Annotation and 2D details

This chapter describes dimensions and constraints, text notes, tags, rooms and areas with their colour schemes, legend views, and the 2D drawing tools: detail lines, regions, detail components, repeating details, insulation and drafting views. Annotations belong to the view they are made in: a dimension placed in a plan does not appear in another plan.

Before each click, every tool shows what it would make where the cursor is: the dimension with its value, the note's box, the tag on the element under the cursor, the region a room or area would fill, the line, region, component or insulation being drawn.

Dimensions

Annotate ▸ Dimension holds the dimension tools: Aligned, Linear, Angular, Radial, Arc Length, and the spot dimensions Spot Elevation, Spot Coordinate and Spot Slope. They work in plans, sections, elevations, drafting views and legends. Pick the dimension type in the type selector while the tool is on; Type Properties changes the type, and with it every dimension of that type.

Aligned and linear dimensions

With Aligned, the options bar offers which part of a wall is picked (Wall centerlines, Wall faces, Center of Core, Faces of Core) and what a click picks:

Individual References: click references one after the other (wall faces or centre lines, grids, door and window edges, detail lines, the edges of legend symbols), then click an empty spot to place the dimension line there. While you choose, the string follows the cursor. Press TAB over a wall to step through its references.
Entire Walls: one click dimensions a whole wall. Options opens the automatic dimensioning options: Openings with their Centers or both Widths, Intersecting Walls and Intersecting Grids. A grid that falls on a wall end adds no witness line.

Linear measures along the horizontal or the vertical of the view, between points such as wall ends: where you place the line decides which, and the space bar switches between the two.

Angular measures the angle between two walls, grids or lines that meet; more lines through the same point make a string of angles, each with its value; the last click picks the sector. Radial and Arc Length dimension an arc: click it, then where the dimension goes.

Changing a dimension

Select a dimension and click its value: Dimension Text opens. Use Actual Value keeps the measure and adds text above, below, before or after it; Replace with text shows words instead (a number is refused).
Drag the blue control under the text to move it away from the line; dragged back near the line, it snaps into place. Text moved far away gets an arc leader to its segment; Leader on the options bar removes it.
Modify | Dimensions ▸ Witness Lines ▸ Edit Witness Lines: click elements to add witness lines, click an existing witness line to remove it, then click an empty spot to finish. Each witness line of a selected dimension has a control in its middle: right-click it ▸ Move Witness Line, then click the new reference; or ▸ Delete Witness Lines.
Select an element the dimension measures and click a value next to it: type a new distance and press Enter, and the element moves.

The type sets the tick (diagonal, filled arrow or dot), the extensions of the dimension and witness lines (Witness line control: a gap to the element, or Fixed to Dimension Line with its Witness Line Length), the Line Weight and Tick Mark Line Weight, the Centerline Symbol and Centerline Pattern of witness lines to centre lines, the colour, the text size, offset, background, bold, italic and underline, the units (Use project settings or a unit with its decimals), and for linear dimensions the Dimension String Type: Continuous, Baseline (stacked values from the first reference) or Ordinate (values from the first reference along one line). Show Opening Height writes the height of a door or window under the width measured jamb to jamb. Radial types can drop the R prefix and their centre mark (Center Marks, with its size). With arrows, a segment too short for them has them outside, and the line runs on past them by Flipped Dimension Line Extension. Annotate ▸ Dimension ▸ Dimension Types opens the type properties of each family's current type, to set before dimensioning.

A selected baseline string shows a flip control at its origin: click it, or press the space bar, to measure from the other end. Baseline Offset in its properties sets the distance between its lines on paper.

Temporary dimensions

Select a wall or a grid: temporary dimensions show the distance to the nearest parallel walls or grids. A door or window shows its distance along its wall to the walls crossing it on each side, and a component its distance to the nearest wall in each direction. Click a value, type a new one and press Enter to move the element; click the dimension symbol beside it to make it permanent. While a door or window is placed, temporary dimensions show its distance to the nearest walls. With several elements selected none are shown, and the options bar offers Activate Dimensions to show them for all the selected elements.

Constraints

Select a dimension: a padlock is shown on each segment. Click it to lock the segment: the distance then holds when either element moves, and a move that would break it is refused. Click it again, or right-click it ▸ Toggle Lock, to unlock; right-click ▸ Show Related selects the two elements the lock ties. A string of two segments or more shows EQ: click it and the references become equally spaced, and stay so when one of them moves. Equality display in the properties shows the values instead of EQ.

Selecting an element a constraint holds shows the constraint as blue dashed lines, unless the category Constraints is hidden in Visibility/Graphics. Deleting a dimension that holds a constraint asks what to do: OK deletes the dimension and keeps the constraint; Delete Elements deletes both. Modify ▸ Align with its padlock closed is a constraint too.

Spot dimensions

Spot Elevation: in a plan, click a floor, a roof or the level; in a section, any point. The value is in metres with its sign.
Spot Coordinate: the north and east coordinates of a point in a plan.
Spot Slope: the slope of a roof pitch in a plan, or of a sloped line in a section, with an arrow pointing down.

The options bar offers Leader and, with a leader, Shoulder: with no leader one click places the spot; with a leader, click the point and then the text; with a shoulder, the point, the bend and the text. While you hover, the value shows at the cursor. For spot elevations it also offers Relative Base: (for a type whose Elevation Origin is Relative) and, in plans, Display Elevations:: the actual elevation, the top, the bottom, or both. For spot slopes, Slope Representation: draws an Arrow or, in sections, a Triangle.

A selected spot has grips at its point, its shoulder and its text: drag the point and the spot measures what is there. A spot on a floor or a roof is deleted with it.

The spot type sets Elevation Indicator, Top Indicator and Bottom Indicator (texts before the value), the Symbol, Include Elevation and the North/South Indicator and East/West Indicator of coordinates, and the Leader Line Length and Slope Direction (Down or Up) of slopes.

Text

Annotate ▸ Text ▸ Text (TX): click where the note goes and type; Enter starts a new line. A click gives a note that does not wrap; dragging gives it a width, and the words wrap in it. Clicking elsewhere finishes the note, and Esc ends the tool. The text size is on paper: the note keeps its printed size at any view scale.

The Format panel sets, before placing or on a selected note:

the leader: No Leader, One Segment (click the tip, then the note), Two Segments (tip, elbow, note) or Curved;
the alignment, left, centre or right, and Bold, Italic and Underline (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U while typing), which apply to the whole note;
on a selected note, Add Left Straight Leader and the other three leader buttons, and Remove Last Leader;
Left Attachment and Right Attachment (Top, Middle, Bottom): where the leaders meet the note; chosen while placing, they stay for the next notes.
Paragraph Format: the paragraphs as a list, with Bullets, Numbers, Lowercase letters or Uppercase letters; wrapped lines are indented under the text.

Near the line of another note's corner, a new note snaps to it, and a dashed line shows it.

On a selected note, drag the cross to move the box (the leader tips stay), the round side controls to change its width, and the rotation control to turn it. A grip in the middle of each leader makes an elbow when dragged, or bends a curved leader. Double-click inside it to edit the words. Its properties include Arc Leaders, Left Attachment and Right Attachment, and Keep Readable, which never shows it upside down. The text type sets the colour (of text, border and leaders), the background (Opaque masks what is behind), Show Border with its offset, the leader arrowhead, the size, bold, italic and underline. Duplicate… in Type Properties makes a new text type.

Annotate ▸ Text ▸ Find/Replace finds words in the notes of the current selection, the current view or the whole project (Scope:), with options for case and whole words. Find All lists the matches with the view they are in; Find Next, or a click on a row, selects that note and shows its whole text under Context. Replace changes the first, Replace All every one, and Close closes the dialog.

Symbols

Annotate ▸ Symbol ▸ Symbol (SY) places a 2D annotation symbol in a plan, a section, a drafting view or a legend: a North Arrow, a Centerline Symbol, a Flow Arrow, a Target or a Revision Delta, the last two with a text of their own. The symbol follows the cursor before the click; the space bar turns it a quarter, or Rotation on the options bar sets its angle. With Number of leaders: above zero, the click places the symbol and the next clicks put the ends of its leaders. The type sets the symbol's size on paper and its leaders' arrowhead; Duplicate… in Type Properties makes a new one.

Rooms

Home ▸ Room & Area ▸ Room (RM), then click inside a region enclosed by walls or room separators: the room fills it, around free-standing walls too. In the options bar:

Upper Limit and Offset: the room reaches that level plus the offset (4000 mm by default); a higher level gives a room over several storeys, such as an atrium;
Tag on Placement, on by default, with the tag's orientation and leader;
Room: New, or a room that is not placed, to put it back;
Highlight Boundaries: walls and separators that bound rooms turn orange, and the warning lists them.

A room placed in open space is kept with a warning, and takes its shape once the space is closed; a second room in a region already taken is marked Redundant Room and not counted twice. A number another room already has, a room lower than the computation height (1200 mm) and a base above it are warned about too, and so is a room separator drawn over another.

Walls bound the rooms of a level when they stand at its computation height: 1200 mm while Automatic Room Computation Height is ticked in the level's properties, otherwise its Computation Height.

A section shows the rooms it cuts when they are selected or under the cursor (TAB reaches a room behind other elements). A room selected there has an arrow at its top and one at its base: drag them to change its Limit Offset and Base Offset.

Room Separator draws lines that split a space into rooms without walls. A wall bounds rooms while its Room Bounding property is on. Floors and roofs above cap the room's volume.

Deleting a room removes it from the plan but keeps it in the project, Not Placed, with its data; its tags go with it. Deleting a room tag leaves the room. A room tag dragged out of its room asks whether to Move to Room.

Rooms show through their tags. In Visibility/Graphics, Rooms has Interior Fill and Datum (the cross lines). Settings ▸ Area and Volume Computations opens on Computations: the room boundary at the wall finish, centre, core layer or core centre, and Areas and Volumes to compute volumes too (by default only areas; the volume is always measured to the wall finish). Its second tab is Area Schemes.

Areas

Areas belong to an area scheme: Gross Building (which cannot be deleted) and Rentable come with every project, and Area Schemes ▸ New adds more.

Room & Area ▸ Area ▸ Area Plan: pick the scheme and the levels. Answer Yes to draw area boundary lines along the exterior walls, No to draw them yourself.
Area ▸ Area Boundary Line: draw the boundaries, or pick walls; with the area rules on, an exterior wall of a gross plan gives its outer face.
Area ▸ Area: click inside the boundaries. The area is tagged when placed; Tag ▸ Area Tag tags it later. Placed where no boundaries close a region, the area is kept with a warning and takes its shape once they do; a second area in a region is Redundant Area.

Deleting an area leaves it in the project, not placed, without its tags; Area: in the options bar of the Area tool lists the areas not placed, to put one back with a click.

Colour schemes

A colour scheme fills the rooms or areas of a plan (and the rooms a section cuts) by a value (name, number, department, area type) or by ranges of area. Set it in the plan's Color Scheme property; (none) turns it off. Settings ▸ Color Schemes (Edit Color Scheme) creates and duplicates schemes and edits the title, the parameter, the values with their colour and visibility, their order and the ranges. Apply keeps the changes and sets the scheme of the view with the dialog open. Color scheme location, a view property, draws the fills in the Background (under the model) or in the Foreground (over the model, under the annotations).

Room & Area ▸ Legend places the legend of the plan's scheme: a swatch and a label for each value. Its Values displayed are By view (those in the plan) or All, and Columns flows the swatches into several columns. A plan can have several legends; deleting one leaves the scheme.

Legend views

View ▸ Legends ▸ Legend opens New Legend View: a name and a scale. The legend opens and is listed under Legends in the Project Browser. Annotate ▸ Component ▸ Legend Component places the symbol of a type: in the options bar, the type, the View it is seen from (a wall in plan or section; a floor or roof in section or plan; a door, window or component in plan, front or back) and the Host Length, the piece of wall a door or window sits in. Legend components draw at the legend's detail level, can be moved and dimensioned (the edges of doors, windows and components; walls, floors and roofs are not), and are not counted by schedules. Text, detail lines and regions work as in a drafting view. A legend can be placed on several sheets.

A type dragged from Families in the Project Browser into a legend becomes its legend component where it is dropped; a type of Families ▸ Symbols places that annotation symbol. Create Similar, in the context menu of a selected element, starts the tool that places it with its type: for a legend component, with its view and host length too.

Detail lines and regions

Annotate ▸ Detail ▸ Detail line (DL) draws lines in the open view only, in the line style of the Line style panel. The Draw panel offers Line, Rectangle, Inscribed Polygon, Circumscribed Polygon, Circle, Start-End-Radius Arc, Center-ends Arc, Tangent End Arc, Spline, Ellipse and Partial Ellipse. The options bar shows what the shape takes:

Option	What it does
Chain	Each line (or arc, or spline) starts where the last ended; off, each one stands alone
Offset	What is drawn moves that far sideways; chained lines join at their corners
Radius	A circle, polygon or centre-ends arc of that radius (a circle takes one click); chained lines and rectangles get round corners. Offset is then ignored
Sides	The number of sides of a polygon

After the first click, type a length (a line, a chord) or a radius (circles, polygons, arcs, ellipse axes) and press Enter; the value shows at the cursor. A centre-ends arc never exceeds 180°: past it, it turns the other way, and a typed angle sets its end. A tangent arc starts at the end of a line or arc you click. Shift keeps lines and polygon radii horizontal or vertical and turns chords, arc radii and ellipse axes in steps of 45°, and keeps the sweep of an arc at 90°, 180° or 270°. Esc ends a chain or a spline. The same shapes and options are in every sketch (floors, roofs, regions, revision clouds, wall profiles).

Region ▸ Filled region opens sketch mode: the boundary is sketched with every shape of the Draw panel and with Pick Lines, and loops inside another are holes. Curves are kept as short straight segments. Esc ends a chain and keeps the sketch; Modify and the Modify tools work on its lines. Finish Edit Mode makes the region in the current region type, or says why it cannot (an open or crossing boundary). A selected region's Edit Boundary opens its sketch again. The type sets its fill pattern, colour and background (Opaque hides what is behind). Region ▸ Masking Region makes a region in the paper colour that hides what is beneath it. A region shows its Area and has Comments. A selected region has a grip at each vertex: drag one to change its shape.

Detail components, repeating details and insulation

Component ▸ Detail component: a 2D symbol (brick, block, timber, steel section, insulation board, break line) placed in a drafting or detail view; the space bar lines it up with each wall or detail line near the cursor in turn (a quarter turn when there is none).
Component ▸ Repeating detail: click a start and an end; the type sets the repeated component, the Layout (fill the available space, fixed distance, fixed number, maximum spacing), the Spacing, Inside and the rotation within the pattern. The instance has the Number when the layout is a fixed number.
Insulation: click two points; Width and Offset (the insulation runs that far to the left of the clicks) in the options bar; with Pick Lines ticked, a click on a detail line or a wall draws it along that line. The insulation width and the bulge ratio in its properties. Selected insulation, and a selected repeating detail, have a grip at each end.

Draw order

Select detail items only: Arrange offers Bring to Front, Bring Forward, Send to Back and Send Backward. Detail items always draw over the model, and a new one goes on top. Undo restores the previous order.

Drafting views

View ▸ Create ▸ Drafting view asks for a name and a scale (or a custom one). The view opens and is listed under Drafting views; everything drawn in it is 2D, with no model behind it. It can go on one sheet. Duplicate View ▸ Duplicate with Detailing copies a view with its detail items, text, dimensions and legend components.

Display Model in the properties of a plan, a section or a detail view draws the model Normal, Halftone (greyed under the details) or not at all (Do not display), leaving the details and annotations.

View ▸ Create ▸ Detail with Reference other view ticked on the options bar draws a callout that points at an existing detail or drafting view instead of making a new one: its head names that view and a double-click opens it; Referenced view in its properties changes it. In a drafting view the callout is always of this kind.

Hide at scales coarser than in the properties of a section or a callout hides its symbol in the views whose scale is coarser, for example a 1 : 50 detail left out of the 1 : 100 plan.

At the command line

Every tool has its command: dim, lineardim, angulardim, radialdim, arcdim, spotelevation, text, findreplace, tag, room, roomsep, areaplan, areaboundary, area, colorscheme, legend, legendview, legendcomponent, detailline, region, mask, draworder, lock, eq. help followed by a command shows its usage; Keyboard shortcuts lists the typed shortcuts.