Draw Settings

TOTAL Sketch's sketch settings control line styles for Free‑form Lines and Area Lines, dimension defaults, and a variety of other visual cues in the sketcher.

Line Settings

The Free‑form Lines sections allow you to customize TOTAL Sketch's default line style for each type of wall. To adjust your free‑form line and area line styles:

  1. From TOTAL Sketch's Preferences, click the Draw tab.

    The Show dimension input panel when line is less than # ft. option only appears when Pen Mode is activated on the tablet version of Windows.
  2. Adjust your line color and style settings for Free‑form Lines in your sketch. Settings include:
    Color
    Click the color menu to select a color.
    Opacity
    Use the slider to increase or decrease the transparency of your free‑form lines.
    Style
    Choose between various solid, dashed, and dotted line styles
    Width
    Use the slider to increase or decrease line width.
  3. When you're finished, click OK to save your changes.

Default Text Settings

The Default Text section allows you to change the font family, font size, and color of labels in TOTAL Sketch. To change the default label style:

  1. From TOTAL Sketch's Preferences, click the Draw tab.
  2. In the Default Text section, adjust your settings. Settings include:
    Font
    Controls the default font family for text labels that appear throughout your sketch.
    Size
    Controls the default font size for text labels that appear throughout your sketch.
    Color
    Controls the default font color for text labels that appear throughout your sketch.
  3. When you're finished, click OK to save your changes.

Other Settings

In addition to the basic line and label font settings, there are a few other options you can adjust on the right:

  1. From TOTAL Sketch's Preferences, click the Draw tab.
  2. Check or uncheck the desired options. Options include:
    Show Pop Points
    Pop points assist you in drawing your sketches by offering clickable points as you draw. These points automate the drawing process by allowing you to draw lines that match up with other lines and intersections in your sketch. By default, TOTAL Sketch enables these pop points, but you can disable them by unchecking this box.
    Auto Scroll
    If you draw your sketches with a keyboard, TOTAL Sketch assists you in scrolling your sketch as you draw lines. Specifically, if the line you are drawing is longer than the amount of space that is currently displayed on screen, TOTAL Sketch automatically scrolls the view of your sketch to grant you more drawing space. By default, this option is enabled, but you can disable it by unchecking this box.
    Auto Resize Dimension Labels
    TOTAL Sketch automatically scales the size of your dimension labels to fit the space available in your sketch. This feature is on by default, but you can uncheck this box to manually adjust the size of your dimension labels.
    Prompt for area definition when area is created
    When closing an area, TOTAL Sketch prompts you choose an area type. By default, TOTAL Sketch enables this option, but if you prefer to draw your entire sketch and label each area once the sketch is complete, you can disable this option by unchecking the box.
    Show dimensions for free‑form lines
    By default, TOTAL Sketch hides the dimension labels for free‑form lines. If you'd like to display them in your sketch, just check this box.
    Show area name and calculations
    TOTAL Sketch can display the names and calculations for the areas you've drawn. By default, this feature is turned off (to keep labels and calculations out of your way), but you can enable it by checking this box.
    Automatically place dimension label after anchoring line
    By default, TOTAL Sketch automatically places line dimensions for you as you draw your sketch. If you prefer to manually place the dimension label each time you anchor the end point of a line, check this box.
    Show dimension input panel when line is less than # ft.
    With Pen Mode activated, TOTAL Sketch now presents the option to set a threshold measurement so that when a line is drawn and it is less than the measurement that was set, the dimension input panel will appear.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.