Comparison

Arrette Scale sketch drafting vs Autodesk Fusion

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

Autodesk Fusion

Collaborate on 3D designs from anywhere with this mobile app. View, comment on, and share CAD models in over 100 formats. It works with a companion cloud-based desktop product for product design and development.

Highlights
  • View over 100 file formats
  • Collaborate on 3D designs
  • Comment on project activities
  • Share designs with stakeholders
  • Search and highlight parts
  • Offline data access
Read full description

Autodesk Fusion™ for iPhone and iPad lets you collaborate on 3D designs with anyone inside or outside your company. With the Fusion app, you have the flexibility to view and collaborate on your Fusion CAD models—anytime, anywhere. The app supports more than 100 file formats including DWG, SLDPRT, IPT, IAM, CATPART,IGES, STEP, STL, making it easy to share designs with your team, clients, partners, and friends. The free app works in conjunction with its companion cloud-based desktop product, Autodesk Fusion™, a 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool for product design and development. * To use Fusion for iPhone and iPad, you will need to sign in with your Fusion account information. FEATURES View • Upload and view more than 100 data formats including SLDPRT, SAT, IGES, STEP, STL, OBJ, DWG, F3D, SMT, and DFX • View and track project activities and updates • Review large and small 3D designs and assemblies • Access design properties and complete parts lists • Isolate and hide components in the model for easy viewing • Navigate by touch with zoom, pan, and rotate Comment • Upload photos to share info or report project status • Comment on project activities Share • Share with stakeholders inside and outside your company • Share screenshots of the design with markups directly from the app Search • Search for parts in the model and see them automatically highlighted in the design SUPPORT: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/contact-support Optional Access + Storage: Store offline data if needed, so you can view your data anywhere, anytime + Photos: Access files or data stored on your device to view, share and markup + Camera: Take pictures such as drawings with app Fusion will still function even if a user does not give permissions to access these functions.

Screenshots

Autodesk Fusion3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Autodesk Fusion at Free against Arrette Scale sketch drafting's $8.99. Autodesk Fusion also leads on rating (4.5 vs 2.6) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 14). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Autodesk Fusion is free to download; Arrette Scale sketch drafting costs $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Autodesk Fusion holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Autodesk Fusion has 4.1K ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 60% and 60% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Arrette Scale sketch drafting ships an update every 3 months, Autodesk Fusion monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Arrette Scale sketch drafting versus Autodesk Fusion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArrette Scale sketch draftingAutodesk Fusion
Price$8.99Free — better
Rating2.6 (14 ratings)4.5 (4.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews — better59.8% of reviews
Number of ratings144.1K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.4 — better13
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB124 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperArrette, Inc.Autodesk Inc.

Customer experience

Arrette Scale sketch drafting

All ratings14 ratings
Positive42.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative57.1%
Written reviews40 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral7.5%
Negative32.5%

Autodesk Fusion

All ratings4,095 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral2.2%
Negative8.4%
Written reviews801 reviews
Positive59.8%
Neutral9.2%
Negative31.0%

Bugs and requests

Arrette Scale sketch drafting

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Autodesk Fusion

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Fails to open files
  • White screens and rendering issues
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices
  • Frequent crashes on latest iOS versions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Full editing capabilities on iPad
  • Ability to hide/show components
  • Improved rendering and visualization
  • Offline access and file management

In-app purchases

None

Arrette Scale sketch drafting

No in-app purchases

None

Autodesk Fusion

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Arrette Scale sketch drafting free?
Arrette Scale sketch drafting costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Autodesk Fusion free?
Autodesk Fusion is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Arrette Scale sketch drafting or Autodesk Fusion?
Autodesk Fusion is rated higher. Arrette Scale sketch drafting averages 2.6 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Autodesk Fusion averages 4.5 from 4.1K ratings.
Do Arrette Scale sketch drafting or Autodesk Fusion have ads?
Neither Arrette Scale sketch drafting nor Autodesk Fusion shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Arrette Scale sketch drafting or Autodesk Fusion?
Arrette Scale sketch drafting ships an update every 3 months, and Autodesk Fusion monthly. Most recently, Arrette Scale sketch drafting was updated on November 1, 2026 and Autodesk Fusion on November 3, 2026.

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