Tool chest and symbols

Label symbols like CAM / CR / REX, markup tools, Add to tool chest, company and personal chests, Bluebeam .btx import.

The tool chest holds ready-made tools: count symbols, measuring tools, label symbols such as CAM, CR or REX, and markup tools such as your company's red review cloud. It works like Bluebeam's Tool Chest and is in every Pro profile: the box button on the right rail, or Takeoff → Tool chest (Measure → Tool chest in profiles without estimating).

How to use a tool

Open the tool chest.
Click a tool. It is now armed: highlighted in the list, named at the top of the chest and in the drawing guide.
Draw on the sheet as usual: click each device for a count tool, click along the run for a length tool, draw the cloud for a cloud tool. Every new markup gets the tool's symbol, colours and subject (and, in estimating profiles, its takeoff item).
To stop, press Esc, pick another drawing tool, click the tool again, or click the × next to its name (at the top of the chest, and in the status bar in every Pro profile).

The Search tools box filters by name, family and type. With several trades (Plumbing & HVAC, All features) there are trade buttons as well. Any tool can also be armed from the command palette: Ctrl+K, type its name, Enter. The palette offers exactly the tools the chest shows in your profile.

How counts and lines finish is explained in Finishing drawings.

Company and personal chests

Company chests (lock icon): WOW Electrical, SET Plumbing, HVAC and Door Access & Security. They are read-only. Door Access & Security shows in every Pro profile; the others follow your profile's trades: Electrical estimating shows WOW Electrical, Plumbing & HVAC shows SET Plumbing and HVAC, Drawing review and Other trades show none of them.
To change a company tool, click its copy button (Copy to My tools) and change your copy. Library admins can edit company chests directly after ticking Library admin at the bottom of the panel.
My tools is your personal chest. New tools and tools made with Add to tool chest… go there unless you pick another chest.
Imported chests (from Bluebeam or JSON) always show, in every Pro profile, and can be edited.

Buttons at the top of the panel: Import tool chest (.btx / JSON) (upload), Export library (JSON) (download) and New tool (+). Each chest's header has New tool, Export JSON and Delete tool chest (company chests can't be deleted unless you are library admin).

How to make a tool

Click + (New tool). The tool editor asks for:

Name and Measure: Count, Polylength, Length, Area, Perimeter, or Markup tool (no quantity).
Trade, Family, Type and Spec (for counts and measurements), Subject.
Color. For counts also Symbol (Shape / Label / Image…) and Symbol size.
In estimating profiles also Qty per click, Class, Assembly, Waste %, Shared and Mounting height (mm); electrical runs also Wiring per segment and Schematic.
Chest: where the tool is saved.

Click OK to save.

Label symbols (CAM, CR, REX…)

Device plans for access control, security or low-voltage often use a short code in a box. To make one:

New tool, Measure = Count.
Symbol → Label. Type the code (up to 16 characters, e.g. CAM).
Pick the outline: Box, Rounded box, Circle, Hexagon, Diamond or Text only.
Choose the border colour (Color), Text color, Fill (or none) and Symbol size.
OK, arm it and click on the drawing.

Each click drops the label. Like Revu, no count number is printed beside a label symbol, and the label has the same size on screen and in the saved PDF.

Shape gives a filled circle, square, diamond, triangle, hexagon, star, cross or x in the tool's colour. Image… lets you pick a picture as the symbol.

Add to tool chest (right-click)

Style something once on the sheet, then reuse it, the same way as in Revu:

Draw a markup and style it: a text box "CAM" with a red border, a cloud with your colours and dashes, a count, a picture, a measurement…
Right-click it → Add to tool chest… (in every Pro profile; the Office profile has no tool chest).
The tool editor opens, already filled in:
- a text box or stamp becomes a label symbol (its first line, up to 16 characters),
- a count keeps its symbol, a picture becomes an image symbol,
- a length, area or perimeter keeps its kind and style,
- any other markup (cloud, arrow, rectangle…) becomes a markup tool.
Check the name and click OK. The tool lands in My tools (or the chest you pick).

Markup tools

A markup tool draws an ordinary markup with a saved style and subject, and no quantity: cloud, text box, arrow, line, polyline, rectangle, ellipse, polygon, pen, highlight or note. Use them for review standards, e.g. "Contractor · Cloud" in red with a dashed line.

In the tool editor: Measure = Markup tool (no quantity), Draws = the markup type, then the full style editor (font, colours, line style, arrowheads, fill, opacity).

The format bar edits the armed tool

While a chest tool is armed and nothing is selected, the format bar shows the tool's name and style. Changes apply to the next markups. In My tools and imported chests the change is saved into the tool. Company tools can't be changed: your edits last until you close the app, also when you arm another tool and come back to this one, and the company tool itself stays as it is (use Copy to My tools to keep them for good).

The Door Access & Security chest

Label symbols for door hardware, access control and security: ADO auto door operator, PB ADO push button, CR card reader, REX request to exit, DC door contact, STK electric strike, ML mag lock, INT intercom, CAM camera, C180 camera 180°, C360 camera 360°, OHG overhead gate operator, MD motion detector, KP alarm keypad.

It shows in every Pro profile (Drawing review, every estimating profile, All features), from the chest and from Ctrl+K. Its items are still electrical items, so in the takeoff ledger they count under Electrical.

How to import a Bluebeam tool chest (.btx)

Export the tool set from Revu's Tool Chest as a .btx file, or ask the colleague who has it to send you the file.
In iCOS PDF: the upload button at the top of the tool chest, or Takeoff → Import tool chest (.btx / JSON). Choose the .btx.
A new chest named after the tool set appears. A message says how many tools were imported and how many were skipped or could not be drawn.

What comes across:

Count and measurement tools with their colours and symbols.
Drawing-mode symbols: grouped symbols are drawn from their own geometry; device text boxes become label symbols with Revu's border, fill and text colours.
Properties-mode tools (the Architect, Contractor and Engineer Review sets, My Tools…) become markup tools with Revu's colours, fill opacity, dashes and arrowheads. Revu's Callout and Cloud+ keep their own names.

The same button imports iCOS tool chests and libraries saved as JSON.

One chest: the download button on its header (Export JSON).
Everything (chests, assemblies, prices…): Export library (JSON).
Your colleague imports the file with the same import button.

Something unclear or missing on this page? Tell us