Aligning puts a reference in the project's coordinates, so it lands where the building is. It happens in the file's editor, opened from the Library. Read Skeleton - sites, buildings, levels and coordinates first if BCS, PCS and CRS are new.

The drawing editor

The editor's Properties tab shows one reference at a glance: the Status rail (Draft, Aligned, Activated), the Mounts list with Edit, and the Flags: Aligned, Activate and Lock Transformation. Mask below them trims how much of the page is shown.

1. The file and the reference - which source file is open, and which reference.
2. The reference in the DRs tab - everything taken from this file.
3. The drawing - placed in its building's frame.
4. Status - Draft, Aligned, Activated.
5. Mounts - where it is attached; Edit changes that.
6. Flags - Aligned, Activate, and Lock Transformation (stops it moving by accident).
7. Close and Save - nothing is kept until Save.

Align a drawing

Drawings align on the editor's Alignment tab.

1. Choose the Coordinate Reference Frame (table below).
2. Choose how to place it: Direct placement (you set origin, scale and rotation) or Anchor-based (Solver) (you link points on the drawing to anchors and the solver works it out).
3. For direct placement, set the Scale: Metric, Imperial or Custom. Calibrate by picking two points works it out from a known distance.
4. Set the Origin: the point in the drawing that maps to Building (0, 0). Type X and Y, or use Pick on canvas. On the canvas, (0, 0) is where the red and green axes cross.
5. Finish with Mark as Aligned, then Save.

1. Coordinate Reference Frame - BCS for a building's floor plan, PCS for a site plan, CRS for a drawing with real-world coordinates.
2. How to place it - Direct placement (you set it) or Anchor-based (the solver works it out).
3. The solver's prerequisite - it needs an anchor in the chosen frame; Open Anchors panel adds one.
4. Scale - Metric, Imperial or Custom; calibrate from two points a known distance apart.
5. Origin - the point in the drawing that maps to Building (0, 0); type it or pick it on the canvas.
6. Building (0, 0) - where the red and green axes cross.

Which frame to choose

Anchor-based alignment needs an anchor in the frame you chose. Until there is one, the tab says Add a BCS anchor in the Anchors panel first (or PCS, or CRS) and offers Open Anchors panel.

You can fine-tune an Activated drawing's alignment later without losing its status or its published state.

Anchors

An anchor is a named point that alignment can be measured against. The crosshair button in the editor toolbar opens the Anchors panel.

Anchors are grouped by frame (BCS, PCS and CRS) with a count on each tab. PCS anchors are project-wide; the BCS tab has a Building selector, because each building keeps its own. + Add anchor in ... adds one to the frame you are looking at. Each row gives the anchor's name, coordinates and frame, and an eye to show or hide it; on the canvas, anchors are labelled markers.

With Anchor-based (Solver) chosen, you pick points on the drawing and link each to an anchor in the frame you are aligning in; the solver computes the transform. Anchors also let a building's origin be placed on a known point (Pick anchor in the Skeleton).

1. Anchors - opens this panel.
2. Frames - anchors grouped by BCS, PCS and CRS, with a count on each.
3. Add an anchor - adds one to the frame you are looking at.
4. Each anchor - name, coordinates and frame; the eye shows or hides it.
5. Anchor-based (Solver) - measures the drawing against these points.

Apply an alignment to other references

Most projects align the same plan over and over; a tower repeats one floor plate twenty times. Align one reference, then hand its alignment to the rest.

1. Open the aligned reference's menu in the editor (or the source file's menu in the Library).
2. Choose Apply this alignment to other DRs.
3. In the dialog, Source is the reference you are copying from; each row says Aligned or Not aligned. Under Target DRs, tick the references to receive it, grouped by source file, with Select all. A target already positioned is marked Aligned - will overwrite.
4. Apply.

Position, rotation and scale are copied; anchors are not; and targets must be the same kind as the source. A nine-page plan set becomes nine drawings: align one, apply it to the other eight, then mount each to its level.

1. The reference's menu - the three dots on the reference.
2. Apply this alignment to other DRs - copies this reference's position, rotation and scale to others.

Align a 3D BIM

BIM models open in their own editor. The left panel has Viewpoints, Levels and Work Area tabs; the top bar says which building the model is Mounted to; the footer repeats the mount, the working unit and the status.