When to use Import from Files
You have finished counting one floor of a building and the next floor uses the same symbols, the same ignored colours and the same sheet layout. Rather than capturing every symbol again, Import from Files takes the setup from other drawings in the project and applies it to the drawing you have open. In one step it can:
- run symbol detection on this drawing using the symbols captured on other drawings;
- create empty Linear, Area and Count groups matching the ones on other drawings;
- apply the ignored-colour masks from other drawings;
- load one AoI template and one zone template.
It works within a project only. The source drawings are every other drawing in the project, regardless of category.
Opening the window
- 1
Open the drawing you want to import into.
- 2
Click New Takeoff in the toolbar.
- 3
Under the Import heading at the bottom of the menu, choose Import from Files .
The item is greyed out unless the project has more than one drawing, because there is nothing to import from otherwise.
The four sections
The window is titled Import from Files. Each section is collapsible, with a chevron and a (n selected) counter in its header.
Remove Background
A switch at the top. Turn it on to apply Remove Background to this drawing as part of the import, so pale scan noise is stripped before detection runs.
Ignore Colours
Lists every other drawing that has ignored-colour masks, each with a grid of mask thumbnails. Tick a thumbnail to apply that mask here. The header has Select all / Deselect all links plus Smaller thumbnails and Larger thumbnails; each drawing also has its own Select all / Deselect all. If no other drawing has masks, the section reads No colour ignore masks found on other selected files.
AoI & Zone Templates
One alphabetical list of every AoI template and zone template in your company, each row showing the name, a paper-size badge and an AoI or Zone tag. You can select one AoI template and one zone template at a time; click a selected row again to deselect it. If none exist yet, Manage AoI templates and Manage Zone templates links take you to the template pages.
Marker Groups
Lists every other drawing that has groups, newest drawing first. Each row shows the group's colour, a small thumbnail (Detection groups only), a +N badge when the group holds extra symbols from merged groups, and the label. Detection, Linear, Area and Count groups can all be imported. Select all / Deselect all exist at the section level and per drawing.
Running the import
- 1
Tick the masks, templates and groups you want.
- 2
Click Confirm. It is disabled until the masks have finished loading from the other drawings.
If you chose an AoI template it is placed first, so it guides the symbol detection that follows. Zones and masks are applied next. Then a toast reads Running symbol detection with the note Matching templates across the drawing. Large imports can take a minute. When it finishes you see Import complete, or Import failed if something went wrong.
What you get for each group type
| Source group type | Result on this drawing |
|---|---|
| Detection | A group with the same label, colour and appearance. ZeroCount searches this drawing for the source symbol and fills the group with every match. The source symbol becomes the group's template, so Detect New Symbol works on it afterwards. |
| Linear | An empty group with the same label, colour, width and opacity, ready to draw or sample into. |
| Area | An empty group with the same label, colour and opacity. |
| Unit (Count) | An empty group with the same label, colour, marker size and opacity. |
Ticking groups with the same label on several drawings does not create duplicates: the results collapse into one group of that name on this drawing.
Detection quality depends on how alike the drawings are. Symbols drawn at the same size on drawings of the same type match well; a symbol captured from a much larger or smaller sheet may match poorly. Review the results as you would after any automatic count.
An amber note in the window may tell you that each group is rescanned a second time for better detection. That is why a large import takes longer; leave the window and carry on working elsewhere in the sidebar while it runs.
Import from Files compared with templates
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Copy setup from a sibling drawing in the same project | Import from Files |
| Reuse a standard set of groups across projects | A group template |
| Reuse zones or AoIs across projects | A zone or AoI template |
| Copy one new symbol to every drawing in the category automatically | Search all drawings in category |
Common issues
Import from Files is greyed out
The project has only one drawing. Upload the other sheets first.
A group I deleted on another drawing still appears in the list
Close and reopen the window, or reopen the drawing, so the list refreshes from the project.
Confirm stays disabled
The window is still loading masks from the other drawings. Wait for the Loading masks from other files... text to disappear.
Next steps
- Cleaning up the drawing — what Remove Background and Ignore Colours do before you import them.
- Detect New Symbol — add symbols to an imported Detection group.
- Takeoff on other drawings — how linear takeoff samples reach sibling drawings.
- Merging and deleting across drawings — tidy up groups across the project after importing.