Everything that is not a takeoff tool
Actions sits to the left of New Takeoff in the toolbar. Where New Takeoff puts markers on the drawing, Actions does everything else to it: turning it, annotating it, hiding things, bringing templates in, exporting it, and starting again.
The items are listed below in the order they appear in the menu.
Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counter-Clockwise
Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counter-Clockwise turn the drawing 90 degrees at a time. Use them on a sheet that arrived sideways so the text reads left to right. Markers you have already placed rotate with it and are kept.
Rotating a drawing after you have opened it switches the Auto Takeoff tools off, with the note "Rotate the file back to its uploaded orientation first". If you need a different orientation to work in, rotate the drawing from its card on the project page before you open it. See Rotating drawings.
Live Legend
Live Legend places a legend block on the drawing listing every group with its colour, name and total, and keeps it up to date as you work. Once one exists the item is disabled and reads (already added). See The Live Legend.
Annotations
Annotations opens a submenu of note shapes. Each one creates an annotation group of that type and arms it for drawing, so you can mark up a query or a note to the checker without it counting towards any quantity.
| Item | Icon |
|---|---|
| Ellipse | |
| Rectangle | |
| Arrow | |
| Text | |
| Custom Image | |
| Polygon | |
| Multipoint line |
See Annotation markers.
Deselect All Markers
Deselect All Markers clears the current selection. ESC does the same thing, and right-clicking empty canvas with no tool armed does it too.
Visibility
Visibility opens a submenu with two tick-box items that apply to every group at once:
- Cover All paints every marker as a solid block, which is useful for checking what is left uncounted on a busy sheet.
- Hide All hides every marker so you can read the drawing underneath.
Unticking the item restores the normal view. Both are disabled in Review mode. To hide one group rather than all of them, use the group's own menu in the sidebar. See Group visibility.
Show Measurements
Show Measurements is a tick-box that labels each Linear and Area takeoff on the drawing with its measured length or area. Turning it off gives a cleaner canvas; the values are still shown in the sidebar.
Changing it here applies to the current session only and does not alter your saved preference. The permanent setting is User Preferences > Measurement > Show measurements on canvas. See Showing measurements on the drawing.
Import Template
Import Template opens a submenu with two entries:
- Groups opens the Import Group Template dialog, bringing a saved set of marker groups onto this drawing. See Group templates.
- Zones opens the Import Zone Template dialog, bringing a saved set of zones onto this drawing. See Zone templates.
Templates are shared across your whole company, so a standard set of zones or groups only has to be built once.
Add Group
Add Group creates an empty Detection group. Use it when you want a named, coloured bucket ready before you count into it, either by dragging markers across from another group or by using Detect New Symbol from the group's own menu. See Rename, duplicate, delete and the group menu.
Change Drawing
Change Drawing opens the Select Drawing panel over the sidebar, listing every drawing in the project under its category. Click a row to switch to it without going back to the project page. The same panel opens if you click the drawing name in the breadcrumbs. See Opening drawings and switching between them.
Export
Export opens a submenu with the same items as the Export button in Review mode.
| Item | Icon | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Export Quantities (.xlsx) | An Excel workbook of the whole project: one sheet per drawing plus a Totals sheet. See Exporting to Excel. | |
| Export Image (.png) | A marked-up picture of the drawing. Choose Active File or All Files (.zip). | |
| Export Image (.pdf) | The same, as a single-page PDF. Choose Active File or All Files (.zip). |
The submenu also carries an Export Job item, which belongs to an export rework that is still in progress. It is shown as Coming soon everywhere else in the app, so treat the Excel and image exports as the routes to use today.
Exported files are named after the project, for example the project name followed by - quantities-export.xlsx. See Exporting drawing images.
Mark as Complete and Mark as In Progress
The label depends on where the drawing stands: it reads Mark as Complete on a drawing that is not finished, and Mark as In Progress on one that is.
Marking a drawing complete gives it a Completed badge on the project page, feeds the project's own status, and takes it out of the automatic background search that adds new symbols and services to the other drawings in the category. Doing any further takeoff work on a completed drawing quietly moves it back to In Progress. See Drawing status.
Reset Drawing
Reset Drawing, in red at the foot of the menu, returns the drawing to the state it was uploaded in. It asks first, with a dialog titled Reset drawing? reading "This will remove all markers, services, zones, areas of interest, and ignored colors. The file will return to its initial state." and Cancel / Confirm buttons.
This cannot be undone, and it takes everything: every group, every measurement, your Marker Services, zones, AoIs and ignored colours. Export the quantities first if there is any chance you will want the numbers back. See Resetting a drawing.
Next steps
- The New Takeoff menu — the counting and measuring tools.
- Takeoff and Review modes — where the Export button lives when the sidebar is collapsed.
- Exporting to Excel — what lands in the workbook.
- Group visibility — hiding and covering one group at a time.