Why it matters
Several estimators can work in the same project at once, on the same or different drawings. ZeroCount shows you where colleagues are, refuses the two actions that would pull a drawing out from under someone, and queues your own edits if your connection drops so that nothing is lost. Knowing what each indicator means saves you from waiting on a lock that does not exist, or from wondering why an archive was refused.
Seeing who is here
Wherever a project or drawing is listed, small round avatars show the first initial of each colleague currently inside it. Hover one to read "name is here". Up to three avatars are shown, then a +N count for the rest. Nothing appears when you are the only person there — your own presence is never shown to you.
| Where | What the avatars mean |
|---|---|
| Next to the project name in the Projects table, or bottom-right of a project card | Someone has that project open |
| On a drawing card or row in the project view, and in the Select Drawing panel | Someone has that drawing open on the canvas |
| As a small dot on a file tab in Review mode | Someone is in that drawing |
Avatars update within a moment of a colleague opening or leaving a project or drawing.
What is refused while someone else is inside
Two actions are blocked while another user is anywhere in the project, because both would remove work someone may be looking at.
| Action | What you see |
|---|---|
| Archive a project, from the Projects table or the project view Actions menu | Error toast Archive failed. Active user detected inside the project. Please ensure no one is active before archiving. with "Currently inside: names" |
| Delete a drawing, from a card's menu, the bulk action bar, the Select Drawing panel or a file tab | Error toast Delete failed. Active user detected inside the project. Please ensure no one is active before deleting. with "Currently inside: names" |
Wait for the named colleagues to leave the project, then try again. Everything else — counting, measuring, merging, renaming, exporting — is allowed while others are present.
Your own other browser tabs never block you. Only other people count as active users.
Signals your colleagues see from your work
- Any takeoff work on a drawing moves its status from Uploaded to In Progress. If it was Completed, it moves back with the toast "filename moved back to In Progress".
- Background searches from Search all files in category skip drawings marked Completed, so marking a drawing complete protects it from a colleague's later captures.
- Changes are saved to the server as you make them, so a colleague opening the same drawing next sees your markers.
Checking your connection
The avatar at the bottom of the sidebar has a solid green ring while you are connected and a dashed red ring while you are not. Click your name to see the status block at the top of the user menu.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Connected | Live. Below it, Session: followed by your session id and a copy button. |
| Connecting… | First connection after loading the page. |
| Reconnecting… (attempt N) | The connection dropped and ZeroCount is retrying with increasing delays. |
| Offline | No connection. Shows Since and the time it dropped, plus a Reconnect now button. |
| Offline — N pending changes | As above, and N of your edits are queued to be sent when the connection returns. |
Click Reconnect now to force an immediate attempt rather than waiting for the next scheduled retry; the toast "Attempting to reconnect…" confirms it. Copy the session id when reporting a problem — it identifies your connection in the server logs.
Working while offline
Not every action behaves the same way without a connection.
- Queued and replayed: marker and group edits such as renaming, recolouring, changing scale or opacity, creating and deleting markers, zones, AoIs and ignore colours. The user menu counts these as pending changes.
- Refused immediately with a toast: anything the server must do itself — symbol detection, uploading, rotating or deleting drawings, and linking database items. These are never queued; repeat them once you are back online.
When the connection returns, a dialog titled Reconnected — resyncing… appears with the text "Sending queued changes to the server. Please wait." It shows a progress bar and a count such as "3 of 8", and lists any change that failed. It cannot be dismissed; it closes on its own when the queue is empty.
If the oldest queued change is more than a day old you are asked first. The Stale pending changes dialog reads "N pending changes are older than 2 days. Replaying them may overwrite more recent work on the server." Choose Discard changes to throw the queue away, or Replay anyway to send it.
Replaying stale changes overwrites whatever a colleague did to those same markers in the meantime. If someone else has worked on the project since your connection dropped, choose Discard changes and redo your edits against the current state.
Idle tabs and signing out
Leaving a tab idle and coming back reconnects automatically; you are no longer returned to the login screen after a long break. Your sign-in is renewed in the background without interrupting the connection.
You are signed out only when you choose Logout from the user menu, or when the sign-in server rejects your session outright. Both clear your sign-in from the browser and return you to the login page, and the browser's Back button will not reopen the dashboard. If the sign-in server is merely busy, ZeroCount keeps your session and carries on.
Next steps
- Drawing status — Uploaded, In Progress and Completed, and what Completed protects.
- Archiving and recovering a project — the archive flow that the active-user guard protects.
- Downloading and deleting drawings — every place a drawing can be deleted from.
- Troubleshooting — connection and sign-in problems, symptom by symptom.
- Signing in and out — the login page and the Authentication Failed message.