- Platform: Windows Vista / 7 / XP, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
- Media: DVD-ROM
- Item Quantity: 1
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Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description
Hybrid paint & vector environment for flexibility and precision. View larger.
Simultaneously modify paint and vector layers. View larger.
Streamlined and intuitive UI. View larger.
Express your personal style. View larger.
Produce detailed artwork with ease. View larger.
Explore line-work with complete freedom. View larger.
Autodesk SketchBook Designer boasts a unique hybrid paint and vector platform that creative individuals need to quickly transform ideas into compelling artwork and design iterations. Built to enhance the creative process, SketchBook Designer provides a new approach to digital sketching and illustration, a powerful asset for design professionals and illustrators of all levels.
Product Features
- Unique Hybrid Raster/Vector Environment
- Optimized for both pen-based (freehand) and mouse interactions
- Highly discoverable interface; easy to use without compromising quality or functionality
The Hybrid Paint Vector Environment
Whether creating freehand sketches, tight technical line-work, or assembling photos and images to compose new imagery, the hybrid paint/vector environment allows artwork to be easily edited and modified, providing users with a high degree of both control and flexibility.
- Easy-to-use curve creation and editing
- Simultaneously warp paint and vector layer contents
- Library of brushes that can be used on both paint and vector layers
- Import and export curve data (DWG)
Advanced tools for exploration
- Full control of multiple layers, including layer blending, folders, and symmetry
- Dynamic symmetry allows interactive exploration of radial or mirror patterns
- Interactive fills and gradients give you full control of exploring color schemes and shape definition
- Use SketchBook Designer "Pages" to branch ideas by duplicating works-in-progress
- Dynamically transform and reassemble image assets and layers to freely explore ideas
- Change line thickness, brush styles, shape and color of vector curves at any time
- Use shape recognition and interactive smoothing while creating or editing any curve
Note: This version does not include the AutoCAD Add-in (Autodesk SketchBook Designer for AutoCAD)
Product Description
Autodesk SketchBook Designer boasts a unique hybrid paint and vector platform that creative individuals need to quickly transform ideas into compelling artwork and design iterations. Built to enhance the creative process, SketchBook Designer provides a new approach to digital sketching and illustration, a powerful asset for design professionals and illustrators of all levels.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
There are some differences between Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 and the designer edition.
One of which is the interface is a bit different. There is a long toolbar on the top of the screen. You also don't see the familiar sketchbook Pro lagoon on the bottom. It's still cleanly presented and I'm still learning how to adjust with the interface as I try this piece of software out. Installing it was pretty easy and rather hassle free.
One key difference between this one and Sketchbook Pro is that it's also vector. It also lends more interesting tools such as a radial tool that will let you do repeats of items within a circle.
Another difference I was easily able to see was that this also has a really neat warp tool. I find it very easy to adjust and use.
This version allows you to add a plug-in for CAD but it's not included in the package.
I was at first confused because I had a vector layer and Paint layer, and didn't notice how they worked at first. It was however, for a very short time. I like the line smoothing tools in the vector version. It's nice for us shaky hand artists that need that nice clean line at times.
The paint tools are familiar from 2010 and It's the same as 2011 (regular edition). I'm still working on some custom brushes and tweaks but it's pretty smooth and easy.
You might notice the lofty price tag between this and Sketchbook Pro. This is definitely more intended for those in the industry and probably not the hobbyist. Also, Sketchbook Pro (not the designer edition) is really intended for sketching and those first steps to get an idea down, without the clutter. You have to ask yourself if all the bells and whistles are needed at the price. If you're in the industry and I find these tools do help your workflow it's worth it. I had an easy time using it. You can also get the demo and try it out to see if this is for you.
I also wanted to note as an illustrator the vector part is great for parts of design (hence the title) but obsessing over clean lines isn't always the best course of action as an illustrator. It's those little quirks that make us unique in our artwork. So all you budding artists, don't obsess over a program that makes "Clean lines"
Overall the engine/program worked well with my laptop which is a Motion Computing LE1700 (it's a slate PC). I didn't seem to have issues like slowness or bugs (yet! *crosses fingers*).
Overall, this is some pretty good software, the transitions to use the warp tool which is a very nice edition to the program is very good, easy to handle. I still am warming up to the different interface (hence the 4 stars) but still worth a download from their site to try out. I love to see competitiveness and innovations from other companies so people just don't default to Adobe or Corel. (Though Autodesk is now a top dog too) We just need more competition!
One of which is the interface is a bit different. There is a long toolbar on the top of the screen. You also don't see the familiar sketchbook Pro lagoon on the bottom. It's still cleanly presented and I'm still learning how to adjust with the interface as I try this piece of software out. Installing it was pretty easy and rather hassle free.
One key difference between this one and Sketchbook Pro is that it's also vector. It also lends more interesting tools such as a radial tool that will let you do repeats of items within a circle.
Another difference I was easily able to see was that this also has a really neat warp tool. I find it very easy to adjust and use.
This version allows you to add a plug-in for CAD but it's not included in the package.
I was at first confused because I had a vector layer and Paint layer, and didn't notice how they worked at first. It was however, for a very short time. I like the line smoothing tools in the vector version. It's nice for us shaky hand artists that need that nice clean line at times.
The paint tools are familiar from 2010 and It's the same as 2011 (regular edition). I'm still working on some custom brushes and tweaks but it's pretty smooth and easy.
You might notice the lofty price tag between this and Sketchbook Pro. This is definitely more intended for those in the industry and probably not the hobbyist. Also, Sketchbook Pro (not the designer edition) is really intended for sketching and those first steps to get an idea down, without the clutter. You have to ask yourself if all the bells and whistles are needed at the price. If you're in the industry and I find these tools do help your workflow it's worth it. I had an easy time using it. You can also get the demo and try it out to see if this is for you.
I also wanted to note as an illustrator the vector part is great for parts of design (hence the title) but obsessing over clean lines isn't always the best course of action as an illustrator. It's those little quirks that make us unique in our artwork. So all you budding artists, don't obsess over a program that makes "Clean lines"
Overall the engine/program worked well with my laptop which is a Motion Computing LE1700 (it's a slate PC). I didn't seem to have issues like slowness or bugs (yet! *crosses fingers*).
Overall, this is some pretty good software, the transitions to use the warp tool which is a very nice edition to the program is very good, easy to handle. I still am warming up to the different interface (hence the 4 stars) but still worth a download from their site to try out. I love to see competitiveness and innovations from other companies so people just don't default to Adobe or Corel. (Though Autodesk is now a top dog too) We just need more competition!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
First off let me say that I did not have to purchase this, I got it as a extended trial due to my student status and I'm glad I did! As for a little about myself, art design is an hobby for me, I use many programs to do this, one of my favorites is Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. Considering how amazing that product is you would assume it's big brother that's Autodesk's answer to Adobe's Illustrator would be great too, right? See below.
1 - User Interface:
Coming from Sketchbook Pro, the UI in this program is very disappointing, it's clunky, unattractive and inefficient. Nearly all the keyboard shortcuts have been removed and the Designer Dock is more of a burden than help. It, along with the remaining UI are overly large, in the way and buggy (see below). It puzzles me as to why they didn't stick with SBP's UI and build upon it.
2 - Ease of Use:
Firstly, for artists that use multiple programs we love the ability to open/save in many a variance in formats do we not? Prepare for a lot of menu hopping to do this in Designer. Firstly your normal Open/Save/Saveas functions can only utilize Designers native format, well you can use the "Import" feature to bring in a different format image into your current drawing. In order to save your file as a different format you have to use the "Export" feature, which will give you Tiff, PSD, and DWG saving capabilities, but what if you want a BMP or JPEG? Well in that case you can use the "Make Picture >From Active Layers/Invisible Layers" feature to save in common formats. However, do we really need three different menu's to do functions as basic as Save/Open? I couldn't justify it.
Drawing in Designer however, when it works correctly is a nice experience, although I am speaking from it's Vector capabilities which is what it is created for, if you want a Raster based program, they're better alternatives. Creating lines and smoothing them out and changing them with vertices is a nice experience although it is time consuming as it isn't really streamlined in Designer. As for layer management it is what you would expect from any modern drawing program.
3 - BUGS:
This is the part, which makes me glad I didn't have to fork over a high price for what I would consider to be a Beta software. I'll list the bugs I have encountered personally below.
I: Unable to select Vertices - For some reason the program will randomly at times refuse to select the vertices of a line/curve despite what function you are currently trying to utilize. As you can imagine this is a HUGE downside for a Vector-based program.
II: The Black screen - This has randomly happened on a few occasions where when you select a different tool, the canvas will go black, like you filled it but it isn't a fill at all, you cannot undo or get rid of it, you have to close the drawing/program and reopen to resolve.
III: Crashes - How would you like to be doing a lot of work and it's been say 30mins since you saved only to have a message suddenly pop up saying a fatal error has unexpectedly occurred and needs to shut down? Well Designer can "attempt" to save your work but on one occasion doing this, it corrupted my save.
Those are the only type of bugs I have encountered thus far, although the selection bug happens very often from my experience. Overall I feel if the bugs are worked out, along with some UI changes this can be an amazing piece of software, but at the moment it is not worth it's price in my honest opinion.
In case viewers are curious here is a quick view of my computer specs:
8Gigs of DDR3 1600 Memory in Dual-channel mode in a P67 Motherboard.
Intel i5-2500k overclocked to 4.4Ghz
Nvidia Gigabyte Super-overclocked 560Ti (The 1000Mhz version)
Windows 7 64bit Premium Home
1 - User Interface:
Coming from Sketchbook Pro, the UI in this program is very disappointing, it's clunky, unattractive and inefficient. Nearly all the keyboard shortcuts have been removed and the Designer Dock is more of a burden than help. It, along with the remaining UI are overly large, in the way and buggy (see below). It puzzles me as to why they didn't stick with SBP's UI and build upon it.
2 - Ease of Use:
Firstly, for artists that use multiple programs we love the ability to open/save in many a variance in formats do we not? Prepare for a lot of menu hopping to do this in Designer. Firstly your normal Open/Save/Saveas functions can only utilize Designers native format, well you can use the "Import" feature to bring in a different format image into your current drawing. In order to save your file as a different format you have to use the "Export" feature, which will give you Tiff, PSD, and DWG saving capabilities, but what if you want a BMP or JPEG? Well in that case you can use the "Make Picture >From Active Layers/Invisible Layers" feature to save in common formats. However, do we really need three different menu's to do functions as basic as Save/Open? I couldn't justify it.
Drawing in Designer however, when it works correctly is a nice experience, although I am speaking from it's Vector capabilities which is what it is created for, if you want a Raster based program, they're better alternatives. Creating lines and smoothing them out and changing them with vertices is a nice experience although it is time consuming as it isn't really streamlined in Designer. As for layer management it is what you would expect from any modern drawing program.
3 - BUGS:
This is the part, which makes me glad I didn't have to fork over a high price for what I would consider to be a Beta software. I'll list the bugs I have encountered personally below.
I: Unable to select Vertices - For some reason the program will randomly at times refuse to select the vertices of a line/curve despite what function you are currently trying to utilize. As you can imagine this is a HUGE downside for a Vector-based program.
II: The Black screen - This has randomly happened on a few occasions where when you select a different tool, the canvas will go black, like you filled it but it isn't a fill at all, you cannot undo or get rid of it, you have to close the drawing/program and reopen to resolve.
III: Crashes - How would you like to be doing a lot of work and it's been say 30mins since you saved only to have a message suddenly pop up saying a fatal error has unexpectedly occurred and needs to shut down? Well Designer can "attempt" to save your work but on one occasion doing this, it corrupted my save.
Those are the only type of bugs I have encountered thus far, although the selection bug happens very often from my experience. Overall I feel if the bugs are worked out, along with some UI changes this can be an amazing piece of software, but at the moment it is not worth it's price in my honest opinion.
In case viewers are curious here is a quick view of my computer specs:
8Gigs of DDR3 1600 Memory in Dual-channel mode in a P67 Motherboard.
Intel i5-2500k overclocked to 4.4Ghz
Nvidia Gigabyte Super-overclocked 560Ti (The 1000Mhz version)
Windows 7 64bit Premium Home
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Based on the list price of this software, you might think that it would be a powerful, efficient, BUG-FREE application that would rival Adobe Creative Suite for ease and power of vector and paint content creation. Or at least it would be as easy to use and as well-polished as its sister product, Sketchbook Pro 2011, which does pixel painting only, no vector art.
You would be wrong.
Despite being their 2.0 product (2012 release), this feels like a rough beta in many ways on my system. This may not be fair, because I also use Sketchbook Pro, which is so well-polished, that my expectations for Sketchbook Designer were high, especially given that for little more than the addition of vector tools, Autodesk is charging TEN TIMES the price of Sketchbook Pro 2011. After using it SBD 2012, I consider this price to be utterly ridiculous.
BUGS!!
I am using this on a system that absolutely sings with Sketchbook PRO 2011, so I did have the expectation that SBD 2012 would work at least moderately well. Instead, there are random lock-ups of many seconds, during which mouse actions are captured, and then result in a mess of unintended operations once the SBD GUI wakes up again.
Occasionally, SBD will out-right crash to the desktop, losing all your unsaved work.
This behavior is with light usage, NOT loading multi-megabyte image resources, using dozens of vector and paint layers, etc. Just doing a circle and trying to fill it with something was pretty crashy.
Layer blending is buggy _sometimes_. I was trying out several blend modes, it will show a mode, appear to accept the change, and then as soon as I selected a different layer, it switched itself back to the previous mode. At one point I did get it to accept a mode change, but not the mode I wanted, so it kept reverting back to screen when I actually wanted overlay. I couldn't even get it back to normal blend mode. At one point, I went on with my work, created and edited a vector layer, and came back to the blend layer, and retried it. This time it worked, staying as an overlay blend after I set it to overlay and selected a different layer.
UI bugs and 'issues' are collected in the following section.
UI ISSUES
Unfortunately, SBD appears to have been written by a completely different team who decided that certain aspects of the look and feel of SBP were simply not acceptable for their product, which does not speak well for their intelligence. SB PRO has to be the most remarkable software that I currently use, both for ease of use, and cleanness and useability of the UI. The result is a new interface to learn in SBD, even for tools and operations that are supposed to be identical to their SB Pro sister-product. More than half the shortcuts are missing, there is virtually no customization of the UI, and the Marking Menu now requires the use of a keyboard (Control key on Windows). (Well, some marking menus require the CONTROL key modifier, and depending on context, some don't. Inconsistent UI.)
One reason that complex software is forced to use a modifier key is that there are multiple functions that are activated by different mouse buttons, but SBD is NOT complex software. THERE ARE NO OTHER FUNCTIONS. There is just click to draw, and control-click to bring up the marking menu. It is as if the programmers have never seen or heard of a system with a two or three button mouse, or used a Wacom stylus with dual side switches, or even a single side-switch, for that matter, since that is the equivalent of a two-button mouse. Is that you, Steve Jobs, moonlighting as an Autodesk programmer? This is infuriating on my system, since I have a mobile tablet with a two-button Wacom stylus. With SB PRO, I can use both buttons freely, and map them to whatever I like, including a custom pop-up menu (which allows me to map key-board shortcuts to a custom pop-up marking menu mapped to a middle-mouse button click, obviating any need for a keyboard, in addition to the mildly customizable marking menu within SB PRO). In SBD, the marking menu is not customizable AT ALL, and it wouldn't matter if it were, since I usually use my tablet in very mobile situations for which it was created, and I don't have the required keyboard to enable holding the Control key, so that I can actually use the marking menu. I have a two-button stylus, equivalent to a three-button mouse, and since pressing the stylus to the screen is the equivalent of a left-mouse click and drag on a mouse, I have two completely useless buttons on my stylus. I mapped one of these buttons to act as a Control-key press. Testing in Chrome and other software, this works perfectly as a Control key replacement. But in SBD, it works NOT AT ALL. Instead, it appears that any stylus button press acts just like using the stylus tip, and indeed, using a three-button mouse, the behavior is identical. Press ANY button on the mouse, whether it is a 3-button, 4-button, or 5-button mouse, and it acts the same as pressing the Left mouse button. This behavior interferes with the display and operation of the custom pop-up marking menu I mapped to one of my stylus buttons. So for example, if I try to perform an undo with my custom pop-up, the stylus, not in contact with the screen, is nonetheless creating a mark on the drawing while I am bringing up the custom pop-up, and this operation becomes the operation that gets undone, resulting in the inability to actually undo a previous operation.
The only supplied toolbar is a very long, floating toolbar, longer than my screen in landscape mode. By default, the tool icons cannot be seen or used, and nowhere else can the functionality of these tools be accessed. Normal WINDOWS programs place all program functionality in pull-down menus, and the toolbars are just customizable shortcuts to this functionality. Apparently, SBD programmers (and SBP programmers for that matter) are completely unaware of this concept, not bothering to place all functions in the pull-down menus. Oh, sure, screen space is wasted by an always-visible menu bar, even in 'UI-hidden' mode, but various tools and operations, somewhat at random, are missing from the menu bar, and are only accessible on the tool-bar, or in marking menus from various panels. So, there is hidden functionality on the right side of the bar that normally can't be used at all. Another bug actually allows me to get to those buttons: The tool bar, if clicking in just the right spot, jumps to a right-justification, showing the missing functionality, but hiding critical, toolbar-only functionality on the left side of the bar. I'd say this was a feature, but unfortunately, there is no way to get the bar to jump back to left-justification. It's stuck until the 'return to Default UI' function is invoked. Then, randomly, it may or may not return to left-justification. This would at least be an acceptable work-around, but the default arrangement of panels is somewhat buggy itself, putting panels in the middle of the screen and on top of other panels, requiring another step of resorting every thing to your ideal arrangement.
Regarding the UI layout, maybe this is another bug: When I checked the Help on customizing the screen (SBD Help on my Windows system is labeled 'for Mac', so maybe this feature only exists on Mac) the laughable 'Customizing' page lists only the ability to move toolbars and panels around the screen as the only customization possible! LOLZ! It also lists a function, accessed in the Window menu or by Alt-3 on Windows (^3 Mac) to restore a custom layout (panel position). It doesn't explain how a custom layout is stored or saved. In a separate short-cut help PDF, accessible from the Help menu, it explains that Alt-4 will save a custom layout. Unfortunately, neither the menu buttons, nor the short-cut key functionality for these two functions, Save and Restore a custom layout, are included in the actual application. So when restoring the Default UI, which you have to do if you have the toolbar issue on a small screen like I do, OR if you like to switch between a GUI-less fullscreen mode and then necessarily back to GUI so you can access the many functions that exist only in panels and toolbars (no keyboard shortcuts for them either, remember), you are stuck redoing any custom moving around of palettes, panels, or toolbars you need to do.
These bugs and UI issues are what has cropped up with about 24 man-hours of usage, including a new one just as I'm experimenting with it while writing this review, so I doubt I've encountered all the bugs there are to find.
THE GOOD
Since SB DESIGNER is supposed to be SB PRO with added vector drawing capability, the expectation is that it should be at least as good as SB PRO at painting and sketching, and should have some joyful experiences in store for vector-art creation, much as SB PRO has made sketching, drawing, and painting more fun for the user than its predecessors and competitors.
It meets these expectations.
As much as I love using SB PRO and SB Mobile on my mobile Pen-Tablet PC, Desktop PC with Intuos tablet, and my Android DroidX, the pixel sketching and painting in SBD actually feels even better. While SB PRO on my pen-tablet finally makes me feel like I truly have something as good as pencil on paper, SBD feels like something BETTER than paper. I can't put my finger on it, but it is smooth, responsive, easy to shade delicately, and make truer lines to what you intended. All SB PRO functionality, with the obvious exception of the above bugs and UI issues, is present in SBD. Dodge and Burn tools have been added, and I think that the one major addition to base SB PRO sketching functionality is the selection, masking, and warping additions. Read more ›
You would be wrong.
Despite being their 2.0 product (2012 release), this feels like a rough beta in many ways on my system. This may not be fair, because I also use Sketchbook Pro, which is so well-polished, that my expectations for Sketchbook Designer were high, especially given that for little more than the addition of vector tools, Autodesk is charging TEN TIMES the price of Sketchbook Pro 2011. After using it SBD 2012, I consider this price to be utterly ridiculous.
BUGS!!
I am using this on a system that absolutely sings with Sketchbook PRO 2011, so I did have the expectation that SBD 2012 would work at least moderately well. Instead, there are random lock-ups of many seconds, during which mouse actions are captured, and then result in a mess of unintended operations once the SBD GUI wakes up again.
Occasionally, SBD will out-right crash to the desktop, losing all your unsaved work.
This behavior is with light usage, NOT loading multi-megabyte image resources, using dozens of vector and paint layers, etc. Just doing a circle and trying to fill it with something was pretty crashy.
Layer blending is buggy _sometimes_. I was trying out several blend modes, it will show a mode, appear to accept the change, and then as soon as I selected a different layer, it switched itself back to the previous mode. At one point I did get it to accept a mode change, but not the mode I wanted, so it kept reverting back to screen when I actually wanted overlay. I couldn't even get it back to normal blend mode. At one point, I went on with my work, created and edited a vector layer, and came back to the blend layer, and retried it. This time it worked, staying as an overlay blend after I set it to overlay and selected a different layer.
UI bugs and 'issues' are collected in the following section.
UI ISSUES
Unfortunately, SBD appears to have been written by a completely different team who decided that certain aspects of the look and feel of SBP were simply not acceptable for their product, which does not speak well for their intelligence. SB PRO has to be the most remarkable software that I currently use, both for ease of use, and cleanness and useability of the UI. The result is a new interface to learn in SBD, even for tools and operations that are supposed to be identical to their SB Pro sister-product. More than half the shortcuts are missing, there is virtually no customization of the UI, and the Marking Menu now requires the use of a keyboard (Control key on Windows). (Well, some marking menus require the CONTROL key modifier, and depending on context, some don't. Inconsistent UI.)
One reason that complex software is forced to use a modifier key is that there are multiple functions that are activated by different mouse buttons, but SBD is NOT complex software. THERE ARE NO OTHER FUNCTIONS. There is just click to draw, and control-click to bring up the marking menu. It is as if the programmers have never seen or heard of a system with a two or three button mouse, or used a Wacom stylus with dual side switches, or even a single side-switch, for that matter, since that is the equivalent of a two-button mouse. Is that you, Steve Jobs, moonlighting as an Autodesk programmer? This is infuriating on my system, since I have a mobile tablet with a two-button Wacom stylus. With SB PRO, I can use both buttons freely, and map them to whatever I like, including a custom pop-up menu (which allows me to map key-board shortcuts to a custom pop-up marking menu mapped to a middle-mouse button click, obviating any need for a keyboard, in addition to the mildly customizable marking menu within SB PRO). In SBD, the marking menu is not customizable AT ALL, and it wouldn't matter if it were, since I usually use my tablet in very mobile situations for which it was created, and I don't have the required keyboard to enable holding the Control key, so that I can actually use the marking menu. I have a two-button stylus, equivalent to a three-button mouse, and since pressing the stylus to the screen is the equivalent of a left-mouse click and drag on a mouse, I have two completely useless buttons on my stylus. I mapped one of these buttons to act as a Control-key press. Testing in Chrome and other software, this works perfectly as a Control key replacement. But in SBD, it works NOT AT ALL. Instead, it appears that any stylus button press acts just like using the stylus tip, and indeed, using a three-button mouse, the behavior is identical. Press ANY button on the mouse, whether it is a 3-button, 4-button, or 5-button mouse, and it acts the same as pressing the Left mouse button. This behavior interferes with the display and operation of the custom pop-up marking menu I mapped to one of my stylus buttons. So for example, if I try to perform an undo with my custom pop-up, the stylus, not in contact with the screen, is nonetheless creating a mark on the drawing while I am bringing up the custom pop-up, and this operation becomes the operation that gets undone, resulting in the inability to actually undo a previous operation.
The only supplied toolbar is a very long, floating toolbar, longer than my screen in landscape mode. By default, the tool icons cannot be seen or used, and nowhere else can the functionality of these tools be accessed. Normal WINDOWS programs place all program functionality in pull-down menus, and the toolbars are just customizable shortcuts to this functionality. Apparently, SBD programmers (and SBP programmers for that matter) are completely unaware of this concept, not bothering to place all functions in the pull-down menus. Oh, sure, screen space is wasted by an always-visible menu bar, even in 'UI-hidden' mode, but various tools and operations, somewhat at random, are missing from the menu bar, and are only accessible on the tool-bar, or in marking menus from various panels. So, there is hidden functionality on the right side of the bar that normally can't be used at all. Another bug actually allows me to get to those buttons: The tool bar, if clicking in just the right spot, jumps to a right-justification, showing the missing functionality, but hiding critical, toolbar-only functionality on the left side of the bar. I'd say this was a feature, but unfortunately, there is no way to get the bar to jump back to left-justification. It's stuck until the 'return to Default UI' function is invoked. Then, randomly, it may or may not return to left-justification. This would at least be an acceptable work-around, but the default arrangement of panels is somewhat buggy itself, putting panels in the middle of the screen and on top of other panels, requiring another step of resorting every thing to your ideal arrangement.
Regarding the UI layout, maybe this is another bug: When I checked the Help on customizing the screen (SBD Help on my Windows system is labeled 'for Mac', so maybe this feature only exists on Mac) the laughable 'Customizing' page lists only the ability to move toolbars and panels around the screen as the only customization possible! LOLZ! It also lists a function, accessed in the Window menu or by Alt-3 on Windows (^3 Mac) to restore a custom layout (panel position). It doesn't explain how a custom layout is stored or saved. In a separate short-cut help PDF, accessible from the Help menu, it explains that Alt-4 will save a custom layout. Unfortunately, neither the menu buttons, nor the short-cut key functionality for these two functions, Save and Restore a custom layout, are included in the actual application. So when restoring the Default UI, which you have to do if you have the toolbar issue on a small screen like I do, OR if you like to switch between a GUI-less fullscreen mode and then necessarily back to GUI so you can access the many functions that exist only in panels and toolbars (no keyboard shortcuts for them either, remember), you are stuck redoing any custom moving around of palettes, panels, or toolbars you need to do.
These bugs and UI issues are what has cropped up with about 24 man-hours of usage, including a new one just as I'm experimenting with it while writing this review, so I doubt I've encountered all the bugs there are to find.
THE GOOD
Since SB DESIGNER is supposed to be SB PRO with added vector drawing capability, the expectation is that it should be at least as good as SB PRO at painting and sketching, and should have some joyful experiences in store for vector-art creation, much as SB PRO has made sketching, drawing, and painting more fun for the user than its predecessors and competitors.
It meets these expectations.
As much as I love using SB PRO and SB Mobile on my mobile Pen-Tablet PC, Desktop PC with Intuos tablet, and my Android DroidX, the pixel sketching and painting in SBD actually feels even better. While SB PRO on my pen-tablet finally makes me feel like I truly have something as good as pencil on paper, SBD feels like something BETTER than paper. I can't put my finger on it, but it is smooth, responsive, easy to shade delicately, and make truer lines to what you intended. All SB PRO functionality, with the obvious exception of the above bugs and UI issues, is present in SBD. Dodge and Burn tools have been added, and I think that the one major addition to base SB PRO sketching functionality is the selection, masking, and warping additions. Read more ›
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