Operations

CAD

The CAD editor is where you draw stage plots, venue floor plans and festival site maps to scale: fences, cable runs, routes, zones, tents and trucks from a blocks library, symbols, a legend, a map grid and a title block, over a site photo or PDF if you like. In the left menu, under Operations, choose CAD. It opens as its own full page; choose Back at the top right to return to GigOps. Owners, admins, managers, ops and coordinators can save drawings; other seats can look but their saves are refused. It works with a mouse, a pen or touch, including pinch zoom on a tablet. The panels and buttons follow the light or dark mode you chose in GigOps; the drawing itself always shows on white, the way it prints.

How do I start a new drawing?

1. In the left menu, under Operations, choose CAD.
2. Choose New in the top bar.
3. Type a name in the Untitled drawing box.
4. Under Scale in the left panel, pick Units (feet or meters) and Snap.
5. Draw, then choose Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S).

The status next to the top bar says "Saved" with the time. The drawing's number stays in the address, so a reload comes back to it.

How do I open or delete a saved drawing?

Choose Open in the top bar and pick the drawing, or pick it under Drawings at the bottom of the right panel. To delete a drawing, choose Open, then the bin icon next to it in the Open drawing list, and confirm. Deleting cannot be undone. If the open drawing has unsaved changes, GigOps asks before it opens another one.

How do I link a drawing to a show?

In the top bar, use the No show dropdown next to the drawing name and pick the show (date, city and venue), then choose Save. Pick No show to unlink it.

What do the drawing tools do?

In the left panel under Tools:

• Select (V) to pick and move items, Pan (H, or hold Space) to move the view.
• Line (L), Rect (R) and Measure (M). Hold Shift for 45 degree steps or a square.
• Path (P): tap point after point for a fence, cable or route; tap the first point to close it, or choose Done.
• Area (A): tap the corners of a zone; tap the first corner or Done to close it. It shows its area and perimeter.
• Text (T) and Curved text (K): curved text bends along points you tap, such as a road name.
• Delete: tap an item to remove it. Multi-select: taps add to the selection.

Undo and Redo are in the top bar (Ctrl/Cmd+Z, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z).

How do I draw something at an exact size?

With Rect, Line or Measure on, a size bar appears over the canvas. Type the width and length for a rectangle, or the length and angle for a line, then click where it goes (or press Enter to drop it in the middle of the view). Sizes take feet and inches (`20' 6"`) or metric (`6m`, `300cm`). Angles read 0 as pointing right and 90 as straight up. On Path, the length and angle place the next point exactly. The x button clears the typed sizes.

How do I add tents, trucks, staging and other blocks?

Find the item in the Blocks library in the left panel (use Search blocks). Tap it to drop it in the middle of the view, or drag it onto the plan with a mouse. To make your own, choose + New block and set its name, category, width, length, height, shape and colour, then Save block. Or select items you drew and choose Make block to save them as a library block. Your company's own blocks have edit and delete buttons; the shared library cannot be edited. Deleting a block from the library leaves copies already placed on drawings as they are.

How do I place symbols like first aid, AED or exits?

Open Symbols in the left panel, pick a symbol and tap the plan to place it, as many as you need. Choose another tool to stop. Cameras and number tags count up by themselves. Corner handles resize a symbol and the round handle turns it.

How do I style fences, cables and zones?

Before drawing a line, path, rectangle or area, pick a style in the size bar; or select a shape and pick its style under Selected in the right panel. A drawing starts with styles such as power cable, timing line, soft fence, bike rack fence, chain link fence, route, emergency route, lane / road, staging, tents / gear yard, parking and no access. Choose + New style to add one, or the pencil next to a style to edit or delete it. Tick Curved to bend a path or area smoothly through its points.

How do I add a legend, compass, scale bar or map grid?

In the left panel under Annotate, choose Legend (lists what is on the plan with counts and keeps itself up to date), Compass (turn it to match north on your backdrop), Scale bar, or Map grid (lettered rows and numbered columns so a spot can be called out as E7). Select one to change its options under Selected. On a map grid, Fit to the drawing re-covers the plan.

How do I put a site photo or PDF under my drawing?

1. Choose Backdrop in the top bar and pick an image (PNG, JPEG, WebP) or a PDF. For a PDF with several pages, it asks which page.
2. The image lands in view in placement mode. Drag it into place, pull a corner to resize it, turn it with the rotate handle.
3. Choose Calibrate, tap two points a known distance apart and type the distance, so the image matches real-world scale.
4. Choose Done to lock it.

To move it later, choose Move / resize under Backdrop in the right panel. Remove backdrop takes it off.

How do I import a DXF or DWG file?

Choose Import DXF in the top bar and pick a .dxf file. GigOps imports DXF. A DWG has to be saved as DXF first: open it in AutoCAD, QCAD or LibreCAD, choose Save As, pick .dxf, and import that file. The importer reads lines, polylines and circles. A closed polyline (a tent or a building drawn as one outline, which is how Visio saves shapes as DXF) comes in as an area, so it can be put on the structures sheet like a tent placed from the library; an open one comes in as lines.

How do I use layers?

Under Layers in the right panel, choose + New layer. Tap a layer to make it the active one (new items go on it), double-click to rename it, pick its colour, and use the buttons on its row to hide, lock or delete it. Hidden layers stay out of the legend and the print takeoff.

How do I copy, rotate or repeat items?

Select one or more items and use the bar that floats over the canvas: Duplicate, Rotate (90 degrees), Repeat (copies in a row right, down, left or up, with a gap, for parking, toilet banks or barricade), Make block and Delete. On a tablet, Edit opens the properties drawer.

How do I number tents on the event's structures sheet?

In the right panel, under Structures sheet, set the drawing's Event (or link one of the event's shows) and, if the event has no sheet yet, choose Start the structures sheet. Tents you place from the blocks library then take the next number in their zone and appear on the sheet; select anything else and choose Add to the structures sheet. The number shows on the plan in its kind's colour; saving the drawing keeps the sheet in step, and deleting an item strikes it from the sheet. See the Structures sheet help for zones, renumbering and the sheet's columns.

How do I save numbered drafts and compare them?

1. Choose Drafts in the top bar.
2. Type a name in Save as (for example "Sent to fire marshal") and notes under What changed, then choose Save draft.
3. Under Saved drafts, choose Compare on a draft to see what changed against the drawing now, or pick two drafts under Compare.

Added items are marked green, removed ones orange, changed or moved ones blue. Changes lists each one (tap to zoom to it), Fill notes writes them into the title block, and Done goes back to editing. Restore puts the drawing back the way a draft had it; nothing is saved until you choose Save, and Undo brings it back.

How do I fill in the title block?

Under Title block in the right panel, choose Revision, watermark, notes. Set the Revision (for example "Draft 1"), As of date, Watermark (for example "Confidential") and Changes in this revision, one per line, then Save. They print on the sheet. Saving a draft also writes its name and notes here.

How do I print the plan or save it as a PDF?

1. Choose Print in the top bar. The sheet shows on the plan as a frame.
2. Pick the Paper (Letter to ARCH E, A4 to A0) and Turn (Landscape or Portrait).
3. Pick the Scale: fit to page (The whole drawing or What is on screen), or a fixed scale such as 1" = 20' or 1:500. At a fixed scale, drag the page to choose what prints, or choose Center the page on the drawing.
4. Leave Legend, takeoff and tagged items ticked to add those pages after the plan.
5. Choose Print, then Print / Save PDF.

Print at 100% in your browser's print dialog so the scale holds.

How do I attach a drawing to my venue profile?

In VenueOps, on Venue profile, open the Documents & plans tab and choose Attach existing drawing. Pick the drawing and its visibility, then Attach. Tours that book you see attached plans on their booking's Documents tab when the visibility allows, and open them read-only.

How do I keep a copy of a venue's plan?

A venue's plan you open from your booking opens read-only. Choose Save a copy in the top bar to put a copy in your own CAD drawings, named after the venue with "(copy)" at the end and linked to your show. It keeps the plan's layers, items, styles and backdrop, already scaled, and the title block notes where it came from. The button then reads Open your copy. The copy is yours alone: the venue never sees it, and changes the venue makes to its plan later do not reach it. Only the tour side can save a copy, and only seats that can save drawings.

How do I see my stage plot on a venue's plan?

1. Set the stage width and depth under Production needs when you edit your tour. These are the sizes the booking's fit check reads.
2. Open the venue's plan from your booking and choose Add stage plot.
3. A dashed rectangle your stage's size appears in the middle of the view, on a layer of its own, with your show's stage plot document fitted inside when it is a picture or a PDF (for a PDF with several pages, it asks which page). The solid edge marked DOWNSTAGE is the front of the stage.
4. Drag it into place and turn it with the round handle, Rotate or the Rotation box under Selected. It keeps its size.
5. Choose Save a copy to keep it where you put it, or Remove stage plot to take it off.

The plot is drawn from the sizes you set and the picture you uploaded; it does not list the items on your plot separately. Without a stage width and depth there is no Add stage plot button. The venue sees the same outline on its side, with your picture only when you shared the stage plot document on the booking.