With Apple's recent release of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 12, we're now seeing new feature releases in a variety of apps. Two players in the world of architectural software, Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D, today announced a joint effort that promises to further bridge the divide between 3D modeling and sketching on the iPad Pro thanks to Apple’s Drag and Drop and the new universal 3D file type USDZ.

Dubbed "Drag 'n' Fly", the new iOS 12 feature by Morpholio, a company that we've covered previously on Archinect, enables users to integrate live 3D models in Trace sketches, create infinite views, and draw over automatically generated perspective grids. Shapr3D models can now be exported directly to Trace via the new OBJ export, simplifying the switch between drawing and modeling.

Morpholio Co-Founder Mark Collins explains the reason behind this collaboration with Shapr3D: "Having created Morpholio primarily for architects, by architects, we feel Shapr3D, an impressive and important software, should be brought into focus for a broader range of disciplines – architecture, industrial design, and engineering."

Morpholio Trace - Sketch CAD (also just named Apple's "App of the Day") and Shapr: 3D modeling CAD are available for iOS in the App Store.

Take a look at the video below to see how illustrator Jim Keen uses Drag 'n' Fly to move from 3D model to full architectural illustration.