When to use this flow
This is the fastest way to capture lots of Actions from a single source — a snagging photo, a marked-up drawing, an inspection PDF, or a client's defect list. You upload the image, draw a rectangle around each issue, fill in a quick form per rectangle, and Site Commander creates one Action per box in a single go.
Each Action ends up with a cropped snapshot of just that area attached to it, so when someone opens the Action later they can see exactly what part of the image it relates to.
Reach for this flow when:
- You're back at the office after a site visit with a phone full of snagging photos
- A client has sent a marked-up drawing with defects circled in red
- You've done a walk-around and taken one wide shot that captures a dozen issues
- You want to work through a PDF snagging report page by page
If you've only got one Action to raise, the manual form is simpler.
Starting the flow
There are two ways to open the bulk create dialog:
- From the New Action button — click New Action in the top-right and choose Create from Image/PDF
- By drag-and-drop — drag a photo or PDF from your computer and drop it anywhere on the Actions table view
Drag-and-drop only works on the table view, not on Kanban. If you're on the Kanban board, switch to the table first, or use the New Action button.
What you can upload
| Format | Maximum size |
|---|---|
| JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF | 10 MB |
| 20 MB |
PDFs are converted to an image automatically before you start marking them up. Only the first page of a multi-page PDF is used, so if you've got a long inspection report, you'll need to repeat the flow for each page.
Drawing rectangles on the image
Once the image is loaded, you'll see it fill the canvas with a toolbar on the side. The toolbar gives you six tools for marking the image up:
- Pan — move around the image when it's larger than the canvas
- Rectangle — draw a box around an issue (this is the one that creates Actions)
- Arrow — point at something for context
- Circle — highlight a round area
- Freehand — sketch an irregular shape
- Text — add a text label
There's also a colour palette so you can use different colours for different kinds of marks.
Only rectangles become Actions
This is the key thing to remember: only the rectangles you draw become Actions. Arrows, circles, freehand sketches, and text are just annotations on the image — they get saved as part of the cropped snapshot but don't create their own Actions.
That means you can mark the image up freely. Draw an arrow pointing at a crack, add a text label saying "check with structural engineer", circle an area that needs attention — none of those will accidentally create an Action. Only the rectangles count.
Filling in each rectangle
As you draw rectangles, a sidebar appears on the right showing one card per rectangle you've drawn. Each card has a number, a title preview, and a status showing whether it's ready to go.
- 1
Click the first rectangle card in the sidebar to open its form.
- 2
Fill in the title, description, priority, type, assignees, and any other fields — just like the manual form.
- 3
Click Done to save that rectangle's details and move on to the next one.
- 4
Work through each card in the sidebar until every rectangle is marked complete.
The card for each rectangle shows its status so you can see what's ready and what's still missing information.
Creating the batch
Once every rectangle has its details filled in, click Create All at the bottom of the sidebar.
Site Commander creates each Action in turn. A progress indicator shows how many have been done out of the total. If any fail for some reason, they're flagged in the sidebar so you can fix the problem and retry just those ones.
When the batch finishes, close the dialog and the new Actions appear in your list, each with a cropped snapshot of its part of the original image.
Don't lose your work
If you've drawn rectangles or filled in forms and try to close the dialog or navigate away without saving, a warning appears asking you to confirm. This is a safety net for long annotation sessions so you don't lose half an hour of work in a single mis-click.
For long inspection PDFs, treat each page as its own session. Upload the first page, mark it up, click Create All, then come back and start the next page. The new Actions from each batch all land in the same list.
Real-world examples
- Snagging walk-around — take one wide photo of a room, then back at the office draw a rectangle around each snag and raise them all at once
- Client defect list — the client sends a marked-up drawing with ten defects circled in red. Upload it, draw rectangles around each circle, and create all ten Actions in a single pass
- Floor plan handover — upload the ground floor plan, draw boxes for each outstanding area, and assign each one to the right subcontractor before creating the batch
Next steps
- Raising a new Action — for one-off Actions without a source image.
- Attachments — for adding more images to an Action after it's been created.
- Types and priorities — for the options you pick from in the per-rectangle form.