> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gingerbim.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Building Sheets on the Canvas

> Compose drawings, schedules, title blocks, and annotations onto paper-size sheets and export vector PDF/DXF.

The **canvas** (Sheet Builder) is a 2D layout space where you compose your drawings, title blocks, schedules, and annotations onto paper-size **sheets** and export them as PDF or DXF for hand-off. Everything you place lives in one shared canvas; sheets are the framed paper areas you arrange content onto.

## Opening and creating a canvas

Open the **Canvas** tab on the project home page to see the project's canvases, and use **New Canvas** to create one. Inside, the left rail has icon buttons for **Canvas**, **Sheet**, **Drawing**, and **Discussions**, each opening a side panel.

## Adding sheets

1. Open the **Sheets** panel (or use **Add Sheet** on the bottom toolbar).
2. In the **Create sheet** dialog, give the sheet a name, pick a **sheet size** (A0, A1, A2, A3, or A4), choose an **orientation** (Landscape or Portrait), and optionally add a description.
3. The sheet appears on the canvas as a paper rectangle you can position. Double-click a sheet's label to rename it; use a sheet's "⋯" menu to Edit, Organise (drag to reorder), or Delete.

## Placing content

The bottom toolbar holds the placement tools. Click a tool, then click or drag on the canvas to drop the element:

* **Detail** — places a drawing viewer for a 2D drawing. This is how you put a plan, section, or elevation onto a sheet.
* **Title Block**, **Table**, **North Point**, **Image Container**, **Text Box**, **Leader**, **Canvas Comment** (revision cloud), and basic **shapes** (line, rectangle, circle, triangle).

To place a drawing into a Detail viewer, either drop an empty Detail and click **Select drawing**, or **drag a drawing straight from the Drawings panel** onto the sheet. The Drawings panel also lets you **Import** external drawings (`.svg` or `.dxf`) and refresh or search the list. Schedules are placed from the **Schedules** panel by dragging a category (or the Material Schedule) onto a sheet as a frame.

## Scale, chaining, and pagination

* A placed Detail drawing has a **Scale** control in its properties panel — pick a preset ratio or enter a custom one (for example `1:125`). (Sheet *size* is A0–A4, set when you create the sheet; *scale* is a property of the drawing on the sheet.)
* A **schedule frame** placed on a sheet shows its rows at a chosen scale. When a schedule has more rows than fit, the frame **chains** to continue on additional frames, **paginating** the rows across the chain and repeating the column header. Schedule and material-schedule frames auto-fit their column widths to the fields you've chosen.

## Selecting and editing placed elements

Click any placed element to open the right-hand properties panel. For a Detail drawing it shows the **Detail Title**, the **Drawing** and its **Source model**, the **Scale**, and **Visibility** toggles for the drawing's layers. Other element types (leader, north point, table, text) get their own controls. A right-click context menu adds z-order commands (Bring Forward / Send Back) and table/sheet edits.

## Exporting to PDF and DXF

1. Open the header **Share** menu and choose **Export PDF** or **Export DXF**.
2. In the export dialog, **select which sheets** to export (with previews and Select-all). For DXF you can also export each sheet as an individual file.
3. Confirm to download. Both formats export as **vector**, so drawings, schedules, and annotations stay as crisp lines and text suitable for CAD and printing.

## Tips

<Tip>
  Place drawings with the **Detail** tool, then set the **Scale** in the properties panel.
</Tip>

* Drag drawings and schedule categories from their panels straight onto a sheet — it's faster than placing an empty frame first.
* Long schedules continue automatically across chained frames; you don't paginate by hand.


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