Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0is not the first software that attempts to save the act of sketching–we have seen 3D “sketching” tools such as\u00a0SketchUp<\/a>, as well as applications that simply simulate sketching on paper, such as\u00a0Morpholio<\/a>‘s popular range of sketching apps. But what makes Mental Canvas revolutionary is that you have the ability to sketch freely in a three-dimensional space without the constraints of traditional\u00a0CAD modelling<\/a>; it\u2019s what\u00a0Julie Dorsey<\/a>, founder of Mental Canvas, calls a “graphical media”; not fully flat but not fully 3D. The software will be released later this year on\u00a0Microsoft Surface<\/a>\u00a0devices, including the\u00a0recently announced Surface Studio<\/a>, working with the hardware of the Surface computers and the Surface Dial to provide a natural sketching experience on a virtual canvas.<\/p>\n The central premise of\u00a0Mental Canvas is that the designer draws on individual transparent canvases in an infinite space, which can be combined simultaneously in order to provide a three dimensional experience that is still very organic. Strokes on a canvas can be projected into space, automatically creating a new canvas, and entire canvases can also be rotated in relation to each other to create a desired illustration. What separates\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0from a sketch with pencil on paper is that is can be viewed from multiple angles, pulling the viewer through a scene that tells a more compelling story. On the other hand, what separates it from our usual 3D modelling software is its ease and fluidity, as Julie Dorsey explains: “[CAD modelling] comes at a cost. The cost is that one, you have to have a fully resolved three-dimensional model, even if it\u2019s just a cube; second it\u2019s very hard to edit a CAD model, it\u2019s not fast and fluid like a sketch. At any given moment when you\u2019re sketching, the designer or artist has full control over everything in that representation, but with a CAD model, that\u2019s defined by the computer.”<\/p>\n The endless white backdrop that makes up\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0may feel intimidating at first, lacking the safety of architectural scales that come with most CAD modelling software, or an ordinary piece of paper. However this infinite space has been created with the intention of liberating the architect or designer from the constraints of a computer, says Dorsey:\u00a0“What we\u2019re really going for here is freedom. We don\u2019t want the computer to get in the way; it\u2019s really up to the designer to set the scale. When you draw on\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>, you really have an infinite canvas so you can keep going in any direction, and we really did that by design. It doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re being limited; it\u2019s like sketching unbounded.”<\/p>\n In addition to the version scheduled to be released later this year, the\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0team is also working on a version for a research project that allows the user to place photographs of an architectural site, or mapped data to act as a backdrop for sketching, in effect implying a scale. This process of adding, adapting and changing is really at the core of the software, and is what Dorsey thinks will appeal to clients:\u00a0What an architectural client would like about this is that they can see possibilities here. The beauty of architectural design is possibilities, and that if you want to, at any given time, look at a design, you see more and are able to add to it.<\/p>\n A scene that is sketched on the\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0can be turned into a guided tour with a “Bookmark” tool that allows you to save a series of scenes that can be replayed in a particular order (try exploring\u00a0this <\/a>scene<\/a>sketched by Carol Hsiung, by clicking the play button on the top left corner). These “tours” can be shared with any device that has access to a web browser, making it incredibly easy to hand over drawings to a client, as well as to adapt and change those drawings at a much faster speed than ever before.\u00a0Carol Hsiung<\/a>, Senior Designer\u00a0at\u00a0FXFOWLE<\/a>\u00a0and one of the first architects to test the software, vouches for\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u2019s communicative value: “A sketch has a quality when it\u2019s unfinished; there\u2019s so much possibility, there\u2019s so much room for interpretation, and [Mental Canvas] expands the idea of a sketch. It makes it less flat. In architecture you always want that \u201cWow\u201d design that gets everyone excited in the room, and [Mental Canvas] enhances it.”<\/p>\n Hsiung, as many architects, started her journey in the profession due to her love of drawing and says that\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0made her fall “in love with my drawing again, because it allowed me to see my drawing in a new way.” Hsiung adds that the power of sketching comes with its ability to\u00a0tell a story<\/a>, or convey a meaning in a way that CAD models and words can\u2019t. “When you\u2019re working in architecture at a big firm like [FXFOWLE], there are a lot of designers and not a lot of time, so in order to help everyone understand and get on the same page with the design, you draw,” she says. “When you\u2019re in a meeting, the person who draws and sketches can help to communicate the idea and I think\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/a>\u00a0has power in doing that.”<\/p>\n 3D drawing on the new Surface Studio<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/12215858\/6d4e37c6dd78c5fa843c0e38045f6457-GrandCentralArchDaily.gif\")
<\/p>\nCourtesy\u00a0Mental Canvas<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/12215859\/741d15a03c64bb6191504d9311c36eff-giphy.gif\")
<\/p>\nCourtesy\u00a0ArchDaily<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/12215900\/b45b30e9e72dccaba96333beb42541c5-giphy2.gif\")
<\/p>\nCourtesy ArchDaily<\/h4>\n