Annotations

Write notes on a floor or ceiling plan, point at things with leaders that carry text, a numbered tag bubble or a symbol (one of fifteen built-in outlet symbols or one of your DXF symbols), and write distances on the plan with dimensions.

An annotation is a mark that explains the plan. It is not equipment, so it never appears in the equipment list. There are three kinds. A text note is a block of text placed anywhere on the plan. A leader is a line with an arrowhead at one end and a label at the other: the arrowhead points at something on the plan, and the label says what it is. A dimension writes a distance on the plan, such as the length of a wall, the way a printed construction drawing does: a line with an arrowhead at each end, drawn beside the two points it measures, and the distance written just beside it, such as 12' 6" for 12 feet 6 inches (see Add a dimension below).

Where the controls live

The ribbon is the row of tool buttons across the top of the drawing, sorted into labelled groups. Its ANNOTATE group sits between TOOLS and OBJECTS. It holds three controls:

• Text - places a text note
• Multileader - a large button that turns on the Leader tool in the current style. A leader's style is what it carries at the end away from the arrowhead: text, a tag bubble, a symbol, or nothing at all (each is described under Add a leader below). The current style is Text when the page opens, and its name shows on the small button under Multileader, such as Text ▾. Click the name to open four tiles, small buttons that each show a drawing with a name under it, one for each style: Text, Tag bubble, Symbol and Arrow only. Each drawing is a small leader that ends the way its style ends, and under the name is a second, smaller word, MText, Block or None, explained in the paragraph after this list. The current style's tile has a ring around it and its name in bold. Click a tile to turn on the Leader tool in that style; it becomes the current style until you choose another or reload the page.
• Dimension ▾ - opens a menu of two dimension kinds: Horizontal or vertical and Any angle

A multileader is AutoCAD's name for a leader that can carry text, a tag bubble or a symbol at its end. AutoCAD is the drawing program in which many construction drawings are made. The smaller word under each tile's name is AutoCAD's content type for that style: AutoCAD's word for what a multileader carries at its end. MText is text that can run to several lines (the Text style). Block is a small drawing kept as one piece, such as a tag bubble or a symbol (the Tag bubble and Symbol styles). None means the leader carries nothing at its end (the Arrow only style).

An object's label is the short text the object shows beside itself, such as a device's name, and the object's properties are the settings that the PROPERTIES palette on the right shows while the object is selected. The MLeader Style toggle in the properties of a device, or of an arc or rectangle from the Draw menu in the TOOLS group, gives the object's label a leader, so it makes a multileader of that label too.

All three controls stay greyed out until the plan has an image and a scale. You set the scale with Scale in the TOOLS group (see Calibration on the Drawing Measure page). They are also greyed out in Sheets view, the mode where you lay the plan out on printed pages, because you annotate the plan itself rather than the sheet. In Sheets view, hovering over any of them says Switch to Plan view to annotate.

Add a text note

1. Click Text in the ANNOTATE group. The status bar, the strip along the bottom of the tool that tells you what the current tool expects next, reads Click the insertion point.
2. Click the plan where the note should start. The insertion point is the top-left corner of the note's first line. A text box opens on that spot at once.
3. Type the note. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line.
4. Press Enter to place the note. Clicking anywhere else on the drawing, with either mouse button, also places it.

Press Esc instead to throw the note away. Esc also turns the Text tool off and returns you to Select. A note with no text is never placed. After a note is placed, nothing is selected and the Text tool stays on, so your next click on the plan starts another one. To change the note you just placed, press Esc to go back to Select, then click the note.

Add a leader

A leader takes two clicks. The first click sets the arrow point, which is the tip of the arrowhead. Put it on the thing you are pointing at. The second click sets the landing point, which is the far end of the line, where the label goes. From the landing point a short horizontal line runs on, called the landing line, and the label follows it. When the landing point is to the right of the arrow point, the label reads off to the right. When the landing point is to the left, the label sits on the left and ends against the landing line. A leader can also end in a symbol, a small drawing described under Symbol below, with text in three places around it (see Text around the symbol below).

1. Click the style name under Multileader in the ANNOTATE group and choose a style (described below), or click Multileader to use the current style.
2. Click the arrow point. The status bar reads Click the arrow point, and then Click the landing point.
3. Click the landing point.

What happens after the second click depends on the style you chose:

• Text - A text box opens at the end of the landing line. Type the label and press Enter, exactly as for a text note. If you press Enter with the box empty, the leader is placed with no label.
• Tag bubble - A tag bubble is a small outlined shape, a hexagon to start with, that holds a short code. The code ties the spot on the plan to a line in a schedule or a legend. A one-line box opens with the next free number already filled in: 1 for the first bubble on the plan, then 2, 3 and so on. Press Enter to keep that number, or type your own code, such as D-1. If you clear the box, the bubble takes the next free number.
• Symbol - A symbol is a small drawing that stands for a kind of device, such as the circle with two bars that marks a wall power outlet with two sockets. This style opens the Choose a symbol dialog, which lists symbols in two groups:
  • Built-in - Fifteen symbols that come with AVstackr. Each is a tile: a small button showing a picture of the symbol with its name under it. The tiles sit in three rows of five: the Wall symbols, then the Floor symbols, then the Ceiling symbols. They are the outlet symbols of a standard electrical outlet legend, the key on a drawing that says what each symbol means. Each name says where the outlet is mounted, Wall, Floor or Ceiling, and what it is: clock power (a single recessed power socket, such as the one behind a wall clock), duplex power (two power sockets), quad power (four power sockets), data (a network jack) or voice/data (a phone and network jack). For example, Wall data is a network jack on a wall. Each tile shows its symbol upright, the way the symbol first stands on a leader. An upright Wall symbol has its circle (on a power symbol) or its triangle (on a data or voice/data symbol) on top, with its lines running down: a power symbol's bars run down through the circle and below it, and a data or voice/data symbol's triangle points down, with a short bar across its point and a line running down from there.
  • Your DXF library - DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) is a common file format for drawings made in CAD (computer-aided design) programs such as AutoCAD. A DXF symbol is a drawing you imported from such a file with Custom > Import DXF/DWG... (see Import DXF/DWG Objects). This group lists your company's floor plan DXF symbols by category, one row each, with the symbol's width and height in inches. If none has been imported yet, the group says how to import one.
  The tile or row you picked last is highlighted, until you reload the page. Click a tile or a row: the dialog closes and the Leader tool is on with that symbol. Then click the arrow point and the landing point. The symbol appears at the end of the landing line, 1/4" on paper to start with (see Symbol size under Properties below). A built-in symbol stands upright, as on its tile, so a Wall symbol has its circle or triangle on top and its lines running down. A DXF symbol is drawn the way it was imported. Neither kind is ever drawn as a mirror image, whichever side of the arrow point the landing point is on. To turn a symbol, use Rotation under Properties below. A text box opens after the symbol for the text that goes beside it, such as an outlet number like D12. Press Enter to place the leader. If you press Enter with the box empty, the leader is placed with only its symbol. Cancel, or the × at the top right of the dialog, closes the dialog without starting a leader. If you close the dialog without picking, Symbol stays the current style, with its name under Multileader, and the tool that was on stays on.
• Arrow only - The leader is placed as soon as you click the landing point, with no label at all.

A leader is placed when you press Enter or click elsewhere on the drawing (Text, Tag bubble and Symbol), or at the second click (Arrow only). Once it is placed, nothing is selected, not even objects you had selected before you chose the tool, and the Leader tool stays on, so you can keep placing the same style. To change a leader you have placed, press Esc to go back to Select, then click the leader to select it and show its grips.

Stop placing

Press Esc, or click ESC in the status bar, to stop. Anything not yet placed is thrown away, including an open text box, and the tool goes back to Select. A right-click between the clicks of a leader or a dimension does the same. Switching between Floor and Ceiling, between floors, or between Plan and Sheets also stops the tool. A text box that is open when you click the switch is placed first, because the click lands outside the box.

Add a dimension

A dimension states a distance on the plan in the form a printed drawing uses. It is made of four parts:

• The two points - the two spots you click to say what is measured, such as the two ends of a wall.
• Extension lines - two thin lines, one from each point, that run out to the dimension line described next, so a reader can see which spots the distance belongs to.
• Dimension line - the line that runs between the two extension lines, set a little away from what it measures so that it does not sit on top of the wall. It has an arrowhead at each end: the mark that shows exactly where the measured distance starts and stops.
• Reading - the distance, such as 12' 6", written just beside the middle of the dimension line and turned to run the same way as the line. The plan works it out from the two points, so it is always the true distance between them. A white box behind the reading stops plan lines from running through it.

The gap between the two points and the dimension line is the clearance. You choose it with your third click.

The Dimension ▾ menu offers two kinds:

• Horizontal or vertical - the dimension line is locked square to the page. It runs straight across or straight up and down, whatever the angle between the two points. A horizontal dimension measures only the left-to-right distance between the points. A vertical one measures only the top-to-bottom distance. You do not pick horizontal or vertical in the menu: your third click decides (see the steps below). Use it for walls and rooms that run square to the page.
• Any angle - the dimension line follows the two points at whatever angle they sit, and the reading is the straight-line distance between them. Use it for a wall at an angle. When the two points are square to the page, the two kinds look the same.

For example, take two points that are 10 feet apart from left to right and 3 feet apart from top to bottom. A horizontal dimension between them reads 10' 0", a vertical one reads 3' 0", and an Any angle one reads 10' 5", the straight distance from one point to the other.

1. Open Dimension ▾ in the ANNOTATE group and choose a kind, Horizontal or vertical or Any angle. The status bar reads Click the first point.
2. Click the first point, for example one end of a wall. The status bar reads Click the second point, and a line stretches from the first point to the pointer.
3. Click the second point. Hold Shift while you click to keep the second point in a straight line from the first: straight across, straight up and down, or at 45 degrees, as with the Measure tool, the tape in the TOOLS group that measures a distance. The status bar reads Click to place the dimension line, and the finished dimension now follows the pointer so you can see it before you place it.
4. Move the pointer to where the dimension line should sit, and click. This click sets the clearance and places the dimension. With Horizontal or vertical, the dimension is horizontal while the pointer is above or below the two points, and it turns vertical when the pointer is to their left or right. With Any angle, the dimension line stays parallel to the two points on whichever side the pointer is.

After the third click, nothing is selected and the Dimension tool stays on, so your next click starts another dimension of the same kind. Press Esc to stop (see Stop placing above).

The reading is rounded to the nearest whole inch, and it comes in two forms. You choose the form with the Reading row of the dimension's properties, the settings the PROPERTIES palette on the right shows while the dimension is selected (see Properties below):

• Feet-inches - feet and inches, such as 12' 6". A distance under one foot shows inches only, such as 7". New dimensions use this form.
• Inches - inches only, such as 150".

When the reading is too wide to fit between the two arrowheads, as on a short dimension, it moves outside the dimension line, past one end: the right end of a horizontal dimension, the bottom end of a vertical one, and the second point's end of an Any angle one. The arrowheads and extension lines stay in view.

A dimension is not attached to anything on the plan. It measures between the two spots where you clicked. If you later move a device that a dimension measures to, the dimension stays where it is and keeps its old reading. Drag its point grips to the device's new place (see Change a dimension below).

On sheets and in every export, a dimension prints like the other annotations: its reading is the height its Size sets at 1/4" = 1'-0", as Plan view draws it (see Printed Size below). It also hides with them: in Plan view with the Annotations row of the LAYERS palette at the bottom of the right dock, and on a sheet, in one viewport (a framed view of the plan placed on a sheet) with that viewport's Annotations chip, a small toggle button above the sheet (see Hide Annotations below).

Change a dimension

With Select, click a dimension's dimension line, one of its extension lines or its reading. The dimension turns blue and shows three grips, the small squares you drag to reshape an object:

• Point grips - one on each of the two points. Drag one to measure to a different spot. The reading changes as you drag, and the dimension line stays where it is. An Any angle dimension's line turns as you drag, to stay parallel to the two points.
• Line grip - at the middle of the dimension line. Drag it to change the clearance: the dimension line moves closer to the two points or further from them.

Drag any other part of the dimension to move the whole dimension. A moved, pasted or duplicated dimension keeps its shape.

An override is text you type to show in place of the reading, such as VERIFY or EQ (short for equal). The dimension keeps measuring underneath it: the Measured row of its properties always shows the true distance. To type an override, double-click the dimension, or right-click it and choose Edit override…. A text box opens over the reading. It is empty while the dimension shows its measured reading, and it holds the override when there is one. Press Enter or click elsewhere to keep what you typed, or press Esc to leave the dimension as it was. To go back to the measured reading, clear the box and press Enter, or clear the Override row in its properties. An override of only spaces counts as empty.

Select, Move and Edit

Use Select to work with annotations you have already placed.

• Select - Click a note's text, or any part of a leader or a dimension. The selected annotation turns blue.
• Grips - A grip is a small square you drag to reshape an object. A selected leader shows two: one on the arrow point and one on the landing point. Drag a grip to move only that end. Drag the landing grip across to the other side of the arrow point, and the landing line, the symbol and the text beside and opposite it (see Text around the symbol below) move to that side, in mirror order: read outward from the arrow, they come in the same order as before, so on the left they run from right to left. The symbol itself keeps its orientation. It is not turned or mirrored, so a Wall symbol's lines keep running the way they ran: down, or whichever way the symbol's Rotation (see Properties below) turned them. Text above stays centred over the symbol. A selected dimension shows three grips (see Change a dimension above).
• Move - Drag the note, or a leader's line or label, to move the whole annotation. Copy and paste, Duplicate and Move work as they do for every other object (see Object Management), and a leader or a dimension keeps its shape.
• Edit the words - Double-click the text to open the text box over it. On a leader, double-clicking the text above or the text opposite the symbol opens that text instead (see Text around the symbol below). Double-click a tag bubble to change its code. You can also right-click an annotation and choose Edit text…, or Edit code… on a tag bubble. A leader's right-click menu also offers Edit text above… and Edit text opposite…. Double-clicking a dimension, or choosing Edit override…, opens its override instead (see Change a dimension above). Enter or a click elsewhere keeps the change, and Esc leaves the annotation as it was.

Clearing a leader's text and pressing Enter leaves the leader with no label. Clearing a note's text keeps the old text, because a note with no text has nothing to show. Use Delete to remove a note.

Text around the symbol

A leader can carry text in three places around its symbol. On a Tag bubble leader, the bubble takes the symbol's place. Each place is called a slot: a fixed position, worked out from the symbol, that the text keeps when you move the leader, when you drag its landing grip to the other side of the arrow point (see Grips above), and when you turn the symbol (see Rotation under Properties below). Each slot is named for where it sits as you read outward from the arrow along the landing line:

• Text (beside) - After the symbol, at the far end of the leader. This is the text the box asks for when you place a Text or Symbol leader. A Tag bubble leader's box asks for the bubble's code instead. This text can run to several lines. On a leader with no symbol, it follows the landing line, or the text opposite when there is one.
• Text above - A stack of one or more lines, each centred over the symbol. The bottom line sits a little above the top of the tallest of the symbol, the beside text and the opposite text. On a leader with no symbol, the stack centres over the beside text, or over the opposite text when there is no beside text, or else over the end of the landing line.
• Text opposite - One line, level with the landing line, between the end of the landing line and the symbol: on the near side of the symbol, opposite the beside text. The symbol and the beside text move further out to make room for it.

For example, a leader with the Wall data symbol, CUSTOM in Text opposite, D12 in Text and 2 in Text above reads, from the arrow outward: the landing line, CUSTOM, the symbol, then D12, with 2 centred over the symbol. A slot you leave empty takes no room.

Edit a slot

Select the leader first: press Esc to go back to Select if a tool is on, then click the leader. Then use either of two ways:

• In the PROPERTIES palette - Under Leader Properties, the first three boxes are, in this order: Text above, Text and Text opposite. In Text above and Text, Enter starts a new line, and the plan shows your change when you click out of the box. Text opposite holds one line: press Enter or click out of the box to keep it.
• On the drawing - Double-click the slot's text to open a text box over it. Double-clicking a built-in or DXF symbol, or the leader's line, opens the beside text. Or right-click the leader and choose Edit text above…, Edit text… (the beside text) or Edit text opposite…. An empty slot has nothing to double-click, so fill it from the right-click menu or the panel. In the Text and Text above boxes, press Shift+Enter to start a new line. The Text opposite box holds one line. Press Enter or click elsewhere to keep the change, or Esc to leave the slot as it was. Clear the box and press Enter to empty the slot.

Either way, a blank line at the start or the end of Text above or Text, such as the one left by pressing Enter (or Shift+Enter on the drawing) after the last line, is dropped when you keep the change, so it never pushes the text away from the symbol. A blank line between two lines stays, as a gap.

The symbol and all three slots print as Plan view shows them, on sheets and in every export, in the leader's colour, and they hide and show with the leader (see Printed Size and Hide Annotations below). Leaders placed before the slots existed look exactly as they did, with Text above and Text opposite empty.

Properties

Select one annotation to see its settings in the PROPERTIES palette of the right dock.

Text Properties (a text note):

• Text - The note's words
• Size - The height of the letters on paper: 3/32", 1/8", 3/16" or 1/4". New notes start at the drawing's Text size, which is 3/32" until you change it (see Annotation Defaults below). See Printed Size below
• Color - The colour of the text
• Bold - Heavier letters
• Rotation - Turns the note about its insertion point, from 0 to 359 degrees
• Mask - A white box behind the text, so plan lines under the note do not run through the words. On for a new note
• Layer - AV or Electrical: which view of the plan shows the note (see Which View Shows an Annotation below)

Leader Properties:

• Text above - The stack of lines centred over the symbol (see Text around the symbol above)
• Text - The text beside the symbol, after it. On a leader with no symbol it follows the landing line
• Text opposite - The one line between the landing line and the symbol
• Symbol - None, Bubble, Built-in or DXF. With Bubble, two more rows appear: Shape (Circle, Hexagon, Box, Triangle, or Slot, a rounded oblong) and Code. With Built-in or DXF, Choose… opens the Choose a symbol dialog with this leader's own symbol highlighted: click any tile or row, of either group, to swap the symbol. Symbol size sets how large the symbol prints, 1/4" to start with: for a DXF symbol it is the length of the symbol's longer side, and for a built-in symbol, whichever way it is turned, the diameter of its outer circle, the side of its square, or, on a Wall data or Wall voice/data symbol, the base of its triangle (the flat side opposite its point). A quarter turn is 90 degrees, one quarter of a full circle. Rotation, the row under Symbol size, turns the symbol alone, a quarter turn at a time: 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°. The symbol turns counter-clockwise, as AutoCAD counts angles: the opposite way to a clock's hands, so at 90° the top of the symbol has moved round to the left. A Wall symbol stands upright at 0°, its circle or triangle on top and its lines running down. At 90° its lines run to the right, the way a standard outlet legend prints it; at 180° they run up, and at 270° to the left. A DXF symbol turns the same way from the way it was imported. The leader's line, its arrowhead and its three texts never turn: the texts keep their slots around the turned symbol. This is not a note's Rotation, which turns a whole note clockwise, to any angle from 0 to 359 degrees. Swapping the symbol with Choose… keeps the leader's Rotation. If you switch Symbol to Built-in or DXF on a leader that has no symbol of that kind yet, no symbol shows until you pick one with Choose…
• Arrowhead - Closed, Open, Dot, Tick or None
• Size - The height of all three texts and the bubble's code on paper, from the same four sizes as a note. New leaders start at the drawing's Text size, as notes do. The arrowhead and the bubble grow and shrink with it
• Color - The colour of the line, the arrowhead, the symbol and all three texts
• Layer - AV or Electrical, as for a note

Dimension Properties:

• Type - Horizontal, Vertical or Any angle. Horizontal measures the left-to-right distance, Vertical the top-to-bottom distance, and Any angle the straight-line distance. A dimension placed with Horizontal or vertical starts as Horizontal or Vertical, whichever your third click chose. When you change the Type, the dimension line moves to suit it and keeps its clearance
• Measured - The distance the dimension measures, in its Reading form. You cannot type in this row. It shows the true distance even while an override is showing
• Override - Text shown in place of the reading. Leave it empty to show the measured reading
• Reading - Feet-inches (12' 6") or Inches (150")
• Arrowhead - Closed, Open, Dot, Tick or None, at both ends of the dimension line. New dimensions start with Closed
• Size - The height of the reading on paper, from the same four sizes as a note. New dimensions start at the drawing's Text size, as notes do. The arrowheads grow and shrink with it
• Color - The colour of the lines, the arrowheads and the reading. Black to start with
• Layer - AV or Electrical, as for a note

Which View Shows an Annotation

Each plan has two views, AV and Electrical. You switch between them with the Electrical row of the LAYERS palette, which sits at the bottom of the right dock and turns parts of the drawing on and off. An annotation belongs to the view that was showing when you placed it, and it draws at full strength only in that view. The Underlay row of LAYERS draws the other view's objects faded underneath the current one, and an annotation from the other view fades along with them. Move an annotation to the other view with its Layer setting.

An annotation also belongs to its own plan, Floor or Ceiling. It never appears on the other plan. Floor/Ceiling Underlay ghosts the other plan's objects in grey, but it leaves that plan's annotations out.

Hide Annotations

• On the plan - Click the Annotations row of the LAYERS palette. With its eye off, every text note, leader and dimension on this plan is hidden, any that were selected are deselected, and you cannot select one until you turn the eye back on. Each plan remembers its own setting. This row hides annotations in Plan view only. A viewport already on a sheet keeps its own Annotations setting, and the Floor Plan (PDF) and Floor Plan (PNG) exports always show annotations. One exception applies. A viewport you frame while the eye is off starts with its own Annotations chip off, so it hides annotations on the sheet and in the sheet export until you turn that chip on (see In one viewport below).
• In one viewport - A viewport is a framed view of the plan placed on a sheet at its own drawing scale. On a sheet, select a viewport and click its Annotations chip (the speech-bubble icon) among its Layers chips. A chip is a small toggle button in the sheet toolbar, the row of controls above the sheet in Sheets view. The annotations disappear from that viewport only, on screen and in the export. See Multi-View Sheets.

Printed Size

An annotation's size is a printed size. It is the height the letters have on paper, not a distance on the floor. A drawing scale says how much of the room fits on a length of paper. At 1/4" = 1'-0", a quarter inch of paper shows one foot of the room, so one inch of paper shows 4 feet, which is 48 inches.

In Plan view, an annotation is drawn as if the plan were printed at 1/4" = 1'-0". A 3/32" note is therefore 3/32 × 48 = 4.5 inches tall on the floor. The note is part of the drawing, so it grows and shrinks with the plan when you zoom, exactly as a note does in AutoCAD. The text box that opens over a note shows the words at the note's own size.

A label is the short text an object shows beside itself, such as a device's name. Every other object on the plan follows the same rule as a note. Device outlines, object labels, MLeader Style callouts (the callout a device shows when its MLeader Style toggle is on), a camera's field-of-view lines (the dashed wedge in front of a camera showing what it sees), a speaker's dB ring (the dashed ring around a speaker showing its sound level), the measuring tape, the 2' × 2' grid and the small details inside each symbol are all drawn as if the plan were printed at 1/4" = 1'-0", so the whole drawing zooms as one piece. Labels are drawn at the drawing's Label size, 1/8" until you change it (see Annotation Defaults below). When you zoom out, lines get thinner and details get smaller, as they would on a printed page held further away, and nothing appears or disappears at a particular zoom. Only the tool markers stay the same size on screen: the grips, the small squares you drag to reshape a selected object; the box you drag to select several objects; the REF diamond, the marker that shows which object the others line up to; and the point marker the Scale and Measure tools show.

On a sheet, a viewport (a framed view of the plan placed on a sheet) draws every annotation and label exactly as Plan view does, as if the plan were printed at 1/4" = 1'-0", whatever the viewport's scale. A 3/32" note is therefore 4.5 inches tall on the floor inside the viewport, as it is in Plan view, and it grows and shrinks with the walls when you scroll inside the view to zoom it. On the printed sheet the note is 3/32" tall only in a viewport at 1/4" = 1'-0". In a 1/8" = 1'-0" viewport it prints half that tall, and it prints smaller still when the view is zoomed further out. Labels, line widths, arrowheads and dashes follow the same rule as the note. The caption printed under the viewport's frame tells you the view's scale, and picking a scale from the Scale list in the sheet toolbar zooms the view to that scale.

Export › Floor Plan (PDF) and Export › Floor Plan (PNG) in the title bar (the top row of the tool, with Open and Save) print annotations, labels and every other object at 1/4" = 1'-0", as Plan view and every viewport draw them. A note or a label in these exports is the same size against the room as it is on screen, and every object prints as Plan view shows it, except that imported DXF blocks print in black.

Annotation Defaults

Each floor plan keeps two default sizes in the Annotation defaults section at the foot of the LAYERS palette, below the Grid row. Both are printed sizes, as described above, and each offers 3/32", 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4".

• Text size - The size a new text note, leader or dimension starts at, 3/32" to begin with. Changing it leaves the notes, leaders and dimensions already on the plan as they are. Change one of those with its own Size row.
• Label size - The height of every object label: device names, the labels on arcs, rectangles and measurements, the -9dB tag on a speaker's dB ring, and the Display Sizer's labels. It is 1/8" to begin with. Changing it redraws every label at once, on screen, on sheets and in exports.

Both are saved with the floor plan when you click Save, and the Floor and Ceiling plans share one pair. A floor plan saved before this setting existed opens at 3/32" and 1/8". Removing the plan's image, or switching to a plan with no image, leaves them unchanged. If you change Size in a note's, leader's or dimension's panel, the next one of that kind you place uses that size instead of the Text size, until you reload the page (see Your settings carry forward above).

Where Annotations Appear

• They print in the sheet PDF export (Export Sheet and Export All in the sheet toolbar), and in Export › Floor Plan (PDF) and Export › Floor Plan (PNG).
• They never appear in an elevation or a rack elevation frame. They are never in the equipment list that Copy Equip (in the OBJECTS group) copies to your clipboard.
• The alignment buttons in the ribbon's MODIFY group leave annotations where they are, even when they are part of the selection. Align V and Align H line selected objects up on the reference object's vertical or horizontal line, and Center Z lines up their heights off the floor (see Object Management).