Comparison

Arrette Scale sketch drafting vs Arch Layout Calculator

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Arrette Scale sketch drafting

This app allows designers to sketch freehand while maintaining precise scale, similar to vector drafting tools. It offers intuitive drawing tools and features for easy sharing and collaboration, simplifying the design process for professionals.

Highlights
  • Freehand drawing pens with vector scaling
  • Adjustable grid system (metric/decimal feet)
  • Straight edge and circle edge tools
  • Distance and area measurement tools
  • Lasso tool for selection and manipulation
  • Layer support for organized designs
  • Easy sharing via email or saving to device
Read full description

Rated #1 Technical App for Architects by ArchDaily! Arrette Scale for iPad is an app for designers who want to draw freehand while maintaining a measurable drawing scale like vector drafting tools. Architects, urban planners, surveyors, home remodelers, field archaeologists and dozens of other kinds of professionals will find this app useful. Unlike some other vector drawing tools, Arrette is simple to use. Arrette provides the platform to begin design work and generate ideas without moving too quickly to rigid straight lines and curves. We want to help you draw much as you would normally draw on paper, but to give you the extra tools and ways to share your work that make your life easier and make the design process simpler and more productive. The basic drawing structure is a familiar one - drawing layers which can be overlayed on a base image. The Grid keeps you aware of the size of what you're drawing, and the Edge helps you draw straight lines when you want. When you're ready, you can easily share drawings by email or save them to your device. We've designed Arrette to be extremely easy to learn. In about five minutes, you'll understand how to zoom and scale your canvas, draw lines, and load base images to work on top of. Our tools will seem familiar from other structured drawing applications, but every tool we've built has been simplified and optimized with scale in mind. Uses for Arrette: * An urban designer drafts plans for a new sub-division in a small town * A real estate agent snaps a photograph of a living space and begins to sketch out ideas for staging * A new home owner sketches the plan for an elaborate garden in the back yard * An archaeologist precisely records the provenience of a newly discovered artifact, including its location on an aerial map and the outline of its form * A construction manager notes progress on a work site, sending annotated precision-scale documents back to the general contractor live from the work site These are just a few of the ways that we have envisioned Arrette becoming an essential tool for many professionals. Arrette is the ideal tool for sketching because of its ease of use, preservation of scale, and flexibility in working with original source material such as other drawings, photographs, and maps. Included drawing tools: * Freehand drawing pens that scale like vector lines but are as easy to use as pencil and paper * An adjustable grid system that you can easily flip between the metric system and decimal feet * A straight edge tool for drawing perfectly straight lines or arrays of parallel lines * A circle edge tool for drawing arcs and circles of arbitrary, but precise radius * Distance and area measurement tools for measuring the lengths, perimeters and areas of arbitrary pathways in your drawing at precise scale * A lasso tool to select, move, copy and paste previously drawn lines * Layers, for separating out parts of composite objects or for adding new ideas to an existing document that overlay earlier designs * The ability to share Arrette documents with other users or to e-mail documents in PNG or PDF formats * An eraser tool, for revising your designs or removing objects from previous work * The ability to adjust the width of all lines globally even after the lines have been drawn * A color picker to choose from a variety of different pen colors for your drawing Base image imports: * The ability to load base images to draw on top of; base images respect their original scale and direction when the document is zoomed or panned * Import base images from Email, Dropbox, and Adobe Creative Cloud * Copy and paste from other apps that support JPG, PNG or PDF Document sharing features: * Send PDFs with scale and direction information to colleagues, clients, and other parties via email * Save your work to your Photo Gallery * Share raster versions of your work with anyone via email, Twitter, or Facebook

About

Arch Layout Calculator

Features
Read full description

Quick calculation to help layout an elliptical arch to be cut. Use when creating an arch over an entry way or as a decorative feature. An elliptical arch is both elegant and unique and makes a big impact on appearance. Simplifies the carpentry work and results can be shared by text or email.

Screenshots

Arch Layout Calculator3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Arch Layout Calculator at $0.99 against Arrette Scale sketch drafting's $8.99. Arrette Scale sketch drafting's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 38 months) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 18.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Arrette Scale sketch drafting costs $8.99 and Arch Layout Calculator $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Arrette Scale sketch drafting ships an update every 3 months, Arch Layout Calculator every 38 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Arrette Scale sketch drafting versus Arch Layout Calculator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArrette Scale sketch draftingArch Layout Calculator
Price$8.99$0.99 — better
Rating2.6 (14 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings14 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 38 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS12.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperArrette, Inc.H3Apps LLC

In-app purchases

None

Arrette Scale sketch drafting

No in-app purchases

None

Arch Layout Calculator

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Arrette Scale sketch drafting free?
Arrette Scale sketch drafting costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Arch Layout Calculator free?
Arch Layout Calculator costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Arrette Scale sketch drafting or Arch Layout Calculator have ads?
Neither Arrette Scale sketch drafting nor Arch Layout Calculator shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Arrette Scale sketch drafting or Arch Layout Calculator?
Arrette Scale sketch drafting ships an update every 3 months, and Arch Layout Calculator every 38 months. Most recently, Arrette Scale sketch drafting was updated on October 11, 2026 and Arch Layout Calculator on October 8, 2026.

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