Module 13: Engineering Drawing Export

Engineering Drawing Export adds schematic pages to a Map PDF for visible polygon and line features. These pages show scaled outlines, dimensions, vertex labels, angles, and area or length summaries for review and documentation.

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1. What Is an Engineering Drawing?

An Engineering Drawing is an additional page appended to your standard Map PDF export. It renders each polygon or line feature as a scaled technical schematic for review, handover notes, and field documentation.

Each drawing page includes:

Element	Description
Scaled Outline	The polygon/line shape drawn proportionally on the page
Dimension Lines	Red lines outside each edge showing the side length in meters
Vertex Labels	Green circled numbers (1, 2, 3...) at each corner
Interior Angles	Red arc indicators with degree labels at each vertex
Summary Card	Area (m² and hectares), perimeter, vertex count, and side count
Coordinate Table	WGS84 coordinates for each vertex in compact format

Example: A field engineer marks a building footprint with 5 vertices. With Engineering Drawing enabled, the PDF includes the map page plus a schematic page showing the footprint outline, side lengths, angle labels, and a summary of area, perimeter, and vertex count.

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2. How to Enable Engineering Drawings

1. Navigate to the Map View.
2. Open the Export Map PDF dialog (Print/PDF button in the toolbar).
3. In the Map Elements section, check the Engineering Drawing toggle.
   • The toggle shows: 🏗 Engineering Drawing with a subtitle: "Side lengths, coordinates & area"
4. Configure your other settings (layout, title, legend, etc.) as usual.
5. Tap Generate PDF.

Note: The Engineering Drawing toggle is unchecked by default. You need to explicitly enable it when you want technical schematics.

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3. What Gets Drawn

Feature Selection

The system automatically selects features based on these rules:

Rule	Detail
Geometry types	Only Polygons, MultiPolygons, LineStrings, and MultiLineStrings are included
Visibility	Only features from visible layers are eligible
Viewport	Only features inside the current map viewport are processed
Maximum	Up to 10 features per export (to keep the PDF manageable)

If more than 10 eligible features exist in the viewport, a warning toast appears:

"Engineering Drawing: showing first 10 of 47 features. Zoom in for fewer features."

Tip: Zoom into the area of interest and hide irrelevant layers before exporting to control which features appear on the drawing.

One Page Per Feature

Each qualifying feature gets its own dedicated page in the PDF. A 5-polygon building complex generates 5 engineering pages after the map page.

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4. Reading the Drawing

Shape Outline

The polygon or line is drawn at the center of the page, scaled to fit within the drawing area. The aspect ratio is preserved — shapes are never distorted.

• Polygons: Drawn as closed outlines with slate-colored strokes
• Lines: Drawn as open polylines

Dimension Lines (Red)

For shapes with 30 or fewer vertices, dimension lines appear along each edge:

• Red offset lines run parallel to each edge, positioned outward from the shape center
• Extension lines connect each vertex to the dimension line
• Tick marks appear at both ends of each dimension line
• The length in meters is printed beside each dimension line, rotated to align with the edge
• Values ≥ 100m show 1 decimal place; smaller values show 2 decimal places

Vertex Labels (Green)

Each vertex has:

• A green dot at the exact vertex location
• A circled number (1, 2, 3...) offset outward from the shape center
• Numbers are ordered sequentially around the shape

Interior Angles (Red)

For polygons with 3+ vertices and ≤ 30 vertices:

• A small red arc is drawn at each vertex showing the interior angle
• The angle in degrees is printed near the arc (e.g., "90°", "135°")

Summary Card

A light-blue summary card appears at the bottom of each page:

For Polygons:

Metric	Format
Perimeter	meters (2 decimal places)
Area	m² (2 decimal places)
Vertices	count
Hectares	shown when area > 10,000 m²

For Lines:

Metric	Format
Total Length	meters (2 decimal places)
Kilometers	shown when length > 1,000 m
Vertices	count
Segments	count

Coordinate Reference

Below the summary metrics, a compact row lists the WGS84 coordinates of the first 6 vertices:

(1) 24.713400, 46.675200   (2) 24.713500, 46.675300   ... +4 more

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5. Page Header

Each engineering page includes a header:

Element	Position
"ENGINEERING SURVEY DRAWING"	Title (bold, top-left)
Feature name — Layer name	Subtitle showing which feature and layer
WGS 84 · Meters	Coordinate reference (top-right)
Sheet N	Page number within the engineering section
Gradient accent bar	Cyan-to-violet brand stripe across the top

The feature name is auto-resolved from properties. The system checks for name, title, label, اسم, الاسم, description fields first, then falls back to the first short string property, then to "Feature N".

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6. Complete PDF Structure

When Engineering Drawing is enabled, the final PDF contains:

Page 1:  Map View  (satellite image + legend + scale bar + north arrow)
Page 2:  Engineering Drawing — Building A  (polygon schematic)
Page 3:  Engineering Drawing — Building B  (polygon schematic)
Page 4:  Engineering Drawing — Road Segment  (line schematic)
...

Each page includes the standard Mapplex footer with generation date and page numbering.

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7. Tips for Best Results

• Zoom to the target area — Only viewport-visible features are included. Zoom into the specific parcel, building, or road segment you need.
• Hide unnecessary layers — Turn off background layers (reference zones, basemap overlays) so only the relevant polygons/lines appear.
• Use Landscape orientation — Wider shapes render better in landscape mode, giving more horizontal drawing space.
• Keep shapes simple — Shapes with more than 30 vertices skip dimension lines and angle arcs (the outline and summary card still render). Simplify complex shapes before export.
• Name your features — Features with a name or title property get meaningful page headers instead of "Feature 1".
• Check the summary card — Area and perimeter values are calculated from the stored geometry. Verify critical measurements with approved survey methods.

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8. Limitations

Limitation	Detail
Point geometries	Not supported — points have no edges or area to draw
Max 10 features	To keep PDF size reasonable. Zoom in to reduce the count
Vertex limit	Shapes with > 30 vertices render outlines only (no dimension lines or angle arcs)
Coordinate system	Calculations assume WGS84 input. CAD-imported features must be reprojected correctly first
Multi-geometries	Only the first ring/part of MultiPolygon or MultiLineString is drawn
Legal/survey use	Use as documentation support, not as a substitute for certified survey drawings

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Previous: Module 12: CAD Manager — Import and export DXF files Next: Return to the User Guide Overview