Using the Rectangle tool

Draw an axis-aligned rectangle — either as a free annotation or as the on-canvas representation of a product that's drawn as a rectangle.

Where this lives: Customers → Appointment → Drawing → Tools → Rectangle
For: Admin
Manager
Customer Care
Sales

Why this matters

The Rectangle tool does two jobs that look the same and behave differently. Used on a general layer, a rectangle is a free annotation — a piece of communication on the canvas, no price attached. Used on a product layer whose product is configured to draw as a rectangle, the rectangle is the on-canvas representation of an instance of that product. Same gesture, two outcomes.

The rectangle's distinctive property is that it's the fastest closed shape to draw. Where Polygon takes a tap per vertex and Scribble takes a continuous trace, Rectangle is a single drag from one corner to the opposite corner. When the real-world shape reads as roughly rectangular, this is the right tool — the few seconds you save per shape add up across an appointment. (The size of the rectangle on the canvas is not to scale and does not drive pricing; measurements are entered separately on the layer.)

Either way, the rectangle ships out the door. The canvas renders on the contract PDF the customer signs, on the job information PDF the production team reads, and on the proposal.

Step 1 — Decide where the rectangle 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 rectangle means:

A product layer whose product is set to draw as a rectangle. The styling controls in the toolbar dim out, because the rectangle will use the product's preset fill color, stroke color, stroke width, line style, and label. The rectangle 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 rectangle 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. Rectangles you draw here are annotations — they don't add anything to the option card, and the shape 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 Rectangle to any other tool at any time. If a real-world shape is more complex than a rectangle, the Polygon or Scribble tool will fit it more honestly — but the gain in fidelity costs more time per shape.

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-rectangle-tool-01-mac.png Screenshot coming sooniPad — Choosing the layer in the layer sidebar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-01-ipad.png

Step 2 — Select the Rectangle tool

If you picked a product layer whose product is set to draw as a rectangle, Bidvio already selected Rectangle for you. The toolbar highlights the Rectangle button and you can skip ahead to drawing.

If you picked a general layer, tap Rectangle in the drawing toolbar on the left — the icon is a single open rectangle. The button highlights to show it's the active tool.

Screenshot coming soonMac — Selecting the Rectangle tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-02-mac.png Screenshot coming sooniPad — Selecting the Rectangle tool in the toolbar/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-02-ipad.png

Step 3 — Apply a drawing preset, or style the rectangle yourself

There are three ways to style a rectangle on a general or custom layer.

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, fill color, 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. The Presets menu is locked on a product layer.

Customize the styling for this one rectangle

Because a rectangle is a closed shape, four styling controls apply to it:

Fill color — the colour inside the rectangle. Pick a fill that contrasts with the canvas and with neighbouring shapes; transparent or near-transparent fills work when you want the rectangle to overlay something else without hiding it.
Stroke color — the rectangle's outline.
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. Solid reads as a defined region; Dashed and Dotted read as proposed or indicative.

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 rectangle 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 rectangle 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. To restyle an existing rectangle, erase and redraw.

Screenshot coming soonMac — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-03-mac.png Screenshot coming sooniPad — Presets menu and stroke controls/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-03-ipad.png

Step 4 — Drag from one corner to the opposite corner

With the Rectangle tool active, touch the canvas where you want one corner of the rectangle and drag to the opposite corner. A preview follows your finger so you can see the shape before committing. Release to place it.

The rectangle is always axis-aligned — sides parallel to the canvas's horizontal and vertical axes. Bidvio normalizes the corners as you drag, so it doesn't matter whether you start at the top-left and drag to the bottom-right or vice versa; you'll end up with the same rectangle either way.

If Snap to Grid is on (the dot-grid icon near the bottom of the toolbar shows whether it's active), both corners jump to the nearest grid intersection as you drag. That's the right setting for a rectangle whose dimensions are supposed to land on round numbers.

Screenshot coming soonMac — Dragging from one corner to the opposite corner/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-04-mac.png Screenshot coming sooniPad — Dragging from one corner to the opposite corner/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-04-ipad.png

Step 5 — Reposition or resize after drawing

To move or reshape a rectangle after the fact:

Tap the Select tool in the toolbar (the hand icon).
Tap inside the rectangle. Four small dot handles appear at the corners.
Drag a corner handle to resize from that corner; the opposite corner stays put. Drag anywhere inside the rectangle to translate the whole shape without resizing.

Snap to Grid applies the same way during these edits — handles snap to the grid if you have it on. Reshaping the rectangle on the canvas doesn't change the product's quantity on the option card — the canvas is illustrative — but if the rectangle's new shape and the measurement values on the layer no longer agree, update the measurement inputs separately.

To change a rectangle's fill, stroke 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 rectangle's four corner handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-05-mac.png Screenshot coming sooniPad — Select tool showing the rectangle's four corner handles/screenshots/support-running-an-appointment-rectangle-tool-05-ipad.png

Step 6 — What ends up on the contract

A rectangle 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 rectangles in both directions. A product rectangle on a layer that's only Recommended doesn't add its product to the option's totals, and the rectangle itself won't appear on the contract drawing or the job information sheet for that option. An annotation rectangle on a layer that isn't Included doesn't carry through to the documents either.

When a rectangle's layer is included, the canvas renders on the contract, the proposal, and the job information sheet. Product rectangles carry their product's name as a label; annotation rectangles render with the fill, 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.