iDraw H SE A3/A2 Drawing Robot for Artists, Generative Art & Handwriting Automation – Combines the Robust iDraw H Hardware with Flexible Axidraw Software

Fantastic pen plotter

Having studied the pen plotter market for my first machine I decided on the iDraw A3 HSE. After ordering it took a few days for the machine to be readied for dispatch and I received an email saying it would be with me in the UK in around a week but somehow, to my amazement, it arrived the next day! It was very well packaged and only needed a few cables plugging in to get going. The build quality is great and construction looks very good plus it’s nice and sturdy. I’ve only plotted on A4 paper so far but have found the bed to be perfectly flat. It’s really accurate and fast if you want it to be. As with all pen plotters it’s mesmerising to watch. Being new to pen plotting there’s a lot to learn but there’s a wealth of resources online waiting to be found. I couldn’t get a particular function to work (hidden line removal) but UUNATEK were great and helped me find a solution and now I can do it. There are only a couple of things I’d like to change on it - an on/off button would be nice and, as far as I can see, you can’t use the full A3 area if using an angled pen. Overall, this is a fantastic pen plotter and I’m really impressed with it.

Works out of the box!

I have used a cutting plotter before, and have 3D printed some parts so I could also have it do pen plotting. It's less than ideal but gave me a taste of what was possible. I also found the required cutting plotter software frustrating and limited, for example, it could not directly use an SVG file without a tedious multi-step conversion process. From the start, the iDraw H SE has proven itself to be much better suited for my needs. I do most of my work in Inkscape already, so being able to plot directly without having to switch programs and export/import files is a huge improvement. The device is also clearly designed to be modified, and I already have some ideas for it: I want to be able to have it hold a calligraphy pen in the same way as a human hand. I can already angle the pen, but I also need that angle to be rotated. For now, I work around this by rotating the drawing in Inkscape and the paper. But in future, I could design something, have it 3D-printed and then simply screw it in place. All that matters is that the screw holes align neatly, it's so simple! Shipping was pretty fast: package was dispatched from Hong Kong 2 days after I placed the order, and then took 14 days to arrive in the Netherlands. The device came fully assembled and ready to use. Software was a matter of making sure Inkscape is up-to-date and then dropping some plug-in files into the right folder, as explained in the documentation. There's perhaps more of a learning curve than with hobbyist devices like the cutting plotter I used before, but that is to be expected when using something for power users and professionals. The other criticism I have is the price. It's very expensive compared to a cutting plotter. I was able to find plenty of reviews and video walkthroughs of the device, giving me a very good idea what I would get. A minute of searching got me a very good discount code for the device, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Now that I've used it, I'm definitely keeping it. Attached is a timelapse video of one of the first things I did with the plotter, which was making holiday cards to send out!

Great plotter

This is my first plotter and I cannot say enough good things about it. It arrived perfectly and setup was a breeze, it just took 15 minutes and everything has been working great ever since. I'm really happy with it. The support is also excellent!