we have received from the community, and we hope these improvements will improve your experience with the tool and help further accelerate your workflows. Input from the community is vital to help drive the direction of future development of the tool, so thank you to everyone who has contributed! Please join the conversation on Discord, YouTube, and Instagram, and continue to give us all of your feedback!
Below is a list of the major features that have been added for this update. At the bottom of this post you will also find a tutorial video showing you how to access and use them.
New features
- New lobby – the first new feature you will encounter is the new lobby. As well as a number of visual improvements, the lobby contains a revamped file manager, which provides better control of folders and file management, including a clipboard to help streamline organising your work.
- Subgroups – one of the most requested features, subgroups allow you to group together multiple groups of items into one larger group, and then retain the component groups if you ungroup the larger group later on.
- New SubD tools menu – the SubD tools menu has been redesigned to make it easier to select the smooth, cut, crease, and merge tools. In addition to this improved menu, the tools are now better integrated into your drawing hand controller to streamline your workflow – you can now continue to grab and move points without having to put the tools down.
- Improved stroke normal visuals – when editing normals of geometry made with the ink or stroke tool, a temporary blue line has been added to make it easier for you to see the changes you are making.
- Group editing and mirroring – by holding the edit button down while holding onto multiple objects, you can now edit all of those objects in one go to speed up your process. Within group editing mode, multiple objects can also be baked across the mirror plane, or brought onto one side of the mirror.
- Improved object scaling – while being scaled in smart move mode (see the tutorial video at the bottom for a detailed explanation), objects now keep their orientation, making it possible to scale up or down the size of an object you have created without having to then reposition it afterwards.
- Snap rotate tool – the rotation tool on the Toolbelt now has a snapping mode that can be turned on and off. When turned on, objects can be rotated in 15 degree increments for more precise control.
- New export menu – the export menu has been completely revamped, allowing you to preview, re-center, and resize your model before exporting.
- Minimap – to zoom out and see your entire sketch or scene, there is now a minimap mode. From the minimap, fly to any location in your sketch.
- Viewpoints – the viewpoints feature allows you to create a set of camera positions in your sketch that you can teleport to. These viewpoints will persist when others open your file so you can help communicate your ideas and navigate them through a scene. We will be integrating this functionality within LandingPad in the future as well, so that you can view your model in a browser and cycle through the viewpoints you set up in VR.
- Toolbelt – to make it easier for everyone to access the Toolbelt, there is now a toggle inside the app (as opposed to within LandingPad) to enable it.
The tutorial video below shows you how to use each of these new features.
Business features
A number of new features have also been rolled out for business users. Teaching mode has been added to Co-Creation, so that people can see the interface of others in the room, making teaching others much simpler. A number of new import formats are now supported (IGES, FBX, GLTF, Blender files (.blend), STL, Collada (.dae)).
LandingPad has also been updated to now include support for shared files within a company organisation. Files can be moved from your individual LandingPad account into your shared company area, from which anyone that is part of that organisation in LandingPad can access and work on those files.
If you are using Gravity Sketch at work and want to discuss our business version, please get in touch through the button below.
Special thanks
We work closely with our beta testers to better identify key features and areas of the focus which improve the overall workflow and user experience. Thanks to all who have helped, with special thanks to: Nicholas Baker, Yohan Benchetrit, Thomas Busson, David Chapman, Isaiah Coberly, Fynn Eckstein, Min Guen, Roshan Hakkim, Alex Hodge, Vladimir Ilic, Joshua E. De Jesus, Zrinko Kozlica, Luca Malisan, Anthony Monnoyeur, Elisa Payer, Nikolai Proskurin, Joshua Reer, Fed Rios, James Robbins, Danilo Makio Saito, Michael Smith, James Robbins, Durk van der Meer, Richard Byers.
