Document toolboxDocument toolbox

Edit Mode

Owned by Maciej Zabielski
Last updated: Mar 18, 2024
9 min read

Overview

Edit Mode in Viewer is designed to edit vector elements on Drawings. It offers similar editing capabilities in the following modes:

  • Edit Mode

  • Redline Mode

  • Change Requests Mode

This section described toolbar sections specific to Editing modes. For base toolbar sections please refer to View / Object Select Mode.

 

Switching to edit mode means transitioning away from object context, such as Room, Space, or Equipment, and shifting towards technical drawing content like vector entities, layers, and links.

The overview of the edit toolbar is as follows:

Multi-selection of more than one spot is possible. All operations done when having more than one spot selected will be applied to all selected spots.  

Toolbars

Adjust Toolbar

Adjust toolbar is used to align any type of background drawing to fix vector overlay. 

In order to activate these functions, please select a background drawing from the Drawings and Layers menu:

For in depth explanation please refer to Move and Scale/Align background drawing guide.

Edit Toolbar

Editing toolbar can be used to manipulate existing spots (vector elements): Clone, cut, copy and paste. 

For full explanation, please review GUIDE: working with Viewer Edit toolbar

Draw Toolbar

A Draw toolbar enables you to choose a new shape for drawing. This toolbar is functional only when Drawing contains an editable Vector drawing and if the appropriate Layer is selected in:

  • Redline mode - when an editable (your own or shared) layer is selected

  • Edit mode - when an editable local or global layer is selected

  • Change Requests: when an active change request is selected. For more information, refer to Change Management Workflow.

Available drawing tools:

Shape Type

Shape Icon / Button

Shape Sample

How to Draw

Shape Type

Shape Icon / Button

Shape Sample

How to Draw

Rectangle

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate first corner

  • Move mouse to second corner position

  • Click to indicate second corner

  • Draw function is finished

Line

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate starting point

  • Move mouse to second point position

  • Click to indicate ending point

  • Draw function is finished

Polyline

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate starting point

  • Move mouse to second point position

  • Add as many points as needed by moving mouse and click

  • Right click and select End Draw to finish shape

Free line

  • Start draw function

  • Click and hold to start draw

  • Move mouse while holding down

  • Lift mouse button to finish draw


Function is ready to draw next shape

To cancel, do one of the following:

  • Select the function button again

  • Select another shape type

  • Hit ESC button

Polygon

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate starting point

  • Move mouse to second point position

  • Add as many points as needed by moving mouse and click

  • Right click and select End Draw to finish shape



When shape is ready, add additional vertex points by right click on any of the

existing vertices and select Add or Delete point.



Circle

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate circle center point

  • Move mouse to increase or decrease circle radius

  • Click again to finish draw

Ellipse

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate ellipse center point

  • Move mouse to increase or decrease ellipse size

  • Click again to finish draw

Circle Arc

  • Start draw function

  • Click to Indicate starting point of the base line

  • Move mouse to second point position

  • Click to indicate ending point of the base line

  • Move mouse to change curvature

  • Click again to finish draw

Text

  • Select draw function

  • Click on drawing to insert text

  • Fill in the text value

  • Modify parameters like size and alignment

  • Close to finish

Icon

Icon function is using a split button.

An icon / symbol can be selected and set under Icon button by using arrow and dropdown selection form.

When the symbol is preset, all consecutive activations of draw function will use the selected icon.



Icons can also be dragged and dropped directly from the list onto the drawing.


Insert Toolbar

Functions in this toolbar allow the insertion of area and length values for the selected spot.

To use these functions, follow these steps:

  1. Select a spot on a drawing.

  2. Activate the desired function:

    • Insert length

    • Insert area

The inserted length/area represents a new shape in the drawing. It is important to note that it is not linked to the original shape and will not automatically adjust to reflect changes in area or length.

 

Please note that, inserted texts will be on layer currently selected in Layer Drop-down and not on layer on which selected spot is on.

Drawings & Layers

Drawings

When choosing drawings, especially if there are multiple vector drawings available, layer management usually suffices and a single vector drawing is generally adequate.

For managing drawing components (adding/removing), please consult the Guide: Manual import of raster drawing and Working with Map Data Source.

Layers

Drawings and Layers toolbar also provides overview of available layers and their properties. A list of all visible layers is presented in the dropdown.

Columns

Column

Name

Description

Column

Name

Description

Scope

Describes scope and owner of the private layer.

Possible values include:

Global layer managed by system administrator

Private layer owned by you

Private layer owned by another user (tooltip shows user name)

Fill/Stroke

Fill and stroke color visualization for layer.

This is a default style for all elements on that layer.

Shapes might have individual style set that will override the layer style.

Name

Name of the layer

Editable

Indicates if layer is editable for current user

Possible values:

layer is editable

Layer is not editable

Visible

Indicates if layer is visible

Possible values:

Layer is visible

Layer is not visible

Active

Indicates if layer is active for selection

Layer is active

Layer is inactive

 

Shape Properties Toolbar

Color and other properties can be changed according to the vector entity if necessary. However, it's generally best to avoid this in order to prevent confusion when multiple entities on the same layer appear different.

When the color of such entities is altered, it won't match the colors indicated on the Layer drop-down menu.

To change the color of a specific shape, simply select that shape in edit mode with a single click. Then, on the Shape Properties toolbar, click on the Color drop-down icon and choose the desired color from the Color Picker.

Notice the "Reset to Layer style" button  that will revert selected setting. This function is available for every other setting as well. 

In the same way a transparency settings of both fill color and stroke like can be changed:

Line width and radius can be controlled in several ways:

  • Fixed width: This setting ensures that the width of a given entity remains unchanged regardless of the drawing's magnification (zoom). It will always appear the same on the screen.

  • Width: This refers to the line or border width of any entity.

  • When set to Drawing, Units inherit Width units from the drawing. Alternatively, you can select from other units such as Inch, Millimeter, Centimeter, or Meter.

  • The Corner radius option makes corners of a rectangle more rounded. Please note that this feature only applies to single rectangles.

 

Context menu in Edit mode

Context menu in Edit mode changes from Object related menu to vector entity menu as well. 

The available options for the selected entity are as follows:

  • Reset to Layer Style: This option resets all properties of the entity back to the layer defaults.

  • Change Layer: This option allows you to move the selected spot from its original layer to another. You need edit rights for the destination layer. Additionally, you can move reline spots to other redline layers from Redline mode. However, you cannot hover move layers from one drawing to another (e.g., overlay layer to redline drawing).

  • Delete: This option deletes the entity from the drawing. Note: The Auto Save function does not influence the delete function. Delete is performed immediately regardless of the Auto Save setting.

  • Show links: This option displays a popup window with information about linked objects. For more information, see Object Linking (Relations).

  • Paste link: If the system clipboard contains a link to another object, it can be linked to this entity using the Paste link function.

  • Change Order: This function allows you to bring the selected entity to the front or send it to the back, but only within spots on the same layer. This means that spots on layers with a higher index will not be affected by Send to Back and will still cover spots on the layer with a lower index.

Group / Ungroup Entities Using the Context Menu

When two or more entities are selected, a group menu will appear in the context menu popup.

If already grouped entities are selected, an Ungroup option will become available.

It is also possible to group other groups together, but this may create a complex situation that is difficult to follow.

In the case of a Space with several columns (marked with negative area), grouping them together will report their area as one.