Annotating PDFs and drawings

A drawing only helps when everyone is reading the same thing. Wyroo lets you open a PDF or drawing right in the browser and mark it up: drop a pin on the spot that needs attention, draw a box around an area, and write a short note. The whole team sees the same marks, can reply, and can tick them off once they are sorted. It is the on-site equivalent of pointing at a plan and saying “this bit here”.

Note: Marking up files sits behind a feature we are rolling out gradually. It may be a preview on your account, or not switched on yet. If you do not see it, that is why.

What you can do here

A mark on a drawing is called an annotation. Each annotation has a short note attached, and people can reply to it like a small conversation. There are two kinds of mark:

• A pin: a single numbered dot you drop on one exact spot. Good for “this socket is in the wrong place”.
• An area: a box you draw around a region. Good for “this whole wall needs retiling”.

Each mark is numbered so people can refer to it (“see number 3”). A mark is either open (still needs doing) or resolved (sorted). You can:

• Add pins and areas, with a note on each.
• Reply to a mark to keep the discussion in one place.
• Resolve a mark when it is done, and reopen it if it comes back.
• Move a mark, or resize an area, if it ended up in the wrong place.
• Turn a mark into a card on the board, so a finding becomes tracked work.
• Download a flattened copy of the drawing with all the marks and notes stamped on it.

Pins and areas are saved as a fraction of the page, not as pixels, so they stay put when you zoom in or open the drawing on a different screen.

Marking up a drawing

1. Open the file from the project’s Files tab and choose to annotate it. The drawing opens full-page.
2. To zoom, use the zoom buttons at the bottom, or hold Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and scroll. On a touch screen, pinch to zoom. Drag with one finger or the mouse to move around a zoomed-in page.
3. Use the page arrows at the bottom to move between pages.
4. To drop a pin, click the Pin tool, then click the spot on the drawing.
5. To draw an area, click the Area tool, then press and drag a box around the region.
6. A note panel opens. Type your note and save it. You can make text bold or italic, and add a link.

To open an existing mark, just tap it. Its note and any replies appear in the side panel.

Replying and resolving

1. Tap a mark to open its thread.
2. To add to the discussion, type in the reply box at the bottom and send it.
3. When the work is done, choose Resolve. The mark turns from blue to lime, so a resolved point is easy to tell from one still open.
4. If the issue comes back, open the mark again and choose Reopen.

People who created a mark, and your company’s admins, can move it, resize an area, or delete it. Anyone who can contribute to the project can add marks, reply and resolve.

Turning a mark into a card

When a mark is real work that needs tracking, you can hand it to the board without retyping it.

1. Open the mark’s thread.
2. Choose the option to create a card from it (the small board icon in the thread header).
3. A short form opens, pre-filled with the note as the title. Pick the column it should land in, a type, and optionally an assignee and one or more roles.
4. Create the card. A link back to it appears on the mark, so you can always jump from the drawing to the work and back.

This is how a snag spotted on a plan becomes a task someone owns. For more on cards, see Working with cards.

How notes carry across versions

Marks are tied to the exact version of the file they were made on, so an old note never lands on a drawing that has changed underneath it.

When you upload a new version of a drawing, Wyroo copies the open marks (and their replies) forward onto the new version, so the conversation is not lost. Each carried mark is flagged needs review, with a banner reminding you to check it. The reason is simple: the drawing may have moved, so a pin that was right before might now point at the wrong spot.

1. Open the new version. Carried marks show an amber “verify position” note.
2. Check each one against the new drawing.
3. If it still points at the right place, confirm it. If not, drag it to where it belongs, which clears the flag automatically.

Marks that were already resolved are not carried forward, since they were done. You can still open a past version read-only to read its marks and history.

Tip: Resolve marks as you fix them rather than deleting them. A resolved mark stays as a record of what was raised and who closed it, which is worth a lot when someone asks later “did we ever sort that?”.

Tip: The downloaded copy with marks stamped on it is handy for sending to someone who is not in Wyroo, like a supplier. It also includes a numbered list of every note at the end.