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Creating ArcSite Shapes
Creating ArcSite Shapes
Updated over 7 months ago

Reusable Shapes are great for quickly adding consistent visual information for objects that will repeatedly appear in your work.

You can even create a shared shape library that everyone in your organization can use.

Sections Below

Creating Your Own Shapes

You can create a shape in a couple of different ways.

  1. Draw something onscreen

  2. Drop a shared shape (not saved as yours yet) on the screen

  3. Bring in a photo into your canvas

Save the Shape

  1. Select an object(s) on canvas

  2. Tap the Create Shapes icon that appears on the lower left corner of the canvas

  3. Provide a Name

  4. Optionally you can choose to remember it’s size and unit, add editable labels, and define snapping points.

  5. Tap Create button to finalize

Objects that cannot be included in a shape are:

  • Measurements / Dimensions

  • Text Callouts

  • Wall Segments

Once you have saved a shape, it will appear in the “My Shapes” tab of the shapes pane.

Adding and Removing ArcSite Shape Libraries

ArcSite has constantly expanding sets of Pre-made Shape Libraries that you can add with just a few clicks. These libraries are broken down into logical categories to help you determine if they would be useful to you.

You can also remove these libraries, again with just a few clicks.

Editing Existing Shapes

Once a shape has been added to the screen, it can be modified in a number of ways.

NOTES

  • The changes you make to the Shape will not affect the saved shape.

  • You can break apart a shape to do more elaborate changes

Make Some Changes But Keep the Shape Intact:

You can make some changes to a shape on-screen without having to save as a new shape.

Changes possible are:

  • Change its length and height by tapping on its Shown measurements

  • Scaling it proportionally by pressing and dragging from one of its corners

  • Opening the Style panel to change color, line width and line type

Saving at a Specific Size and Unit

Toggle on the Remember Size and Unit option to have the shapes appear at the same size every time.

Shapes that have their size and unit saved (see note above), will have a visual indicator in the top right corner as shown below.

shapes_saved_w_and_wout_units.png

Adding Snapping Points

Snapping points allow a shape to always snap to other onscreen objects in a specific way. This is useful for quickly placing them without having to work on exact placement.

There are two ways of add snapping points

  1. Add while creating a Shape

  2. Add to existing Shapes

Add Snapping Points while creating a shape

During the creation process, you:

  1. open the New Shape dialog

  2. At the bottom of the dialog tap on Edit Snapping Points

snap5.png

3. Tap anywhere you want add a snapping point.

snap7.png

4. Tap Done in the top left corner

5. Finish saving the shape

Add Snapping Points to an existing shape

  1. Open the Shape Panel

  2. Navigate to the My Shapes tab. To add snapping points, you must have saved it to your own set of shapes first.

  3. Tap on Edit icon in top right corner to enter the Edit Mode

  4. Tap on a shape to select

  5. Tap on Add Snapping Point icon in top left

tap_edit_to_enter_mode.png
pick.png

3. Tap anywhere you want add a snapping point.

snap2.png

4. Tap Done in the top left corner

5. Finish saving the shape

Remove Snapping Points

Remove snapping points in one of two ways.

1. If just added, tap the Undo icon in the top left corner

undo_last.png

2. By selecting it and tapping the Delete icon in the lower left corner.

delete_point.png

Break a Shape Apart

By breaking the shapes into its original individual parts, you can make any change you would like.

However, while the original saved shape is still available from the Shapes panel, the changed shape is no longer related to the original shape and must be saved as a separate shape to use again later.

Add Editable Text to a Shape

Create shapes that allow you to perform several text related options when drop on the canvas. A great way to create and make consistent items such as; title blocks, standard Q and A's, etc.

  • Type in specific text

  • Pre-populate a field with specific text

  • Pull information entered in the Project Information section ( on Essentials and Enterprise subscription level only)

Delete Shapes

  1. Open Shapes Panel

  2. Tap Edit button in bottom right corner, to enter the Edit mode

  3. Tap to mark one or more shapes you want to delete

  4. Tap the Delete icon at bottom of panel (Looks like a trash can)

  5. Tap "Delete Shape".

Note – Custom shapes functionality is not available at the Basic subscription level.

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