Why add to a group instead of making a new one
One device is often drawn more than one way on the same sheet — the same detector with and without a circuit number, a socket drawn at two orientations the matcher treats as different, a symbol that changes slightly between the ground floor and the roof plan. Counting each variation separately leaves you merging groups afterwards.
Running the capture into an existing group avoids that. The new detections join the group you already have, the count on the row goes up, and the new outline is added to the group's templates so later runs recognise it too.
Everything here is on the Detection group's own row in the sidebar. See The marker sidebar if you are not sure where that is.
Detect New Symbol from the group menu
- 1
Find the group in the sidebar and click its menu.
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Choose Detect New Symbol . The cursor becomes a crosshair, exactly as it does for Auto Count Symbol.
- 3
Draw a box round the variation you want to pick up — the same device with its extra mark, or the copy drawn at the awkward angle.
- 4
Release. The new detections are added to this group, not to a new one.
Afterwards the group's thumbnail carries a small +N badge. That is the number of extra templates the group is now searching with — hovering it reads N additional template(s) from merged groups. A group with two or three templates finds more copies on the next run than a group with one.
Use this when a second capture would have produced a near-duplicate group. If the two symbols are genuinely different devices, make separate groups instead — they need separate prices.
Adding counts by hand
Sometimes one or two copies are drawn so differently that no capture will find them. Add them by hand rather than fighting the matcher.
- 1
Click the button on the group's row. It turns blue and pulses, and hovering it reads Adding detections to this group....
- 2
Click each missed copy on the drawing. A dot is placed in the group colour and the count goes up.
- 3
Press Esc when you are done. The tool stays armed until you stop it, so you can work along a run of them.
Hand-placed detections behave like any other marker in the group: they count, they price, and they export. They show a match score of 1.00 in the sidebar because you placed them yourself.
Their size is set separately from the automatic ones. Click the group's thumbnail to open its settings and use the Manual Detection Width and Manual Detection Opacity sliders, then Apply.
Redetect from a thumbnail
The cropped image beside each detection can itself be used as a template. This is useful when one copy on the drawing is cleaner than the one you originally outlined.
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Expand the group so its thumbnails are visible.
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Right-click the thumbnail you want to search with.
- 3
Choose Redetect with this image . The drawing shows Redetecting symbol... while it runs.
Any new matches land in the same group. Copies already marked are not counted twice.
Refreshing thumbnails
Thumbnails are cut from the drawing when a detection is created, so they can go stale — after you resize a marker box, or move one onto a cleaner copy of the symbol.
- One or a few — right-click a thumbnail and choose Reimage Detection(s) . Any other thumbnails you have selected are re-cut at the same time.
- The whole group — open the group's menu and choose Reimage Group .
While it runs, a Reimaging... chip covers the group's thumbnails. Nothing about the count or the marker positions changes; only the pictures are redrawn.
The rest of the thumbnail menu
Right-clicking a thumbnail also offers:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Merge Into | Move this detection into another group, or into a new one. |
| Focus | Centre the drawing on this marker and zoom in. |
| Delete Detection(s) | Delete this marker, and any others you have selected. |
You can also drag a thumbnail onto another group's grid to move it there. See Selecting and moving markers.
Common issues
"No additional detections found"
Every copy this template can find is already marked. On a vector drawing a repeat capture never duplicates markers that are already on the sheet, so this message usually means the group is complete.
When it comes from Redetect with this image, the wording is Redetection did not find any new matches in the current AOIs — worth checking if the drawing has AoIs on it, because anything outside them is discarded. See Areas of interest.
"Cannot redetect"
This detection has no thumbnail image to use as a template. Run Reimage Group first so the detection has a picture, then try again.
The new capture went into its own group
Detect New Symbol must be started from the group's menu. Starting it from New Takeoff creates a new group instead — that is what Auto Count Symbol is for.
Next steps
- Detect New Symbol — the full capture procedure and how labels affect matching.
- Merging groups — join two groups that turned out to be one device.
- Managing groups — rename, duplicate and delete groups.
- Searching all drawings in a category — repeat a capture across the rest of the drawings.
- Detection tips — what to change when a group keeps coming back short.