Canvas and Artifacts
How Scopture brings project evidence into one spatial review surface.
The Canvas as a Review Surface
Scopture opens a drawing as an infinite canvas where project artifacts can be arranged beside the requirements, explanations, and review activity that qualify them. The canvas is the shared application surface for drawing, navigation, inspection, and collaboration; it is not a replacement for the specialist tools that authored the source material.
Use Scopture’s search, layers, groups, grids, snapping, measurements, and unit controls to move between the overview of a project and the detail being reviewed. Frames provide named visual regions, while plots identify deliberate output areas for presentation and export.
Working with Artifacts
Scopture can place 2D geometry, annotations, images, PDFs, documents, web references, and engineering models in the same drawing. In the application, the important distinction is how each artifact participates in review:
| Review need | Scopture behavior |
|---|---|
| Explain or mark up | Draw, measure, label, connect, and annotate directly on the canvas |
| Provide evidence | Position source sheets, reports, images, documents, and references beside the work they support |
| Inspect engineering geometry | Open a model element in its dedicated interactive environment |
| Organize the review | Use frames, layers, groups, and search to control context and navigation |
| Prepare an output | Use plots or a selected canvas region to define what should be exported |
The underlying element types, relationships, and storage rules belong to the Duc format. See Elements, Document Elements, Plot Elements, and Blocks in the Duc documentation.
Model Review in Scopture
On the canvas, a model remains positioned alongside the rest of the project context. Its thumbnail represents the current generated output. Opening it in Model Open mode selects the viewer recorded in that output: parametric or IFC 3D, DXF 2D, image, SVG, PDF, or table. The element keeps its identity and canvas position when the output type changes.
The 3D viewer provides model selection, hierarchy navigation, camera controls, measurement, sectioning, display and material controls, and saved viewpoints. PDF output provides page navigation, while image, SVG, and table outputs open in their corresponding viewers.
Python models declare their result with emit_output(...). Scopture stores the generated bytes as a referenced external file, together with the output kind, content and input fingerprints, and generation metadata. The properties panel shows fresh, stale, missing, or failed output. Changes to source code, parameters, dependency modules, or external inputs trigger cache and thumbnail regeneration when local or authorized cloud execution is available.
An issue created during model inspection can return a reviewer to the relevant model location and viewing context. This connects a detailed geometry discussion back to the same issue and decision workflow used elsewhere in the drawing.
For supported model sources, Python output contracts, external-file relationships, and stored viewer state, see Model Elements in the Duc documentation.
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