Markup

The grouped toolbar, every markup tool, the format bar, Properties, comments, replies and status.

Clouds, text, arrows, shapes, stamps, photos and links on drawings and documents. The full toolbar is in every Pro profile (Drawing review, the estimating profiles, All features). The Office profile has a short set: Select, Pan, Highlight, Note, Text box, Pen, Rectangle, Arrow, Stamp and Sign.

The Pro toolbar has Select (V) and Pan (H), then one split button per group of tools, like Bluebeam. A split button shows the current or last used tool of its group: click the icon to use it, click the small arrow beside it to see every tool of the group with its shortcut.

Group	Tools
Text	Text box (`T`), Note
Pen	Pen, Highlight
Lines	Arrow (`A`), Line (`L`), Polyline
Shapes	Cloud (`C`), Rectangle (`R`), Ellipse (`E`), Polygon
Insert	Stamp, Field photo, Link, Table, Sign
Measure	Length (`Shift+L`), Polylength, Area (`Shift+A`), Perimeter, Count (`Shift+C`), Angle, Space, Calibrate

Further right: the Pages button (Organize pages, Combine files, Split, Insert file) and the Markups list button. The Markup menu lists the tools too.

How to start and finish each kind of tool (double-click, Enter, Esc…) is explained in Finishing drawings. Measuring tools are in Measure.

The tools

Text box: click (default size) or drag a box, then type. Click outside the box to finish (Esc or Ctrl+Enter also finish). Double-click a text box later to edit its text.
Note: click to place a sticky note. The Properties panel opens: type your note in Comment.
Pen: press and drag. Every release ends one stroke.
Highlight: drag across text to highlight it; the highlighted words are copied into the markup's comment. On drawings without text, drag a box.
Arrow and Line: click the start and the end, or press, drag and release.
Polyline, Polygon, Cloud: click the corners, finish with a double-click or Enter. For a rectangular cloud, press on the first corner and drag.
Rectangle, Ellipse: drag.
Stamp: with the Stamp tool active, open Properties and pick the Stamp text (APPROVED, REVIEWED, REVISE & RESUBMIT, REJECTED, FOR CONSTRUCTION, NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION, DRAFT, VOID) or type your own. Then click or drag on the page. Double-click a stamp to edit its text. Submittal stamps with reviewer and disposition are in Sheet sets, links and review.
Field photo: click where the photo belongs and choose pictures (on a tablet the camera opens). Up to 50 photos per pin; add more later in Properties with Add photos.
Link: drag a box, then choose the Link target: a page in this file, a sheet number (in the sheet set) or a web address. With the Select tool, double-click the link to follow it.
Table: drag a box, then type the rows in Properties (Table rows: one row per line, Tab between cells).
Sign: draw your signature, click Use this signature, then click the page. Your last signature is offered again next time.

Text box, Note, Stamp, Link, Table and Field photo go back to the Select tool after you place them.

How to select, move and edit

With the Select tool (V), click a markup. Shift+click adds or removes markups. Drag a box on an empty area to select everything inside it. Ctrl+A selects all markups on the current page.
Drag a selected markup to move it; drag its small square handles to reshape or resize it.
Delete deletes the selection. Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Y redoes.
Right-click a markup for Duplicate, Properties, Delete and more, depending on what you clicked and your profile: Add to tool chest…, Find similar symbols, Create RFI in iCOS…, Use as redaction area and others.
Hold Shift while drawing to keep lines at 45° steps.

The format bar

The bar under the toolbar changes the look of markups (View → Format bar shows or hides it).

With markups selected, it changes them.
With nothing selected, it changes the active tool: the next markups you draw use it, and the tool remembers it.
With a tool chest tool armed, it shows and changes that tool (see Tool chest and symbols).

What it offers (only what fits the markup type is shown):

Font: Helvetica / Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New; font size; Text color; Bold, Italic, Underline; Align left, Center, Align right (text boxes).
Line color (Border color for text boxes), Line width, Line style: Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Dash-dot.
Line start and Line end for lines, arrows and polylines: None, Open arrow, Closed arrow, Circle, Square, Diamond, Slash.
Fill (or No fill) and Opacity. More colors… opens the full colour picker.

These styles are saved the standard PDF way, so Acrobat and Bluebeam show the same fonts, colours, dashes and arrowheads.

The Properties panel

Open it with the sliders button at the bottom of the right rail, View → Properties, or right-click → Properties.

A markup selected: its measurement (if any), the Text, Line and Fill sections (same choices as the format bar, plus sliders), Subject, Content (text boxes and stamps), Comment, Status, Layer, Depth (volume) for areas, Author, Date, and extra sections such as takeoff fields, iCOS records or Private (left out of shared copies).
Nothing selected: the default style of the active tool. Type a name and click Save current tool to keep this style; saved tools are listed under Tool chest in this panel and switch to that tool and style with one click. For full tool chests with symbols see Tool chest and symbols.

Status

Every markup has a status: None, Open, Accepted, Rejected or Completed. Set it in Properties or straight in the Markups list.

Markup layers

Every markup has a Layer name (Default to start with). Type another name in Properties to group markups, e.g. "Changes" or "Electrical". The Markups list shows the layer, and review packages and slip sheets can pick markups by layer. The layers of the PDF itself (from CAD) are explained in Viewing drawings.

Comments and replies

The Comments panel (speech bubble on the left rail, or View → Comments) lists every comment in the file: yours, and those made in Acrobat, Foxit, Bluebeam or AutoCAD (including "AutoCAD SHX Text").

Group and sort by Page, Date, Author or Type; search; filter by Source (iCOS PDF / Other apps), Status, Types and Authors; Clear filters.
Click a card to jump to it on the page. Click a comment on the page to find its card.
Type in Add reply… to answer. The status drop-down on each card (Set status) marks it Accepted, Rejected, Completed or None (Cancelled for comments from other apps, Open for your own).
Comments made in other apps can't be edited, but you can reply and set their status.
Replies and statuses are saved as standard PDF replies, so other apps show them.
Export comments (CSV) writes the list for Excel.

The Markups list

In Pro profiles, the list button on the toolbar (or View → Markups list) opens a table under the drawing: Page, Subject, Measurement, Comment, Author, Date, Status, Layer.

Click a column heading to sort. Filter by text, subject and status.
Totals per subject are shown above the table.
Click a row to go to that markup. Change the status right in the row.
Export CSV (Excel) writes the list; File → Export markups CSV does the same.

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