Marking up drawings

Everything you draw in Notch is a live object — select it, restyle it, move it, or delete it at any time. Markups save as you work and are visible to everyone with access to the document.

The tool families#

The tool rail groups markup tools into flyouts:

• Pen — freehand drawing, highlighting, and whiteout.
• Shapes — line, arrow, arc, rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, revision cloud, and image placement.
• Text — select text on the sheet, plus typewriter text, text boxes, callouts with leader lines (Q), sequence numbers, a legend, dimensions, links (Shift+H), comment pins (N), and signatures (X).
• Measurements — lengths, areas, counts, and more (see Measurements & calibration).

Below those, the Tool chest holds the built-in libraries of ready-styled preset tools — Drafting, Wall types, Doors & windows, Materials, Furniture, the MEP trades, Civil, Landscape, and Construction: review stamps, drafting symbols and tags, line types, walls, doors, materials and hatches, and site tools. Pick one and it draws in its finished style.

Every tool you arm shows its Rotation in Properties, so you can set the angle before you place.

Styling markups#

Select any markup and the Properties panel opens with its appearance controls: stroke color and width, line pattern, fill, and opacity. What you see depends on the markup — a cloud exposes its scallop size, a text box its font, a sequence tag its numbering.

Hold Shift and click (or drag a marquee) to select several markups at once and style or delete them together. Moving, rotating, copying and arranging are covered in Selecting & editing markups.

Review status and tags#

Properties also carries a markup's Status — Accepted, Rejected, Cancelled or Completed — with who set it and when, and its Tags. Both show as columns in the worksheet, where you can filter and group by them.

Text markups and text on the sheet#

The Select text tool works on the drawing's own text: drag across labels or notes, then highlight, underline, strike through, or redact what you selected. The marks anchor to the glyphs, so they stay put.

For your own text, use Typewriter (click to type), Text box (drag a frame), or Callout (a text box with a leader arrow you can point at anything). Sequence drops the next number or letter of a running series with each click, and Legend draws a key of the measurements, markups or symbols on the sheet.

Comment pins and links#

• Comment (N) drops a pin with a note — good for questions and punch-list items. The note text lives in the Properties panel. For a conversation with replies and @mentions, use the Discussion panel instead — see Comments & discussion.
• Link (Shift+H) makes a hotspot that jumps to a URL, another page, or another markup. Double-click a link on the canvas to follow it.

Layers#

Every markup sits on a layer. The Layers panel groups your markups, toggles their visibility, and is where you add layers to separate trades, review rounds, or authors. Measurements and overlays nest under layers too. See Organizing with layers.

Stamps and signatures#

Review stamps live in the Tool chest's Drafting library; your team's own stamps and saved tools are covered in Stamps, custom tools & signatures. Signatures are personal: create one from the Text flyout (draw it or type it), and it's saved to your account for one-click placement on any document.

History and undo#

Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z undo and redo, and the History panel lists your edits this session, grouped by time — click any entry to jump the document back to that point. Your markups themselves persist even after the session history resets.