Step 1 — Decide where the arrow belongs: a product or an annotation
Open Drawing on the appointment, then pick a layer in the layer sidebar. The layer you choose determines what the arrow means:
- A product layer whose product is set to draw as an arrow. The styling controls in the toolbar dim out, because the arrow will use the product's preset color, stroke width, line style, and label. Every arrow you drop on this layer counts as one of that product on the option card and gets the product's name labeled next to it on the contract drawing.
- A general or custom layer. The styling controls stay live. Arrows you draw here are annotations — they don't add anything to the option card, and the line is yours to style.
A product's draw tool is set when the product is created (Admin → Products → Visibility → On Contract → Drawing shape type), and an admin can change a product from Arrow to Polygon, Line, or any other tool at any time. The right shape depends on how the product reads on a drawing: a discrete point typically warrants an arrow; a length typically warrants a line; an area typically warrants a polygon or rectangle.
Drawing is read-only on a sold appointment or on the pre-existing layers of a sold change order, so on those the toolbar will be inert regardless of layer type.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Choosing the layer in the layer sidebar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-01-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Choosing the layer in the layer sidebar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-01-ipad.png
Step 2 — Select the Arrow tool
If you picked a product layer whose product is set to draw as an arrow, Bidvio already selected Arrow for you. The toolbar highlights the Arrow button and you can skip ahead to drawing.
If you picked a general layer, tap Arrow in the drawing toolbar on the left — the icon is a diagonal line ending in an arrowhead. The button highlights to show it's the active tool.
A small detail worth knowing: when you switch to Arrow from a different tool, Bidvio resets the stroke width to 2 px on purpose. Wider defaults made for area shapes tend to swallow an arrow's arrowhead, so the tool starts at a width that reads well at the canvas's typical zoom. If you change the stroke width after selecting Arrow, your change sticks — only the initial switch resets it. (On a product layer this doesn't apply: stroke width comes from the product's preset and the toolbar control is locked.)
Screenshot coming soonMac — Selecting the Arrow tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-02-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Selecting the Arrow tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-02-ipad.png
Step 3 — Apply a drawing preset, or style the arrow yourself
There are three ways to style an arrow on a general or custom layer, in roughly the order you should reach for them.
Apply a drawing preset (the fast path)
Tap the Presets menu at the top of the toolbar (the "P" icon). It lists every drawing preset your company has configured — name first, with a small chip showing the tool and stroke style. Tap one and Bidvio sets the active tool, stroke color, stroke width, stroke style, and label to match.
A drawing preset is a named, saved combination of tool + styling + label. It's how a company standardizes the look of a recurring annotation across every rep without anyone having to remember the recipe. One tap reproduces the same color, weight, arrowhead, and label on every appointment. A preset is not a product, so it doesn't price; it just makes annotations consistent.
Presets are configured by an admin in Admin → Appointment Format → Drawing presets and apply to the next shape you draw — not retroactively to shapes already on the canvas. The Presets menu is locked on a product layer (the product carries its own preset there), so apply the preset first if needed, then draw on the appropriate layer.
Customize the styling for this one arrow
If no preset fits and you want a one-off, the toolbar's three styling controls let you set the look manually:
- Stroke color — opens the system color picker. Pick a color that contrasts with the area of the canvas where the arrow will sit.
- Stroke width — choose from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, or 100 px. The arrowhead scales automatically with the stroke width (roughly eight times the line thickness), so a thicker arrow gets a chunkier head and stays balanced.
- Stroke style — Solid, Dashed, or Dotted. Solid is the default and right for most annotations. Dashed and Dotted are useful when you want a line that reads as secondary to the solid shapes around it.
If you find yourself reaching for the same custom styling on every appointment, that's the signal to ask an admin to save it as a preset.
On a product layer, skip the styling step entirely
The styling controls (and the Presets menu) are locked. The product's preset is the point: every arrow drawn for a given product should look the same so the install crew reads them consistently. If you want a one-off styling for an arrow that represents a product, draw it on a general layer instead and explain the intent in Customer Wills or Contractor Wills — but you'll lose the count-on-the-option-card behavior.
Setting styling — by preset or by hand — before you draw is the right order. After an arrow is placed, the toolbar controls only affect the next shape; the placed arrow keeps the color, width, and style it was drawn with. To restyle an existing arrow, erase and redraw.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-03-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-03-ipad.png
Step 4 — Drag from the base to the tip
With the Arrow tool active, touch the canvas where you want the base of the arrow (where the line starts), then drag to the tip (where the arrowhead will land) and release. A preview follows your finger so you can see the shape before committing.
The arrow always points toward where you released — base to tip, in the direction of the drag. If you draw it the wrong way, lift, undo (the curved arrow at the top of the toolbar, or ⌘Z on an attached keyboard), and re-draw.
If Snap to Grid is on (the dot-grid icon near the bottom of the toolbar shows whether it's active), both the base and the tip jump to the nearest grid intersection as you drag. This is useful when you want an arrow to align with other shapes that were drawn on the same grid. Turn it off to place an arrow at an arbitrary point.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Dragging from base to tip/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-04-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Dragging from base to tip/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-04-ipad.png
Step 5 — Reposition or resize after drawing
To move or reshape an arrow after the fact:
- Tap the Select tool in the toolbar (the hand icon).
- Tap the arrow's line. Two small dot handles appear at the base and the tip.
- Drag the base handle to move where the arrow starts. Drag the tip handle to swing the arrowhead around or change the arrow's length. Drag anywhere on the line between the two handles to slide the whole arrow without changing its angle.
Snap to Grid applies the same way during these edits — both handles snap to the grid if you have it on. The arrowhead resizes automatically as you change the length, so an arrow you stretch out keeps a proportional head.
To change an arrow's color, width, or style after placement, the only path is to erase it (the Eraser tool, or Select + delete) and redraw. There's no per-shape style editor.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Select tool showing the arrow's two handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-05-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Select tool showing the arrow's two handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-arrow-tool-05-ipad.png
Step 6 — What ends up on the contract
An arrow only shows up on the contract if the layer it lives on is included in the option being sold. Layers default to the inclusion state you set up front, but every layer carries a per-option inclusion toggle in the layer sidebar with three states:
- Included (green check) — the layer renders on the contract drawing for this option and its products count on the option's totals.
- Recommended (orange triangle) — the layer shows in the recommendations view so you can pitch it, but it's not on the contract until you (or the customer) flips it to Included.
- Excluded (red X) — the layer doesn't render on the contract and doesn't count on totals for this option.
That distinction matters for arrows in both directions. A product arrow on a layer that's only Recommended for the option the customer picked is not part of what they're buying — the product won't be on the contract drawing or the job information sheet for that option, and it won't count on the totals. The same is true for an annotation arrow: if its layer isn't Included, the annotation doesn't carry through to the documents.
When an arrow's layer is included, the canvas renders on the documents Bidvio generates: the contract, the proposal, and the job information sheet. Product arrows carry their product's name as a label; annotation arrows render with the color and style you drew them in.
So the Arrow tool is a small but real piece of the close — and the inclusion state of its layer is the gate. An arrow you draw at the appointment is the same arrow the customer sees on the signed contract and the install crew sees on day one, as long as the layer it's on is included for the option being sold. The drawing is often more durable than the prose around it: where they conflict, most crews follow the drawing first.