Viewing and annotating a document

Every file that displays in the browser shares the same toolbar, at the bottom of the view. What it offers depends on the file type and on your rights: without the Annotate right, you view without adding anything; without the Measure right, the dimensioning tool doesn’t appear.

Reading a PDF or a Comiror drawing

An uploaded PDF and a drawing published from the drawing editor open in the same viewer. Pages scroll one after the other; the page number in the toolbar takes you straight to one of them. Zoom in, Zoom out and the percentage badge set the display size, and Rotate 90° straightens a document that was scanned sideways.

A PDF has no measuring tool: its dimensions are the ones printed on the sheet.

Reading a DXF or DWG drawing

A DXF displays directly; a DWG is first converted on our servers, then opens the same way. The mouse wheel zooms, dragging moves the sheet, and Fit the view brings the whole drawing back into the window.

• Measure offers three dimension types: Distance, Diameter and Radius. Placed dimensions are saved with the file.
• Layers lists the drawing’s layers: hide the ones that clutter your reading. This setting only applies to your own display; the file isn’t modified.

Adding a note

The Annotate button places a note at a precise spot on the document.

• On a PDF, a drawing or a DXF, pick the shape: Marker (a point), Box or Circle around an area. Then give it a title and, if needed, a description.
• On a 3D part, click the part where you want it: the note anchors to the material and stays there as you orbit around it.
• On a PDF, Highlighter mode highlights the text you select, as you would on paper.

Capture saves an image of the view, whole or of an area you frame, into the file’s notes: handy to show a detail exactly as you see it, dimensions included.

Each note is attached to the version on which you placed it. It shows when that version is open, and doesn’t carry over to a later version whose content may have changed.

Finding notes again

The inspector’s Notes tab gathers everything placed on the file, newest first. Filters sort by family: Annotations, Dimensions, Captures and Highlights.

Click a note to expand it, then Locate to show it in the view; a 3D capture offers Back to the view, which puts the camera back where the image was taken. Edit changes its title and description. Delete is reserved for its author and for administrators of the organization that owns the file.

An image

An image displays as it is, with no note or measuring tool. To comment on it, use the file’s chat.