Marking up & commenting

Pen, text, revision cloud, stamp and images: the tools for commenting. Everything in this chapter is part of the Free scope.

The selection tool V

The arrow is your home. Tapping selects, dragging on empty space opens a blue dashed selection rectangle, and Tab jumps to the next element. With a selection, the sub-palette shows colour, duplicate and delete, plus two classics from CAD:

• Align & distribute (from two selected elements onwards): align left, centre or right, top, middle or bottom, distribute horizontally and vertically.
• Z order: bring to front, forward one step, back one step, send to back.

Arrow keys move the selection by 1 pt, with Shift by 10 pt.

The pen P

In the sub-palette you switch between three pen types. Ink is the opaque, pressure-sensitive line for notes and sketches. Pencil draws finer and more reserved, good for thinking out loud. The marker is the only semi-transparent pen (40 % opacity, multiplied) and highlights, classically in marker yellow.

On top of that come three width slots, the five colour slots and a three-step stabilisation. It calms shaky freehand lines without distorting the stroke; at the “Little” step it only removes the jitter.

Text T

Tapping places a text note, and you write straight where it sits, without a dialog. The box grows with the text; the sub-palette controls size and colour. Double-tapping existing text opens it for editing again.

Revision cloud K

The classic of plan review, with two ways of drawing in one tool:

• Clicks = outline. Set a free cloud shape point by point; a click near the starting point (or a double click) closes it.
• Drag = rectangle. Dragging creates a rectangular cloud in one go.

The cloud stays malleable afterwards: vertices can be dragged, and the ＋ handles on the middles of the edges insert new points. The arcs come out cleanly rounded by themselves.

Stamps S

“Checked”, “Released for construction”, your office stamp: you choose a template from the stamp library, a translucent ghost preview hangs from the cursor, and tapping places the stamp. You create your own stamps once; they sync to your devices through iCloud.

Insert image I

Places a photo or a graphic on the plan as a markup, for instance a site photo next to the detail concerned. Images can be scaled, rotated and aligned like any element.

The eraser E

Erases pen strokes, whole or in part. Three size slots and a radius control from 4 to 48 pt cover detailed correction just as well as clearing a large area. Two switches make it clever. Intelligent protects self-intersections: erasing a loop does not accidentally cost you the whole stroke. Preview colours red what would disappear on release; only releasing actually erases.

One erasing stroke is one undo step, even if it cut twenty strokes apart.

Laser and magnifier L / G

Both are tools for meetings. The laser draws a red pointing stroke that fades by itself and leaves nothing in the document. The magnifier lays a zoom lens over the plan so you can check details without leaving the view.

Colours: black first

Cloya starts every stroke in ink black and keeps the palette deliberately muted. A marked-up plan should look like a plan review, not like a highlighter accident. Full saturation is reserved for the standards, such as the AEAI green for escape routes or the fixed AEAI fire-resistance colours. Every colour slot can still be assigned freely through the colour picker.