The Drawing Tools allow you to add survey items such as points, polylines (breaklines), or boundaries to your project. You can use these survey items to create a topographic surface or export them into a CAD format to use in CAD. Virtual Surveyor includes tools to move or copy drawn geometries. The drawing tools are available in the Drawing group of the HOME tab.

Drawing Tools in the HOME tab

Drawing Tools in the Mini Toolbar

Right click anywhere in the Viewport.

Overview

• Drawing Tools
  • Point
  • Polyline
  • Arc
  • Boundary
  • Circle
  • Rectangle
• Geometry Snapping with Drawing Tools
  • Disable Snapping while Drawing
• When to Use Drawing Tools
• Tips and Tricks 

Drawing Tools

You can change drawing modes through the dropdown menus. The Polyline and Arc tools are grouped in the same dropdown menu. Boundary, Circle, and Rectangle are grouped in another dropdown menu. The drawing mode you are using stays enabled (highlighted) in the ribbon until you disable that mode by right-clicking anywhere in the Viewport, or by clicking on the icon again. 

Additional Drawing tool modes. You can access the additional drawing modes by left-clicking the arrow below the drawing tool icon to see the dropdown menu options.

Point

1. Enable Point drawing mode in the HOME tab.
2. Left-click in the Viewport to add points.

Polyline

1. Enable the Polyline tool in the HOME tab.
2. Choose the Line Drawing Mode:
   • Free: regular vertex to vertex straight polyline.
   • Arc: curved polyline. Can be turned on/off while drawing to apply the arc mode to a part of the polyline.
   • Guided Breakline: semi-automatic topography line extraction.
3. Left-click in the Viewport to add polyline vertices.
4. Right-click to finalize a polyline.

Arc

1. Enable Arc drawing mode in the HOME tab (Polyline dropdown menu).
2. Draw an arc; an arc is defined by three clicks:
   • First click = arc starting point.
   • Second click = arc ending point. 
   • Third click = arc radius and completes the arc.

Boundary

1. Enable Boundary tool in the HOME tab.
2. Select the Line Drawing Mode:
   • Free: regular vertex to vertex straight boundary.
   • Arc: curved boundary. Can be turned on/off while drawing to apply the arc mode to a part of the boundary.
   • Guided Breakline: semi-automatic topography line extraction. 
3. Left-click in the Viewport to draw the boundary vertices.
4. Right-click to finalize the boundary.

Circle

1. Enable Circle drawing mode in the HOME tab (Boundary drop-down menu).
2. Draw the circle; each circle is defined by 2 clicks:
   • First click = point on the circle perimeter.
   • Second click = another point on the radius to complete the circle.

Rectangle

1. Enable Rectangle drawing mode in the HOME tab (Boundary drop-down menu).
2. Draw the rectangle; each rectangle is defined by 3 clicks:
   • First click = one of the rectangle's corners.
   • Second click = first rectangle dimension. 
   • Third click = second rectangle dimension and completes the rectangle.

Geometry Snapping with Drawing Tools

The Geometry Snapping feature allows you to accurately connect existing geometry together. When moving a vertex using any of the Edit Vertex Modes, geometry snapping happens by default.

How snapping works. Geometry Snapping always takes preference when drawing points or geometries. E.g. a purple circle will appear on any geometry that is in your drawing path, and your vertex will first snap to the nearby geometry rather than place itself on the terrain. Simply left click when the purple circle or dot appears to snap to that existing vertex or geometry.

Disable Snapping while Drawing

Snapping is designed to streamline your workflow and make it easier to connect drawings and create clean surfaces, but you can switch to free placement whenever necessary. When drawing a polyline or point over geometric drawings, press and hold Ctrl to temporarily disable snapping.

When to Use Drawing Tools

• Creating CAD files: Use the drawing tools to place survey items on your drone data and export those items as CAD files.
  

• Drawing curbs and gutters: Combine the Offset Line and Move/Copy tools with the Polyline and Arc tools for tracing curbs and gutters.
  

• Drawing breaklines and creating a TIN: Use the Polyline tool to draw breaklines. Polylines are usually required for mine surveys and are very useful for creating a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN).
  

Tips and Tricks 

• You can always edit your drawn or imported lines via the TOOLS tab when an item is selected. 
  • Click on the Edit Vertex button in the TOOLS tab to begin your edit modes.
• Drawn geometry vertices are draped on the Elevation Terrain, and you can edit the vertices of a geometry if you want them all to be on the same elevation. 
  • Draw the geometry with one of the tools described in this article. 
  • Select the object and enable the Edit Vertex tool in the TOOLS tab. 
  • Set the Edit Vertex Mode to Z. 
  • Select each vertex to edit using Ctrl+Left-click and manually set the Z value in the item menu box.