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This update reads the scale on many more drawings, adds a freehand area and makes the toolbar work like other iOS apps. • Automatic scale works on many more plans: dimension lines that end in bars or steep slashes, AutoCAD drawings whose text didn't read before, the scale a CAD program saves in the PDF, and drawings whose numbers are drawn as lines. While a plan is read, its scale badge shows Checking… • Fewer wrong automatic scales, and Check scale now only flags a gap of more than 5 % from the printed scale. • If typed ratios keep missing, PlanTape suggests tracing a length you know, and you can email us the plan so we can look into it. • Freehand area: under Area, draw round a room or a patch with one finger. Its holes are drawn the same way. • Toolbar: tap a tool to start and tap it again to stop. Switch tools with one tap, and touch and hold Tape, Area or Comment for its options. Tap the plan to show or hide the toolbars. On iPhone, Share is now at the top right. • Plan layers: tick several plans and add them at once. The list shows which ones line up automatically and puts them first. Lining up by hand is easier to follow, and you can drag the four points before the plan is lined up. • Fixes: a PDF opened from Gmail or Google Drive no longer fails as password-protected, tapping a link on a plan no longer moves the view, and tapping numbers while measuring no longer offers to call them.
You measure from the corner, not from somewhere near it. So does PlanTape. Ten seconds from opening the PDF to a dimension you would put your name to. HOW DOES IT KNOW THE SCALE? The same way you would: it reads the dimensions the designer printed on the sheet, and sets the scale from them as the plan opens. The scale card is tagged Auto; tap it and it shows you the dimension it trusted, so you can judge it yourself. WHAT IF THE SHEET HAS NO DIMENSIONS? Trace one you know, type its length, and the sheet is to scale. The way you would check a print with a scale rule, without the rule. WHAT DOES THE TAPE SNAP TO? The points a tradesperson actually measures between: corners, line ends and the crossings of the drawing's own lines. Tap near a corner and the point takes it. On a busy sheet, drag: a magnifier shows the cursor pulling onto the line, and a tick tells your hand it has landed. WHAT CAN I MEASURE? • Runs, point to point, every segment labelled and a running total • A length on the fly, without leaving a mark • Areas, rectangles or free shapes, with side lengths • In millimetres and metres, or feet and fractional inches CAN I CHECK THE BUILD AGAINST THE PLAN? Yes, the way an inspector does. Name a measurement, give it the nominal size and a tolerance, and read PASS or FAIL. CAN I MARK IT UP? Freehand, arrows, rectangles, ellipses and sticky notes, in your colour and line width. Arrows, shapes and notes snap to the same lines the tape does, so an arrow points at the corner, not beside it. WHERE DO MY PLANS GO? Nowhere. Every PDF you open stays in a library on your phone with its measurements and notes, sorted into projects and tags, revisions of the same drawing grouped together. Nothing is uploaded. The app sends anonymous usage counts to help improve it; switch them off in Settings → About → Privacy. CAN I HAND IT ON? Export a flattened PDF with your marks burned in, an image, or a take-off summary as CSV or a one-page PDF, through the share sheet. WHAT ABOUT MULTI-PAGE SETS? Each page keeps its own scale, and a review table shows which pages are set, unsure or scanned. WILL THE SCREEN GO DARK MID-MEASUREMENT? No. It stays awake while a plan is open. DOES IT WORK IN THE BASEMENT? No signal, no account, no cloud. It works where plans get read. WHAT ABOUT SCANNED PLANS? They open too. Set the scale yourself and measure freely. Snapping and automatic scale need a vector PDF, the kind exported from CAD, because that is where the lines are. WHO IS IT FOR? Anyone with a plan and a question. On iPhone and iPad. Measurements come from the drawing's own lines and the scale you set. Treat them as a working aid, as you would any print, and check critical dimensions on site. First release. We're listening.