EazyDraw Reviews10.1.4

Downloaded, paid for upgrade to fully functional version. "Convert to vector graphic" and all other convert menus still disabled. Tried to restore purchases. App said, "EazyDraw is damaged, please redownload. All other functionality seemed fine.

I really want to like this program. It has great functionality, but it's just plain awkward. Keyboard commands are ludicrous. For example, two of the most-used commands are Group and Rotate, for which the keystrokes are command-shift-open parenthesis and command-shift-f. What's wrong with command-g and command-r, like everyone else uses? All through, nothing is intuitive; everything is unduly complicated. Selecting objects is also awkward. The boundaries of objects extend beyond them in invisible ways so selection is a frustrating guessing game. You redo a lot of action. These are just a few examples. You can use it OK, but you'll never get your feet under you and always feel like you're fighting it.

Really can't tell. Just paid to use the full version for a month. But I am still stuck with the Basic Level. And I can't seem to get my money back. So Eazydraw and/or the apple store wasted my money and time. Will have to look for an alternative now.

Downloaded, paid for upgrade to fully functional version. "Convert to vector graphic" and all other convert menus still disabled. Tried to restore purchases. App said, "EazyDraw is damaged, please redownload. All other functionality seemed fine.

This is one of the best and most thought out pieces of software that I have ever purchased. It has extensive help system and documentation is very good. It is the only one that can do scale and dimensions properly and is a real joy to use.

I've been using EazyDraw for many years for technical drawings. I'm not an artist and don't even attempt illustrations of any kind. But for what I do I find EazyDraw the best program out of the lot. I've tried all of them, mostly out of curiosity, but always come back to EazyDraw for my actual work. This consists of block diagrams and rack layouts for audio systems. The main thing I find is that although it took a little effort to master the drawing tools, they work reliably and the overall application is very solid. I've never suffered loss of data and I can’t even remember if it's ever actually crashed while I was working in it - and that's over many years of use. So I would recommend this highly to anyone who does technical type of drawing. I cannot comment though on how it would be for other types of use. I should also mention that the developer is extremely responsive and helpful. That's a huge plus in my book!

Let's party like it's 1999 !

Certainly not bad but compared to iDraw it lacks many drawing tools.

I've been using EazyDraw for more than two years now. EazyDraw does the job OK. It's pretty good at technical drawings, very useful for teachers who need some physics/geometric drawings for their class or people who want to draw some plans. From the bunch of mac vector apps out there it's the best choice for technical drawings, (so to say) "baby-"CAD; I mean CAD with an "easy" MacDraw-like interface. EazyDraw is quite easy to use – things like the spiral tool and the many shapes in the object libraries are great. However, for the artsy stuff, designing, etc. I felt EazyDraw not so well suited, because the cluttered interface holds back your creativity, in a way. Well to be honest, the interface is a mess. It is fine if you are a complete beginner or you have learned drawing apps in the '80 and '90, however, since the app is quite feature rich, when used for advanced things you end up with so many pallets and menus… well, clutter, that costs you time. The UI just doesn't feel up to date and could be much more efficient. Also, there are "rough edges" from the technical side – there are always a few bugs around, but these are usually addressed quickly in the frequent updates and upgrades. However this brings me to another point: it is very easy to lose oversight about the various versions of this app. At the moment there are three versions of EazyDraw at the MacAppStore: ED3 (called only "EazyDraw", but with "3" in the icon), ED4 and ED5, for 15$, 30$ resp. 95$. I don't really know what's the difference between those, because description and screenshots in the MacAppStore are the same at least for version 3 and 4. Buying directly from the developer you can get another version of version 5 (as far as I have understood it), and also there is EazyDrawRetro, which opens the legacy formats (MacDraw, AppleWorks), however for this you need a "version 4 free market license". It is nice that the developer maintains a version 5 for older OSs, like 10.4. Still, the whole MAS thing has made things quite confusing with EazyDraw. One year ago there was even more confusion, with different versions having the same number (see comments below). Definitely one developer who didn't "get" the MAS right. I purchased version 3 in summer 2010 directly from the developer for 95$, one year later I had to update to version 4.1 because version 3.6.1 doesn't work with Lion (yeah right, and now a version 3 is sold at the MAS which works). Version 4.1 works now on my machine in "grace period", I have 78 days left. Probably that means the app won't work after that period. Personally, I haven't experienced a difference in features from version 3 to version 4, except for the Lion full screen mode. Many crashes and corrupted files with version 4.1 on Mountain Lion… Probably I will never upgrade to version 5 but instead will just buy the cheapest 15$ version from the MAS. However, I haven't found a more capable app for technical drawings with this price tag (15$). If you need an easy to use "CAD"-like app, then EazyDraw is the way to go. For more "artsy" illustration jobs, creating icons, etc., I'd recommend Intaglio and iDraw (which has a great, great, great iPad version). Sketch is also a very nice looking alternative, and Artboard seems to be worth a look too.

Hugely overpriced, rather underwhelmed. Looking for a Mac replacement for CorelDRAW. EazyDraw is just a 'cheezy' wannabe knock-off, with hard-to-take-seriously candyland-looking icons. More importantly it failed some simple, basic, but critical tests for text and object manipulation, and I abandoned EazyDraw within minutes as a result. Developers, look at CorelDRAW if you want a litmus test for how your product should function. There's a reason CD has been a standard in the business for over two decades. So I am sticking with Fusion on my Mac to run must-have Windows apps such as CorelDRAW, WordPerfect, FinePrint, ACDSee and Quicken. Nothing native to Mac even comes close. Yet.

I've been using EazyDraw for a few months now, and compared to some of the other vector drawing apps I've tried, it really is Easy. I was initially overwhelmed with all the options available, but luckily the user guide explained everything clearly and thoroughly. So with this and some practice, it took me no more than a few days to get really comfortable using it. Equally important, the developer was very responsive to my questions and quickly fixed the bugs that I reported—definitely worth it.

Now this program continue to puzzle me. Here is a new 4.1 version for the same $95 as the new 4 version at the App store. But at the App store the 3.7.5 is still offered for 1/3 of that price? Aside from non English languages support in version(s) 4, I see no difference between 4 and 3.7.5. I use graphic programs only occasionally, and once I master an application I don't like to waste time (and money) on a second one (I am still using CANVAS 9.0, which is obsolete on Lion). I hesitate to purchase and test Eazydraw because of the unclear and odd pricing policy.

Excellent program and a must have for anyone that likes to do quick vector based graphics without the bloat of the higher end programs. Well worth it's weight in gold! Keep up the great work!

This is a very powerful program capable of doing a wide variety of drawing tasks. I use it for scale drawings of a technical nature. These drawings must be easily and accurately dimensioned and EazyDraw makes this a breeze. You cant even find another app that will do this kind of drawing, thank you EazyDraw. It this respect it is like a mini cad type application. You can even save drawing environments as a template, which is a real time saver if you work in a couple of different scales or project parameters. On top of all that capacity it also has all the graphic illustration type drawing capabilities. I have also used this program to make small detailed illustrations for print. It has a bunch of cool effects and can make any logo, graphics, icon, tee shirt, tattoo type illustration you could want. This is best in class as far as I have experienced. Thats the good stuff, now there are a few other things about the software. The settings and functions of the tools are a little overwhelming. It does seem like there could be improvements in the preferences area or maybe the help system could be better. There are some other quirks that will hopefully be worked on as well. I have never used macdraw but since this drawing software is a hybrid line/cad/illustration application I would guess that some expanded complexity is normal. This really is not a proper review as I have not used all the other software out there and my needs are narrowed by the dimensioning feature.

Is it a good replacement for LineForm ?

Tried this out for a bit while attempting to revive some old forms for new "legalese." However, it was much harder to use than going to an emulator, using MacDraw, dumping to .ps, and then printing using Preview. Though I am impressed with the flood of preferences, major portions of the programs' interface seriously need to be brought under mac-like standards, and severely tightened-up. I taught myself MacDraw in minutes, without a manual... I still, after nearly ten years can operate it without thinking... (and without having used it for nearly a decade). EazyDraw does not have that, and many interface layouts specifically make things harder. As an example, the foating toolbar is huge and ugly, it should resemble the old MacDraw palette, or the current adobe palettes... Rulers and Gridlines should be unobtrusive but are far from it, even when trying to use the prefs to make them that way (complete failure). Though I suspect there might be some "Claris" copyrights to be wary of, a program that is supposed to be the modern successor of ClarisDraw should really have all the best interface elements already built-in, and moreover, tweaked for the OSX generation. Sadly I didn't see ANY of that. I definitely want to keep this in mind for printing old documents without any roundabout tricks, but since it failed to recognize a typeface in an old document that's actually present (and replaced it with another), I really don't want to chance editing things that work fine in an emulator, in exchange for a document that is solely reliant on this software. Keep working on this, it definitely could be a worthy successor, but has far to go, IMHO.

Also it doesn't use the common shortcuts, but other ones, so need to forget habits when using it, it is slow and use a lot of memory.

I like the software, it has a lot of features, but i think the interface is really a bit messy and not convenient to use. The one of intaglio is better but the software as less features than EazyDraw.

I have owned this product for a year now and am very satisfied. The program is excellent for small or medium technical drawings when you don't feel like firing up the big cad program. It does layers and visibility toggles in contrast to what was stated in the last review. It does have a few quirks but overall a solid product.

Now, if you add layers, with visibility toggling and include a bunch of the capabilities of Canvas V3.5 I'd sure be interested, and a lot of other people would be also!

This program seems to have a lot of potential. But I agree with other posters that the interface needs desperate organization. Too many palettes and no way to control them!

this is a reasonable package, that at one stage I looked at because of its ability to open MacDraw and will still be useful under Intel Macs to open this kind of legacy product. However it is OVERPRICED, and for all it does its lay out and pallettes are overly complicated. And there are things it doesn't do easily..map drawing for example. Its layout also has a juvenile feel, so drawing pros object to using it on a cudos/aesthetics basis I beleive as others have said it could be a good product but needs a plugin API in order to get it going.

EazyDraw offers the advantages of Quartz yet reconciles the need for classic PICT for MS Word. Well done! Now if only you could bring order to the clutter of palettes.

I am currently using EazyDraw 1.7.0 and find that the program, although very powerful, is somewhat difficult to master as it apparently assumes a degree of advanced graphic layout knowledge that not everyone possesses. It would be extremely helpful if there were a printable manual provided so that one could follow it while learning the program. Unfortunately the level of help provided, though very thorough, is a bit difficult to understand and going from the help screen back to the working program complicate the learning process. I truly believe that this program has the potential to revolutionize the Graphic program arena.

The last poster is being rather unfair re the gallery - I have Illustrator CS which I love but for the money and ease of use EazyDraw is a bargain - I use it a lot for little projects and look forward to seeing it develop.

Is this Eazy Draw from the past times of ATARI? Loved it there...

First real alternative to MacDraw Pro I have found in my ten year search. I have bought and tried many programs. EazyDraw has a great combination of features and ease of use. Providing all the tools I need to layout professional looking marketing materials and order forms for my photography business. The translators have allowed me to bring forward all my efforts and materials developed over the last 15 years. The improvements in the translator alone, from 1.6.2 to 1.6.3 were amazing ! Somebody is writing an excellent piece of software, and should know it is greatly appreciated.

Having tried out a lot of vector-based drawing programs, many of them very expensive, I have definitely settled on EazyDraw, and definitely got my money's worth. When I downloaded a trial version and had problems with it, I got near-instant responses from the developer. When I found bugs in an early version, I was thanked and they disappeared in later versions. When I needed a feature and couldn't figure it out, I was referred to the excellent help and the tutorials and found what I needed, or I was given explicit instructions. Very responsive. On the relatively small downside, this program has so many pallets that I can't imagine how I'd use it if I didn't have two displays. I don't close many pallets because you really do need them. Further, these pallets are not always accessed from the menu in which you might expect to find them so some hunting is inevitable. Leaving Help running is a must or you won't find anything. I'd really like a master pallet that held links to all the others in some intuitive layout, and this author could do it. Hope he does. Whether he does or not, I recommend this highly and rate Features at 4 only because EazyDraw doesn't do all the CAD tricks I wish it would; but then it is a fraction of the price of software that will.

The Developer is very nice, I have met him personally. -Owl

I've been using EazyDraw for some time now. It took me a while to find a replacement for Visio. At first I tried OmniGraffle which is usable, but really geared toward diagramming, rather than a true drawing program. When I found EazyDraw I immediately felt like I found my OS X drawing program! The developers have been outstanding in fixing bugs and adding requested features. I can't commend them enough.