Drawing Tools

Open the Drawing tools drop-down list at Comments > Markup > Draw Tools to access drawing tools. After choosing a tool and drawing the shape a note box appears where text relating to the shape can be entered. If a two-dimensional shape is drawn over existing text, this appears in the note. Use, delete or modify it as desired.

The pictures show typical results of drawing objects. Choose from the following tools:

Line

Choose this tool, click and keep the left mouse button pressed to start drawing a line. Release the mouse to finish Select a line and use Properties from its shortcut menu to define line thickness, color and, if desired, a line ending shape. To resize or rotate a line, choose the Hand tool from the top of the Panel bar, click the line, then hover the mouse over its endpoint to get a four-headed arrow cursor and start transforming.

Rectangle

Select this tool, click and keep the left mouse button pressed to start drawing a rectangle; move from its top-left corner to its bottom-right one, then release the mouse. To scale a rectangle, choose the Hand tool and hover the mouse over any corner to get this a two-headed arrow cursor and do the transformation.

Pencil

Choose this tool then click to draw freehand lines on the PDF. Use the eraser to remove any part of a freehand line.

Oval

picture of circle and oval

Select this tool, click and drag with the left mouse button to draw an oval or a circle. Select it with the Hand tool to resize it.

Polygon

pictures of closed and open polygons

Select this tool, then click to start drawing a line, click again to draw more connected lines. To connect your last and first sides to complete the polygon, double-click, or right-click and choose Complete. See also Hammer below.

Polygon Line

Select this tool and click to start drawing a polygonal line. Set angles by clicking again. To finish, double-click with the tool, or right-click and choose Complete. A polygon line is not a closed shape – it is a set of connected straight lines. See the illustration on the right above. See also Hammer below on adding or removing angles.

Cloud

picture of cloud drawing item

Select this tool and click repeatedly to draw a polygon. Double-click to finish it, the cloud appears in the shape of the polygon.

Eraser

Select this, click and keep the left mouse button pressed to erase part or all of a freehand line drawn with the Pencil tool.

Hammer

This tool works only with polygons or polygon lines. Click with the hammer on any angle to remove it and have the two neighboring sides reduced to one. Resulting polygons must have at least 3 sides. Click with the hammer at any point on a polygon side and drag this point to a new location to change one side into two.

Comment Format ribbon

The Comment Format ribbon activates in case any object selected. You may change object properties on the Comment Format ribbon or by using the object properties dialog box, as described below.

Properties

Select the Hand tool and right-click on any edge of a drawing object for its shortcut menu. Choose Properties to modify object appearance, view its revision history, or redefine its Author and Subject. For more details on drawing object properties, see Annotation and Markup Object Properties.

Select Set Status to change the Review status of a drawing object. To pass judgment on the review status, select Migration. (For details see the Comments panel.) Choose Reply to add a Note to the object, or Set Appearance as Default Properties to use the current object’s properties as the norm for all newly drawn objects of the same type.

Note

You can add lines or polygons that show screen or scaled measurements.

Drawing objects can be changed from annotations to document objects by flattening the document.