Diagram sketching apps for iPad?

Productivity
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This thread is a place to compile a list of apps that allow rapid diagram sketching on iPad. FigJam is one option. Does anyone know of others?

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Hi rhetoric!

Not aware of apps that prettify hand-drawn diagrams, but there are apps, like excalidraw, that make it hard to draw diagrams ugly in the first place. It also allows converting structured text to diagrams or (AI) prompt to diagram.

graph LR

id1(Citrate) -- Aconitase --> id2(Isocitrate)
id2 -- Isocitrate dehydrogenase --> id3(α-Ketoglutarate)
id3 -- α-Ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex --> id4(Succinyl-CoA)
id4 -- Succinyl-CoA synthetase --> id5(Succinate)
id5 -- Succinate dehydrogenase --> id6(Fumarate)
id6 -- Fumarase --> id7(Malate)
id7 -- Malate dehydrogenase --> id1

id1 --- id8(Acetyl-CoA)
id8 --> id1
id5 --> id9(FADH2)
id9 -. Electron transport chain .-> id10(ATP)
id2 --> id11(NADH)
id3 --> id11
id7 --> id11
id11 -. Electron transport chain .-> id10
id4 --> id12(GTP)
id12 -. Conversion .-> id13(ATP)

It generated the above mermaid code for the Krebs Cycle, as an example. But this forum’s software did better on spacing out the bubbles!

draw.io used to be good, now may be a different story.

For iOS native, don’t know of any great apps. iOS’ own freeform is OK.
Hopefully someone else can help you out further.

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Freeform is apple’s native whiteboarding app; it’s relatively basic but nice to use!

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I like Figjam on desktop. Here’s a video that demos the iPad version:

Some other ones people might want to check out:

  • Notability
  • Lucid Chart
  • Nebo
  • Noteful
  • GoodNotes
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