Is there a way to use a stylus to drawn circles and write on the picture (like you see on football play analysis)?
If not, this feature would save me a TON of time. Forget trying to rotate and stretch arrows. I get tense just thinking about it
Please keep in mind we don’t all use HG the same way. Here in Seattle we “pre-inspections” are very common. Often I’ll do 3-4 of those a day and just need a quick way to convey the main issues. Speed is essential to doing a good (and efficient) job. The less fiddling with arrows, text boxes, and mouse clicks, the more we can focus on inspecting.
Such a (simple) feature would really make HG shine!
Yes! Those of us doing 3-5 pre-inspections a day could save a huge amount of time and get the idea conveyed to the client quickly. I don’t think most of us are fully aware of how little of the report is actually understood by the client, no matter how pretty you make it. If you’re not doing many reports you might have the luxury to spend more time making them look pretty. In that case you don’t need to use the feature if you don’t like it.
How about professional arrows, circles and squares on a professional report? I know you need to be fast, but it should look good too. Ask for professionalism that’s quick to add to your reporting. You shouldn’t need to compromise one for the other…
Funny Aaron. HG can set an arrow on a picture with one click. We can have thin lines, thick lines. Why are you at the HomeGauge section. You are a competitor. Go to the main section and brag about your wares there. He’s trying to make suggestions about what he wants regardless of what you think.
No one said anything about “my wares”. Nothing mentions where those pics came from. Why don’t you respond to your customers? It’s ironic that I’m on here more than you? Serve your users and give them what they need. What’s going on with iPhone? I’d really like to respond over there too…
Never had a problem with Homegauge and and support , never had a problem drawing or putting text on pictures . Support is great . I have been using for many years and just renewed it . Thank you Russell for the improvements over the years , and ongoing Improvements , Video in the reports is a hit . And most love the the repair request list .
I’m all for improvements. I have seen other software and the look and layout that HG offers (in my opinion) is excellent if not the best I’ve seen. It just takes a LONG time for me to do it.
**All of us have touch/stylus based hardware. All I want is an option to draw on the image using my stylus. If you don’t need that feature, fine, don’t use it. It would help me IMMENSELY and it’s a simple upgrade. **
The core purpose of the software is twofold:
Make a comment
Insert/edit picture
Thanks Russell for listening to our feedback and taking our suggestions into consideration.
Your input on whether or not you might add the option to use a stylus in the near future would also be helpful. I realize that the software is meant for complete home inspections (not brief summaries). About half the inspections I do are “pre-inspections” which are summaries. If not I will, of course, remain with HG but look for an additional software that can allow me to use the stylus.
It is right there, right click on the picture window in the comment box and click insert sketch, it is used to draw a diagram. Placing arrows and lines in the report is easy, one click can do this. Are you asking for this in companion? I usually do my inspection out in the field and upload, tweak by adding arrows and comments before sending off.
HG has been a great software for me and one I plan to be with for the rest of my home inspector career.
To Will: I have a surface pro and tried writing on a jpeg even without HG and it did not work. I have yet to speak with my nerds about it but plan to do so. I imagine the jpeg would need to be read into an editor for it to work. If so this is definitely something we can add to our plans to evolve our editor in version 6
Thanks Shawn! 4+ years with HG and didn’t know that existed. The drag/drop feature in Sketch is exactly what I was looking for in terms of using the normal HG picture editor. I’m writing a report now and keep clicking the wrong tool and not realizing it until I add it to the picture.
And thank you Russell!! Adding a stylus/freehand draw function to HG would help me tremendously in this crazy busy multiple-offer Seattle market. Really appreciate the consideration!
I wish! Seattle has a pre-offer inspection (consultation only no report) because of the hot market that is very popular out here. A few of my colleagues do even more than that per day. I like to send my clients off with at least a report of the defects. This is taking way too much time… Which is why I would love to be able to avoid the tedious typing/clicking/scrolling and just use a stylus. After all, we are all using touch-screen devices with software that’s primary purpose is to edit and comment on a group of pictures. Why not have this option?
Pre-inspections are verbal walk-throughs. Most guys in my area do not include a report with these but I would like to. Hence the need for the stylus. My competition is able to do even more than that per day. I’m aware that HG is by no means expected to be used for this application but, in this case, it’s the lack of a stylus functionality that is severely holding me back from having more work without reducing quality.
Everybody’s RE area works differently. Just look at that goofy Texas template that comes with the software. I’ll never use it but I’m glad HG takes everyone into account and includes it for those who need it.
Yes you can. You actually don’t need the sketch program for that on certain pen enabled tablets. The Samsung 7 note and 12" pro both have annotation available when you remove the pen. You have to open the photo in a drawing app though and save it back to the same location when done. I’ll do another video to show.
