Drawings, Sharing, and Export
How Scopture stores, shares, collaborates on, and exports drawings.
Local and Remote Drawings
Scopture supports two storage modes with the same underlying .duc project state:
| Local drawing | Remote drawing | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary storage | The current device, using browser or desktop application storage | Scopture cloud storage within an organization |
| Offline work | Designed for device-resident and offline use | Previously opened content can be backed up locally, but shared operations require connectivity |
| Collaboration | Single-device working state | Live collaborators, presence, shared issues, and managed access |
| Access | Controlled by access to the device and exported file | Controlled through roles, direct access, organization access, and public links |
A local drawing can be moved to the cloud so the project can continue as a remote drawing with its existing content and history.
Workspace Organization
The dashboard is the project entry point outside the canvas. It surfaces recent drawings and issue activity, while the file explorer organizes remote drawings in nested folders and provides search, movement, and trash recovery. Organization membership determines which shared workspace and files a person can reach.
Local drawings remain listed as device-resident work. They should not be treated as shared cloud files until they are explicitly moved to a remote workspace.
External Files
When a drawing uses a PDF, image, document, or engineering model, Scopture manages the source asset with the drawing and resolves it when the artifact is displayed, reviewed, or exported. Replacing a source can preserve its continuity as the same project artifact instead of requiring reviewers to rebuild the surrounding canvas context.
The storage structure, external-file identity, revisions, and active payload selection are defined by Duc rather than the Scopture interface. See External Files & Revisions for those mechanics.
Access and Collaboration
Remote drawings support live presence and synchronized editing, including shared navigation and model-review context. Access can be granted directly to a person, inherited through an organization role, or provided through a public link.
Workspace permissions distinguish view, comment, edit, and full access. Public links can be limited to viewing or editing and can additionally control:
- password protection;
- whether export is allowed;
- whether interactive 3D mode is available; and
- whether an unprotected drawing can be discovered.
Authenticated access takes precedence when a participant already has a stronger direct or organization permission. Use named access for ongoing collaborators and public links for clearly bounded external reviews.
Import and Export
Scopture can export a portable .duc drawing or produce presentation and interchange outputs for narrower purposes:
- canvas, selection, view, crop, or plot output as PNG, SVG, or PDF;
- a text-based drawing representation when structured inspection is needed;
- supported engineering-model outputs whose available formats depend on the model type; and
- the source representation of supported code-generated models.
An image or PDF export communicates a view. A model export communicates geometry. A .duc export is intended for continuing with the drawing and its project context. Choose the output according to what the recipient must inspect or continue editing.
For what the portable file contains and how it is structured, see the Duc architecture.
Sharing and export are separate permissions
Access to a public drawing does not necessarily allow its assets to be exported or its models to be opened in 3D. Configure those capabilities explicitly for the review being shared.
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