PDF Annotation Tool
for Construction Plans
Mark up a sheet the way you would with a red pen, then send it as a PDF anyone can open: notes and callouts, revision clouds, shapes and lines, freehand ink, highlights and stamps.
How to Mark Up a PDF Plan
Pick a Markup Tool
Choose one from the toolbar, or press T for text, D for a cloud, O for a callout, or N for the last markup tool you used.
Set Its Look
Pick the color, size and outline in the tool panel. The tool keeps that setup for next time, in every project.
Place It on the Sheet
One click places a note or stamp, two clicks a callout, cloud or shape, and a polygon cloud goes point by point until you press Enter.
Export the PDF
Turn on Markups in the PDF export to print them on the sheets, and add the Markup list to repeat them page by page.
An RFI Marked on the Sample Power Plan
The four floor boxes in the open office of our sample power plan are fed from below. Note 5 calls for 3/4" PVC under the slab, and the circuit lines to them are dashed, the plan's sign for a run below the slab. The sheet does not say whether the general or the electrical contractor saw cuts the slab, which is a question to settle before the bid.
We drew a revision cloud around the four boxes, then a callout from the cloud to the question: Feeds below slab (note 5). Saw cut by GC or EC? RFI. A callout takes two clicks, the spot it points at and then where the text goes, and its note sits in a box unless you turn the box off. A FOR REVIEW stamp marks the sheet as still open.
All three went into a Markups group, so they hide and show together, and the floor box counts inside the cloud are unchanged: a markup points at the work, it does not measure it. In our PDF export the cloud, callout and stamp printed on the sheet, and the Markup list can repeat them page by page for whoever answers the RFI.
Takeoff Tools Built for Every Trade
From flooring to full ground up builds, measure what your trade needs and turn it into the materials you order, with assemblies for each trade.
13 Kinds of Markup, Plus an Eraser
Notes, clouds, shapes, ink and stamps, all editable after you place them.
Text and Callouts
Click to place a note; Enter finishes it and Shift+Enter starts a new line. A callout adds a leader: click the spot it points at, then where the text goes, and drag its handles later to move the note, the bend or the point. Double-click either one to change the text.
Clouds Around Changes
Cloud draws a scalloped revision cloud from two corners, and Shift makes it square. Polygon cloud follows any outline point by point, so the cloud can follow an angled wall or wrap a single detail; press Enter to close it.
Shapes, Lines and Arrows
Rectangles, ellipses and polygons outline an area, solid or dashed, with an optional light fill. Lines and polylines take an arrow or a dot at either end, and arrows run from one click to the next. Shift snaps the angle, and S snaps to the drawing.
Freehand, Highlighter and Eraser
Freehand follows your pointer and the highlighter lays translucent color over the drawing; hold Shift for a straight stroke. The eraser trims the part of a freehand or highlighter stroke you drag across, rather than deleting the whole mark.
Stamps, Preset or Your Own
APPROVED, REJECTED, REVISED, FOR REVIEW, PRELIMINARY and VOID, each in its own color, or a stamp with your own text. One click places it.
Reshape and Restyle
Everything but freehand and highlighter has grab handles: corners resize shapes and clouds, arrow ends move on their own, and every point of a polygon or polyline can be dragged. Select several markups to change their color or size together in one step.
Your Setup Follows You
Each tool keeps the color, size and style you last gave it, saved to your account for every project and device. A tool you have never set takes the color you last picked, except the highlighter, which keeps its amber until you change it.
Markups Belong to Groups
A markup goes into the active group, so it hides, shows and solos with that group and is deleted with it. Keep review notes in a group of their own to turn them all off in one click, or right-click a markup to move it.
What Markups Are Not
Markups put a question or a change on the drawing. These are the jobs they leave to other tools.
Markups Do Not Measure
A cloud around four floor boxes does not count them, and a line markup has no length. Markups print on the PDF, but the CSV leaves them out, because quantities come from the takeoff tools.
Freehand Has No Handles
Freehand and highlighter strokes cannot be reshaped. Trim them with the eraser, or delete them and draw again.
Shared Links Are View Only
Someone you send a share link to sees the markups but cannot add, move or answer them. Their reply comes back the usual way, and you update the sheet.
Notes, Not Tickets
A markup has no replies, assignee or due date; its status is the text you write or the stamp you place. Track RFIs where you track them now, and attach the exported PDF.
PDF Markup Questions
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