Rotating Drawings

When to rotate

Drawings often arrive sideways: a landscape sheet saved into a portrait PDF, or a CAD plot with a 90° offset. Most vector drawings are turned upright automatically on upload (see Supported file types), but scans and unusual layouts can still come in the wrong way up. Rotation is purely a viewing choice for counting symbols, but it matters for reading the sheet and, as explained below, for the vector takeoff tools.

Every rotation is a 90° step. Rotate Clockwise adds 90°; Rotate Counter-Clockwise takes 90° away. Steps accumulate and wrap round, so two clockwise turns give 180° and four bring the drawing back to where it started. The thumbnail updates straight away.

One drawing, from its menu

1. 1

   On the project page, click on the drawing's card or row.

2. 2

   Choose Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counter-Clockwise .

Every drawing in a category

The category header has its own pair of rotate buttons. Use them when a whole set came out of one CAD export the same way round.

1. 1

   Find the category card or row.

2. 2

   Click Rotate clockwise or Rotate counter-clockwise in the header.

Every drawing in the category turns by the same 90°, including drawings shared with other categories.

A selection of drawings

1. 1

   Tick the drawings you want to turn. Use a category's header checkbox to tick all of its drawings at once.

2. 2

   In the bulk action bar that appears above the categories, click Rotate clockwise or Rotate counter-clockwise.

Drawings that are still uploading are skipped with a Some files skipped toast.

The drawing you have open

If you notice the orientation only once you are counting:

1. 1

   Click Actions in the workspace toolbar.

2. 2

   Choose Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counter-Clockwise at the top of the menu.

The drawing reloads at the new orientation. Any work you had just done is kept.

What rotation does to existing markers

Markers stay attached to the drawing, not to the screen. Rotate a counted sheet and every detection box, linear run, area, count marker, zone and AoI turns with it and still sits on the symbol it marks. Scale, calibration, database links and group settings are untouched, and the rotation is saved with the drawing so it looks the same when you or a colleague reopen it.

Image exports (Export Image (.png) and (.pdf)) are rendered at the current rotation, so rotate first if you want upright sheets in the output.

Rotation and the vector takeoff tools

Auto Takeoff, Auto Linear (sample one line) and Auto Detect (pick line patterns) read line work from the drawing's own data, and they need the drawing to sit at the orientation it had when it was first opened. Rotating a drawing after that first open disables these tools with the tooltip Rotate the file back to its uploaded orientation first. Rotate back by the same number of steps and they return. Symbol counting, manual measurements and everything else keep working at any rotation.

Common issues

There is no Actions menu in the workspace toolbar

You are in Review mode, where the toolbar shrinks to export only. Expand the sidebar to return to Takeoff mode, then open Actions. See Takeoff and Review modes.

The drawing came in sideways even though auto-rotate is on

Auto-rotate reads the text of vector PDFs only. Scanned PDFs are judged on the server, and a sheet with very little text may not be turned. Rotate it by hand from its menu.

Next steps

• Supported file types — the automatic upright rotation on upload and how to switch it off.
• Organising with categories — the other controls on the category header.
• Auto Takeoff from one sample — the tools that need the uploaded orientation.
• The Actions menu — everything else in the workspace Actions menu.