Annotations

Annotations are the drawn detail of a site: where you launch from, where the overhead cables run, which corner the livestock are in. They sit in named groups, and a group drawn on the project appears read-only on every job under it.

Before you start

Annotations are not permission-gated or plan-gated — they work on every plan for everybody in the organisation. Draw on the project when the detail is true of the site; draw on the job when it is true only of that visit.

Steps

1. Create a group to draw into

   Open the project or job Spatial tab and use the Annotations group’s add button, New annotation group. Give it a Name and an optional Description. On a project, Share with organization decides who sees it: off, only you can; on, everyone in the organisation can view it.

2. Pick a tool

   Open Annotation tools on the map. Tools are grouped into Measure, Placemarkers, Areas and Linear. Placemarkers include Take-off / landing, Emergency landing, Pilot location, Observer location, GCP, Base station, Hazard (low), Hazard (high) and Note. Linear tools include Overhead cables, Access route, Railway and Plant / machinery route. Area tools — Emergency landing area, Flight volume, Hazard area (high), Hazard area (low), Livestock area and No-fly area — can each be drawn as a Polygon or a Circle.

3. Draw it and fill in the attributes

   Draw on the map. On finishing, a dialog titled with the tool name opens. Depending on the tool it asks for Radius (metres), Height above ground (metres), Note, Label and Color. Safety-critical types have their colour fixed: Safety-critical colour is locked for visual consistency. Select Save.

4. Leave the tool

   Select Exit tool to stop drawing. The toolbar’s label tells you what is active while a tool is armed.

Options

Manage what you have drawn

Select an annotation group in the Layers rail to open its inspector. The group header carries Show on map / Hide from map and Delete group — whose confirmation warns the group and its N annotation(s) will be permanently deleted. Inside, annotations are listed under headings that are the tool names, so all your Overhead cables sit together. Each row offers Move to group, Show annotation / Hide annotation and Delete annotation, and measured shapes show their derived distance, area or radius.

Clicking an annotation on the map reopens it for editing, with Note, Label, Notes, Height above ground (metres) and Colour, plus Delete.

Export a group

Select Export annotations on the group header and choose Download KML or Download KMZ. The filename is built from the project or job name and the group name, so exports arrive already identifiable.

What happens next

A job’s rail shows the project’s groups separately, as Project annotations, and they are read-only there — the footnote reads Inherited from the project — visible on every job. Edit it on the project’s Spatial tab. Use Open in project on the group header to jump across.

Troubleshooting

Nothing draws. No group is selected as the draw target. The rail’s empty hint says as much: Draw on the map to start an annotation group. Create or select a group first — the active one is tagged Drawing here.

A group cannot be edited on the job. It is tagged Project and inherited. Edit it on the project.

The colour picker will not change. The annotation type is safety-critical and its colour is fixed on purpose.