Create and Manage Private and Public Markup Layers in the Drawings Tool (Open Beta)

The New Drawings Viewer (Beta) enhances the existing Drawings markup experience by supporting PDF annotations directly in the New Drawings Viewer (Beta). Users can create private markups, which are visible only to their creators, and public markups, which are visible to all users. Appropriate granular permissions are required to create public markups. Users can also organize markups into groups, filter annotations, manage layer visibility, and download or share Drawings with or without markups.

In addition to markup, the Drawings tool supports document comparison enabling project teams to annotate cross-reference and compare files without leaving Procore.

• Required User Permissions:

  • 'Admin' level permission has automatic access to both the ‘My Markups’ (private) and ‘Shared Markups’ (public) layers.

  • Users with 'Standard' or 'View' level permissions to a document have automatic access to the ‘My Markups’ (private) layer, and Admin can give access to the ‘Shared Markups’ (public) layer with the following permission added by an Admin:

    • 'Edit, create, and delete public markup layers'

  • 'Read Only' level permissions or higher on the project's Drawings tool. 

• Bulk downloading with markups is not supported for Drawings tool files in this release.

• Private markup will be enabled for all the users with access to the Drawings tool.

• Admin cannot turn off user access to the My Markups layer. If a user has permissions to view a document, they can also add private markups.

• Promote Groups (One-Way): You can promote a group from private to public, but you cannot move a public group back to private.

• Permissions: You can promote a group if you have permission to do Public Markup. 

• Markup Modification Rules: No user, including admins, can edit or modify another user's private markups. Any user with permission to create public markups can edit or modify public markups, even if they were created by another user, because those markups exist in the public layer.

Create Markups

1. Navigate to the project's Drawings tool.

2. Click on the name of the document. OR 

3. Open the information panel and click the Preview icon to launch the New Drawings Viewer (Beta). 

4. Click Add Markup or Layers icon on the left markup side panel.

5. This displays the My Markups section, which contains My Markups (private) and Shared Markups (public) layers:

   • My Markups: These markups are created by you and are private and visible only to you. Even the Admin will not be able to view it.

   • Shared Markups: These are visible to everyone with access to the document and with appropriate granular permission enabled. If you don't have the required permissions, you won't be able to add public markups, but you can still view public markups. 

Manage Markups

Procore automatically organizes your Private and Public Markups into groups. If you don’t have a group selected, your markups are automatically added to a group in your private layer.     

1. Click on the + icon next to My Markups/ Shared Markup to create markup groups.

2. Click the eye icon next to a group to hide it.

3. Select the markup element from the markup element list. Example: Textbox. The selected element will automatically go under the private markup layer. You can add multiple markup elements in a group.

4. Type a group name in the search bar to display it.
   This displays only the markups belonging to that specific group. For example, Group 1 or Group 2.

5. Drag and move groups into the specific order you want them to appear, as Procore retains this order.

6. Click the vertical ellipsis icon beside the markup group and select Duplicate. This creates a copy containing all original markups. Adding new markups to this copy does not affect the original group.

7. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to the individual group and select Delete. 

8. To make a private group public, click and drag the group from the private section into the public section.

9. Hover over the markup group name and click the edit  icon to rename your group. Click ENTER on your keyboard or click outside the box to save.

10. Use the Header to:

    • Add Markup: If you click Add Markup, it automatically starts a session in a private 'To Me' session.

    • Default Behavior: If you haven't manually selected where you want to edit, the system defaults to private.

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste markups within the document.

      • For Windows, use Copy: Ctrl + C and Paste: Ctrl + V

      • For Mac, use Copy: Command +C and Paste: Command + V

      • Click the keyboard icon in the bottom right corner (or press ?) to display the full keyboard shortcuts menu. You can use the following standard viewer shortcuts:

        • Navigation & View:

          • Marquee Zoom: Hold Z

          • Eraser Tool: Shift + Z

          • Toggle Search: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F

          • Toggle Markup Filter: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U

          • Turn on Markup: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + M

          • Toggle Info Panel: Cmd/Ctrl + I

          • Open Shortcuts Help: ?

        • Measurement Tools:

          • Distance: Shift + D

          • Arc Measurement: Shift + A

          • Perimeter: Shift + C

          • Area: Shift + O

        • Markup Styling:

          • Apply Pre-save Styles 1–4: Shift + 1 / Shift + 2 / Shift + 3 / Shift + 4

        • Connected Items Panel Toggles:

          • Toggle Connected Items Panel: I

          • Connected Items in a Workflow: Shift + I

          • Observations: Shift + Alt/Option + O

          • Coordination Issues: Shift + Alt/Option + C

          • RFIs: Shift + Alt/Option + R

          • Inspections: Shift + Alt/Option + I

          • Inspection Items: Shift + Alt/Option + N

          • Punch / Snag List: Shift + Alt/Option + S

          • Correspondence: Shift + Alt/Option + L

          • Photos: Shift + Alt/Option + P

          • Incidents: Shift + Alt/Option + D

          • Assets: Shift + Alt/Option + T

          • Action Plans: Shift + Alt/Option + A

11. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to information icon (i) and Select Download to export the document with or without markup.
    Note : If the user wants to download from the list page in the Drawings tool, you have two options: Download without Markup or Download with Public markup.

12. After a public markup is published for a file, a markup indicator icon appears next to the file on the Drawings list page. 

Filter markups

1. Select one or more markup filters that you want to apply:

   1. Company: The company that an individual who added the markup is associated with in Procore.

   2. Authored By: The individual who added the markup.

   3. Color: The color of the markup.

   4. Type: The type of markup.

2. Click Apply.
   The markups are automatically adjusted on the document and in the List tab based on the filters. If you want to clear the filters, click Clear Filters and then click Apply.

3. Optional: When viewing markups in the List tab, click the Sort menu to choose an attribute to organize your markup list.

Markup Options

This table lists markup tools and keyboard shortcuts to use when adding markups to PDF files. 
Note : Click on the markup element to copy, duplicate, style, or delete it. Also, four pre-saved styles are available for each markup element.