Project Canvas layout

Partly availableSome of what this page describes is in DimSum today and some is still coming. Parts marked Coming are designed but not built yet.

The main working screen of a project: menu, main tabs, ribbon, Project Tree, canvas panes, Tools panel, Properties panel and status bar, all dockable and saveable as named Layouts.

Overview

The Project Canvas is where an estimator spends most of the day. It opens when a project is created or reopened. Everything is on one screen:

• the plans you measure on Coming,
• the tools you measure with (the ribbon and the Tools panel),
• the structure of the job (the Project Tree: levels, lowest first, then pages and tools),
• the numbers (the Properties panel for the selected item, and the Estimating tab for everything).

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Menu: File  Edit  View  Project  Reports  Window  Help                  [⚙]  │
│ Tabs:  [ Takeoff ]  [ Estimating ]  [ Reports ]  [ 3D ]                      │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Ribbon tabs:  Page | Dimension | Draw | Annotate | Takeoff | Extract | View  │
│ [tool buttons for active tab ...............................................]│
├───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────┤
│ PROJECT TREE  │                                          │ TOOLS         │
│ 🔍 filter/sort│              CANVAS                      │  ▸ Framing Pack   │
│ ▾ Basement    │   (1 pane, or 2 side by side or stacked) │  ▸ Roofing Pack   │
│   ▸ Page 1    │                                          ├───────────────────┤
│ ▾ Main Level  │                                          │ PROPERTIES        │
│   ▾ Page 2    │                                          │  (selected tool)  │
│     Ext Wall  │                                          │  Sub items / qty  │
│     ▸ Hidden  │                                          │                   │
│ ▾ Details     │                                          │                   │
├───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────┤
│ Scale 1/4"=1'-0" │ Snap ● Ortho ○ Cursor lines ● │ X,Y │ 250% │ Level: Main │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Where to find it

• Opens automatically after New Project Process → Create, on the lowest Plan Level (first in tree order, e.g. Basement), or when you open a .dsum file (on the last viewed page(s), zoom and split layout).
• The tabs sit under the menu bar: Takeoff | Estimating | Reports | 3D. The Takeoff tab is the Project Canvas. (Naming,: these are the Tabs; a saved arrangement of the canvas and panels is a Layout; Workspace is the company/license account with its seats, see Licensing.)
• The gear [⚙] at the top right opens the Settings page (also Ctrl+,).
• The command palette (Ctrl+K) runs any command by name. Universal search (Ctrl+F) finds anything in the project; see Search, Media & Attachments.

How to use it

Find your way around a newly opened project

1. Open or create a project. The canvas shows the current page; the status bar at the bottom shows that page's scale, snap/ortho state, cursor X,Y, zoom and Level.
2. Look at the Project Tree (left). Levels are listed lowest first (Basement → Main → Second → Roof, with whatever names you gave them), then the Details section, then Sides. This matches how. Click any page to open it in the focused pane; middle-click opens it in the other pane. See Project Tree.
3. If the page shows a ⚠ badge or banner, it is unscaled. Scale it before measuring: Page ribbon tab → Scale ▾ (K manual, Shift+K auto). The usual workflow is to Auto Scale every page at once, confirm, then fix the odd pages by hand. See Page tools.
4. Move between pages with PgDn / PgUp and between levels with Ctrl+PgDn / Ctrl+PgUp.

Use a tool from the ribbon

1. Click a ribbon tab (e.g. Dimension). The tool buttons for that tab appear in the strip below it.
2. Click a tool button (or press its shortcut, e.g. D for Dimension Line). The cursor becomes a crosshair with the tool icon and the status bar shows the next step ("Click first point — Esc to stop").
3. Left-click on the plan to place points. Backspace picks up the previous point, Enter or double-click finishes the shape, N starts a new section of the same tool, and Esc stops the tool. Right-drag or middle-drag pans at any time. Full rules: Shared tool behavior.

Use a takeoff tool from the Tools panel

1. In the Tools panel (top right), expand a loaded pack (e.g. Framing Pack).
2. Click a tool (e.g. Ext Wall 2x6). It is now armed.
3. If the tool has Prompt-on-Place properties, the Tool Settings dialog opens first; fill it in and click OK.
4. Draw on the plan. The new instance appears in the Project Tree under the current page and on the Estimating tab. See Takeoff tools.

Check and edit a selected item in the Properties panel

1. Click a tool on the canvas (or in the tree).
2. Read its live quantities at the top, then its properties grouped by category (General, Dimensions, 3D, Pricing, Custom…).
3. Click a value to edit it. For a formula, type it inline (e.g. {Item > Linear Total} * {Item > Height} / 32) or use the Property Picker to click properties into the formula; autocomplete and a live result preview appear as you type. See Formula language.
4. For a takeoff instance, expand Assembly layers and the Parts tree to see each line's Qty. Edit a part's Qty formula inline.
5. For the full editor, double-click the tool to open the Tool Settings dialog.

Bulk-edit several items

1. Select several tools (drag a selection box, or Shift/Ctrl+click).

Move a label on the plan

A tool with a label template draws its label on every item it places; a tool with none draws no label (Design a tool's label).

1. Drag the label to where it reads best, when its tool lets it be dragged. If the tool's leader is When the label is moved, a leader line now runs back to the item. One Undo per drag (Move label — Ext Wall 2x6). A plain click on a label selects its item.
2. To put it back, right-click the item → Reset label position, or Properties → Label → Reset label position.
3. To hide one item's label, Properties → Label → Hide (or Hide label on its right-click menu). To hide every label on screen, Markup ▾ → Show → Labels.

• A locked item's label can't be dragged. DimSum says so: Ext Wall 2x6 is locked — unlock it to move its label.
• Not yet: the pointer doesn't change to a move cursor over a label, and Esc doesn't cancel a label drag.

Select a joist or a beam on the plan

each joist and each beam is its own item inside its tool (joists and beams as items), and the plan follows.

1. Click a joist with the Select tool and you select that joist. It is drawn with the selection halo, the Properties panel shows it (J3 — Area 1 of Joist Tool, with its Joist Length and, for each value, whether it is the area's or its own value), and the Project Tree highlights J3 under its area. A click on a joist's edge, or within 3 screen pixels of its centreline on a thin joist, still counts as that joist. A click on the area's own outline selects the area's item, as before.
2. Click between the joists, anywhere else in the area, and you select the whole Joist Tool item, as before.
3. Click a beam and you select that beam: its Properties show B4 — Beam Tool, with its Beam #, Member Length, Ordered Length, Beam Qty, LF Qty and How (Rule 2, Default or LF), and its own Plies, Beam or Header, Beam Ends and Elevation Offset. Clicking a row in the tree under the tool also pans to it.
4. Esc, or selecting anything else, clears it.

Right-click a joist and it is selected first; the menu then has three entries, each one Undo:

• Remove joist. It is no longer drawn, labelled or counted, and it stays listed in the tree under its area as Removed — was J5, where Restore puts it back.
• Double joist, or Single joist if it is already doubled.
• Joist settings…, which opens Properties on its values.

These entries are greyed, with the reason, when the item is locked (Joist Tool is locked — unlock it first), except Joist settings….

Square ends, exactly where you click. A beam starts and stops exactly where you click, and a joist ends exactly at the area's edge: the band has no end cap, so nothing hangs past the point and nothing stops short of it. Two beams that meet at a point stay two beams: they are never joined into one outline. Hairlines (a plain Linear drawn with no real width) keep their rounded joins.

A joist or beam label is drawn on each one (the Label tab); the joist label is on by default, in black (the tool's colour was hard to read on the joist band), and neither can be dragged one by one

Joists and beams on the plan

• The break line. Every beam shows a thin dashed dark-grey line along it (6" dashes, 3" gaps), where the joists break: at its centre, or at a face (Beam tool). It sits above the beam's band and below the hanger ticks, can't be clicked, and hides with the beam. It's faint on a dark beam colour. A beam's band is drawn at its real Member Width.
• Hide a joist area's area or its joists. Right-click a joist area (or its row in the tree) → Hide the area / Show the area, Hide the joists / Show the joists, one Undo each. With the area hidden, its fill, outline, hatch and area label go, and a click inside it that hits no joist selects nothing (it isn't box-selected or snapped to either); its joists still click. With the joists hidden, the joists, rim, hanger ticks, joist labels and red problem rings go, and can't be clicked. Selected from the tree, a hidden area still shows its selection outline, so its points can be dragged. The tree says area hidden or joists hidden on the area's row. Quantities never change (Joist & Rafter tools).
• Hanger edges. Right-click a joist area → Hanger edges… (after Rim edges…). The status strip says Click the edges where the joists hang — click again to take it off. Enter or Esc when you're done. Each click turns that edge's hangers on or off, one Undo each, with the same edge highlight as the rim pick. Each hung joist end shows the short dark hanger tick (Joist & Rafter tools).
• Right-click a joist: for each end that meets no beam, Hanger at the bottom end: Auto / Hanger / No hanger (top, bottom, left or right, the way the end points on the page), the current one ticked.
• Right-click a beam: Detach from joists on a beam the joists attached to on their own too, and Attach to beam on one you detached.

Switch tabs

1. Click Estimating to see every instance in the project as a grouped, totaled grid (see Estimating tab). It doubles as the diagnosis tool for finding things placed wrong: every row has "Show on plan".
2. Click Reports to run or design reports (see Report Designer). Reports update in the background, so this switch is instant.
3. Click 3D to see the live 3D model (see 3D viewport).
4. Click Takeoff to return to the canvas.

Rearrange and save the screen layout

1. Drag a panel by its title bar to dock it on another edge, or drop it outside the window to pop it out (e.g. Properties on a second monitor).
2. Drag panel edges to resize; click the collapse arrow to shrink a panel to a strip.
3. Coming View ribbon tab → Layouts → save the current arrangement under a name (e.g. "Two monitors – takeoff"). Switch between saved Layouts from the same button. Details in Split views & Layouts.
4. Full screen canvas: F11.

Print a marked-up plan

2. Pick pages, paper size and legend options. The auto-generated legend has one row per takeoff instance: pattern swatch · instance name incl. its Report Section · quantity + unit (e.g. 59.0 FT) · color swatch. Which columns appear, their order, sorting and grouping are all settings. Protected pages are left out unless the password has been entered.

Options & settings

Screen areas

Area	What it holds	Notes
Menu bar	File, Edit, View, Project, Reports, Window, Help, and [⚙] Settings	File → Version History restores older saves.
Tabs	Takeoff, Estimating, Reports, 3D	Switch the whole main area. Named Tabs; "Workspace" now means only the company/license account
Project Tree (left)	Levels (lowest first) → Pages → Tools, Details, Sides	Project Tree
Canvas (center)	One pane, or two side by side or stacked, plus one pop-out window. The focused pane has an accent border, and each pane shows its page's name in a corner. Three or four panes, custom splits and the 3D pane come later	Split views
Tools panel (right, top)	The project's loaded tool libraries, each library as a root folder	Click a tool to arm it
Properties panel (right, bottom)	Selected item's properties, quantities, assembly layers, parts	F4
Media / Details / Attachments / Notes panels	Screenshots, saved details, attached files, notes	Opened from View → Panels. See Search, Media & Attachments. The Notes panel is later: notes are listed in the Project Tree, under their page
Status bar (bottom)	Scale · Snap · Ortho · Cursor lines · X,Y · Zoom · Level	Also shows contextual tool instructions and tips

Ribbon tabs

Tab	Tools	Documented in
Page	Select, Pan, Scale (Auto/Manual, region scales), Rotate, Straighten, Color On/Off, Text On/Off, Fade/Contrast, PDF Layers, Elevation Face, Overlay & Align (4-click), Face Align, Page Type (Plan/Elevation/Detail), Page Versions, Protect Page, Page Properties. Until the ribbon comes, Page ▾ in the canvas tool strip holds Rotate, Straighten, Color, Text, Fade / Contrast and the overlay's Overlay…, Overlay On/Off and Align overlay (4 clicks)	Page tools, Overlay & Align, Page Versions, Elevation Faces
Dimension	Dimension Line (aligned), Horizontal, Vertical, Chain/Continuous, Baseline, Angle, Radius/Diameter, Arc Length, Quick Measure, Quick Area, Quick Count. Until the ribbon comes, Markup ▾ (below) holds the Dimension Line	Dimension tools
Draw	Solid Line, Custom Line, Polyline, Arc, Rectangle, Ellipse/Circle, Freehand, Arrow	Draw tools
Annotate	Highlight (box), Highlighter (freehand), Note, Text Box, Callout, Stamp, Revision Cloud, Detail Callout, Page Link, Screenshot, Insert Image/Media. Until the ribbon comes, Markup ▾ in the canvas tool strip, after Page ▾, holds Dimension Line, Highlight, Text, Note, Cloud and Stamp ▸, each with its key (Cloud has none), then the Show switches. It's lit, and reads the tool's name, while a markup tool is armed; Select isn't lit then	Annotation tools
Takeoff	Linear, Area, Point + variants (Rectangle Area, Circle Area, Cutout, Segment/Continuous), Continue Tool, Quick Takeoff	Takeoff tools
Extract	Pick Line, Trace Path, Pick Region (auto-area), Import CAD Layer as Tool, Vector Snap On/Off	Line extraction
3D (only when a 3D pane is active)	View presets (Top, Iso, each Side), display mode, level visibility/explode, 2D-markup plane toggles, plan underlays, section box, 3D measure, vertex elevation gizmo, snapshot / screenshot	3D viewport

Mouse on the canvas

Action	Result
Left-click	Places a point (while drawing) or selects (Select tool). That's all it does while drawing.
Right-click (tap)	Context menu: Copy and Paste on a shape, and Paste on an empty spot, delete / properties…; on an empty spot, Fit page, 100%, Properties and Region scale, plus the page tools and the overlay's entries, and the Markup tools — Dimension Line, Highlight, Text, Note, Cloud, Stamp… and Show or hide markups…. On a markup: Properties…, its kind's own entry, Restyle to defaults, Hide, Lock and Delete; on a Linear or Area item, Show lengths / Hide lengths; on an item whose tool has a label, Show label or Hide label, and Reset label position once a label of it has been dragged; on several items, … on 3 items, one Undo; on a joist (it is selected first), Remove joist, Double joist or Single joist, and Joist settings…, plus Hanger at B1: Auto / Hanger / No hanger for each beam it meets; on a beam, Attach to beam, Detach from joists and Joists at this beam ▸; on a joist, Hanger at the bottom end: Auto / Hanger / No hanger for each end that meets no beam, and on a joist area, Rim edges…, Hanger edges…, Hide the area / Show the area and Hide the joists / Show the joists. The menu stays inside the pane; on a scale region's outline or chip, Change region scale… and Delete scale region
Right-drag or middle-drag	Pans the canvas
Middle-click alone	Nothing
Wheel	Zooms

Keys: number keys are never captured by the canvas, so 1/2/3 arm Linear/Area/Point even while a shape is in progress. To draw an exact length, press an arrow key to lock the direction and type the length in the dialog that opens (Space for a free angle) — see Shared tool behavior.

Status bar fields

Field	Shows	Interaction
Scale	Current page's scale, e.g. 1/4"=1'-0"; a ⚠ when unscaled	Clicking it opens the Scale dropdown
Snap ● / Ortho ○	Filled dot = on	S toggles snap, O toggles ortho (hold Shift for temporary ortho). What a snap caught is said on the canvas, not here: the marker carries the word beside it — Corner, Line, Face, End, Vertex or Midpoint (Shared tool behavior)
Cursor lines ●	Filled dot = on.	Click it to turn the cursor lines on or off — two thin lines, edge to edge of the pane, through the point your next click would land on (the snapped point), shown only while a drawing tool is armed or Region scale is on. Sits beside Snap and Ortho. It holds for the session; whether it starts on each launch is System Settings → Canvas & Drawing → Cursor lines start on, on by default. No key. See Shared tool behavior → Cursor lines
Ctrl note	Only while Ctrl is held during a Linear run with a Line Width: Other side (Ctrl) — the span being placed goes on the other side, on a new item or one carried on — or, on a Locked or formula Draw Side, Draw Side is set by the tool.	See Shared tool behavior → Ctrl draws on the other side
X,Y	Cursor position in real units at the page scale
Zoom	Zoom % of the focused pane	Ctrl+0 fit page, Ctrl+1 100%
Level	Level of the active page
Instructions	The armed tool's next step, contextual tips

Properties panel contents

Section	Shows	Editable
Live quantities	Key quantities of the selection (Linear Total, Area, Count…) updating while you draw/edit	Read-only
Property groups	All visible properties grouped by category (General, Dimensions, 3D, Pricing, Custom…)	Yes; values and formulas inline. Properties the tool locks are read-only.
Shape overrides	Per-shape overrides marked ◆ with "Reset to instance"	Yes
Vertices grid	X, Y, Z, mode for the selected shape	Yes
Assembly layers	Layers of the instance's Assembly with slot values and quantities	Yes (slots, on/off)
Parts tree	Each part with its Qty	Qty formulas inline
Attachments	Files attached to the selected instance or page	Add / open / remove

Two rows of the panel are not one property each. Line Width and Line Height share a row, with a ⇋ between them that says which of the two the 2D canvas draws; the other is kept, not lost, and {Width} on an item is its Line Width — one number with two names. A Colour is a wheel plus swatches with no hex box, and a number given both a Min and a Max draws as a slider — the same two editors here, in Tool Settings, on a designed form and in Place….

Related settings

Setting	What it does
Snap types and tolerance, ortho	Default snapping and ortho behavior. The types include box corners, faces and lines
Crosshair style, selection colors, handle size	Canvas look. Crosshair style's first real setting is Cursor lines start on
Default line weights	For new markups. each markup type's look — weights, colours, text sizes, on the sheet — is on System Settings → Markups (Settings page)
Mouse/scroll behavior	Wheel = zoom (default) or pan; trackpad gestures. Mouse buttons follow the familiar defaults above.
Theme (General)	Light / dark
	*Dropped — No show/hide list, no "Pricing Off" or "Quantities only" preset
GPU on/off, tile cache memory, background threads (Performance)	Rendering performance

Examples

• the daily flow: create the project (name + description = plan file name), upload the PDF, reorder and rename pages, Auto Scale all pages and fix the odd ones, then start at the Basement and work up. Arm "Ext Wall 2x6" from the Framing Pack and trace the exterior walls; the Properties panel shows Linear 142' 6" and the part counts as you draw. Double-check, print the marked-up plan, run the report, export PDF and the POS CSV.
• Two monitors: pop the page for the framing plan out to monitor 2 while drawing on the architectural plan on monitor 1, and pop the Properties panel out too. Save as the Layout "Dual".
• — dropped with the Properties Toggle.

Tips & shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Command palette	Ctrl+K
Universal search	Ctrl+F
Properties panel	F4
Settings	Ctrl+,
Quick Guide	F1
Full screen canvas	F11
Next / previous page	PgDn / PgUp
Next / previous level	Ctrl+PgDn / Ctrl+PgUp
Zoom fit page / 100% / to selection	Ctrl+0 / Ctrl+1 / Z
One pane / two side by side	Alt+1 / Alt+2. Stacked: View → Two panes stacked. Three and four panes (Alt+3 / Alt+4) come later, and those keys say so
Pan	Right-drag / middle-drag / Space+drag
Undo / Redo	Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y

All shortcuts are rebindable (Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts), with a "Familiar" preset. macOS uses Cmd in place of Ctrl.

Rules, limits & edge cases

• The 3D ribbon tab only shows while a 3D pane is active.
• "Compare" on the Page tab is replaced in v1 by Page Versions (view one or both versions overlaid); automatic change highlighting is v1.1.
• With nothing selected, the Properties panel shows the active page's properties (name, scale, level) rather than staying empty.
• Protected pages are hidden everywhere until unlocked — canvas, universal search, screenshots, 3D, "Show on plan" and printing — using the project's one optional password; their takeoffs still count (Search, Media & Attachments).
• Popped-out panels on a disconnected monitor return to the main window on next launch.
• One person per file in v1; simultaneous editing comes with sync later.

Related features

• Project Tree · Split views & Layouts · Page tools · Page Versions · Search, Media & Attachments
• Shared tool behavior · Annotation tools (Detail Callout)
• Property System · Settings page
• Estimating tab · 3D viewport · Report Designer · Marked-Up Plans
• Keyboard shortcuts