Step 1 — Decide where the line 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 line means:
- A product layer whose product is set to draw as a line. The styling controls in the toolbar dim out, because the line will use the product's preset color, stroke width, line style, and label. The line you draw represents an instance of that product on the canvas and is labeled with the product's name on the contract drawing. The size of the line on the canvas is illustrative — measurements that drive pricing live in the layer's measurement inputs, not the canvas geometry.
- A general or custom layer. The styling controls stay live. Lines 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 Line to any other tool at any time.
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-line-tool-01-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Choosing the layer in the layer sidebar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-01-ipad.png
Step 2 — Select the Line tool
If you picked a product layer whose product is set to draw as a line, Bidvio already selected Line for you. The toolbar highlights the Line button and you can skip ahead to drawing.
If you picked a general layer, tap Line in the drawing toolbar on the left — the icon is a single diagonal line. The button highlights to show it's the active tool. The active stroke width carries over from whatever was set before; unlike the Arrow tool, Line doesn't reset the stroke width on selection.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Selecting the Line tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-02-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Selecting the Line tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-02-ipad.png
Step 3 — Apply a drawing preset, or style the line yourself
There are three ways to style a line 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. 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. 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.
Customize the styling for this one line
If no preset fits, the toolbar's three styling controls let you set the look manually:
- Stroke color — opens the system color picker.
- Stroke width — choose from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, or 100 px.
- Stroke style — Solid, Dashed, or Dotted. Dashed and Dotted are useful when you want the line to read 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 line drawn for a given product should look the same so the install crew reads them consistently. If you want a one-off styling for a line 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 contribution to the option card's quantity.
Setting styling — by preset or by hand — before you draw is the right order. After a line is placed, the toolbar controls only affect the next shape; the placed line keeps the color, width, and style it was drawn with. To restyle an existing line, erase and redraw.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-03-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-03-ipad.png
Step 4 — Drag from one end to the other
With the Line tool active, touch the canvas where you want the line to start and drag to where it should end. A preview follows your finger so you can see the segment before committing. Release to place it.
The line is a single straight segment — two endpoints, no bend. To draw a multi-segment polyline (a connected run of segments), use the Polygon tool and finish it open with a double-tap.
If Snap to Grid is on (the dot-grid icon near the bottom of the toolbar shows whether it's active), both endpoints jump to the nearest grid intersection as you drag. That's useful when you want a line to align with shapes drawn on the same grid. Turn it off to place a line at an arbitrary position.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Dragging from one endpoint to the other/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-04-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Dragging from one endpoint to the other/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-04-ipad.png
Step 5 — Reposition or resize after drawing
To move or reshape a line after the fact:
- Tap the Select tool in the toolbar (the hand icon).
- Tap the line. Two small dot handles appear at the endpoints.
- Drag an endpoint handle to move that end. Drag anywhere on the line between the two handles to slide the whole line without changing its angle or length.
Snap to Grid applies the same way during these edits — handles snap to the grid if you have it on. Reshaping the line on the canvas doesn't change the product's quantity on the option card — the canvas is illustrative — but if the line's new shape and the measurement values on the layer no longer agree, that's a sign you need to update the measurement inputs separately.
To change a line's color, width, or style after placement, erase it (the Eraser tool, or Select + delete) and redraw. There's no per-shape style editor.
Screenshot coming soonMac — Select tool showing the line's two endpoint handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-05-mac.png
Screenshot coming sooniPad — Select tool showing the line's two endpoint handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-line-tool-05-ipad.png
Step 6 — What ends up on the contract
A line only shows up on the contract if the layer it lives on is included in the option being sold. 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 lines in both directions. A product line on a layer that's only Recommended doesn't add its product to the option's totals, and the line itself won't appear on the contract drawing or the job information sheet for that option. An annotation line on a layer that isn't Included doesn't carry through to the documents either.
When a line's layer is included, the canvas renders on the contract, the proposal, and the job information sheet. Product lines carry their product's name as a label; annotation lines render with the color and style you drew them in. The drawing is often more durable than the prose around it: where they conflict, most crews follow the drawing first.