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Drawings

A drawing is a map output Siter renders as a printable HTML page in a new browser tab — focal feature centered, arcs and other features drawn around it, optional legend in the bottom-left. Drawings are how QD analysis turns into a deliverable: paired with a form, a drawing carries the visual half of a DCMA-style submittal package. For the click-by-click flow, see Drawings → How to create a drawing.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson you should be able to:

  • Generate a drawing at the right scale and with or without a legend
  • Recognize the elements of a drawing (focal feature, arcs by Exposure Type, violation lines, scale bar, legend)
  • Decide whether to generate from a feature dashboard or from a result set
  • Print or save a drawing cleanly

Where to initiate a drawing​

Drawings are generated from the Export Tools menu (download icon), which appears in two places:

Initiated fromWhen to use
Feature dashboardSingle-feature deliverables — the focal feature plus its surrounding context. The drawing reflects live results unless you've captured a result set first.
Result setStable deliverables — the drawing is generated against the snapshot's frozen analysis and per-result-set symbology. Use this for anything destined outside the team (see Result sets).

The Export Tools menu offers four drawing presets in either location, plus other export options.

The four drawing presets​

OptionWhat it does
Generate Drawing (1":400')Architectural scale: 1 inch on the printed page represents 400 ft of ground. Standard for DCMA submittals. Renders at a 1:4,800 ratio. This prints on a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper at 1": 400'
Generate Drawing (1":400') with LegendSame scale, plus a legend card in the bottom-left
Generate Drawing (Current)Uses the current map zoom as the extent. Useful for briefing-style outputs where exact scale isn't required. Width may be affected by the user's screen size.
Generate Drawing (Current) with LegendCurrent extent, plus a legend

Pick 1":400' when the destination authority expects a specific scale (DCMA submittals); pick Current for briefings or working drawings where what's visible matters more than exact scale.

The drawing opens in a new browser tab as an HTML page (URL about:blank, title set to the focal feature's name).

What's on a drawing​

A generated drawing contains:

  • Focal feature, centered on the map
  • QD arcs as selected and modified to meet the drawing's intent, color-coded by Exposure Type using the default symbology:
    • Red — IBD
    • Green — PTRD
    • Purple — ILD
    • Blue — IMD
    • Orange — Fire Protection Distance
    • Black — Vulnerable Building Distance, Inclusion Zone
  • Other features in the surrounding area, labeled with their names
  • Violation lines drawn between the focal feature and any features it violates against
  • Scale bar in the top-right (e.g., 1 : 4,800 with tick marks at 0 / 400 / 800 / 1000 ft for a 1":400' drawing)
  • Created using Siter© footer

If the drawing is generated from a result set, the symbology, arc precision, and dimension lines reflect that snapshot's customizations rather than the project default.

The legend (when included)​

When you pick a "with Legend" preset, a legend card appears in the bottom-left:

  • Focal feature's name as the title
  • North arrow with N / S / E / W compass labels
  • Layer key — every QD-visible and background layer, with its color swatch

Pick "with Legend" when the drawing will be read without context (a standalone deliverable, an external authority's submittal, a briefing slide). Pick "without Legend" when the drawing is embedded in a larger document that has its own legend.

Live results vs result-set drawings​

A drawing generated from a feature dashboard reflects live analysis results — re-running analysis, editing a feature, or someone else's edits will silently change what a regenerated drawing looks like. Anything destined outside the team should be generated from a result set instead, so the contents are frozen.

The discipline:

  • Internal scratch / quick look → generate from the feature dashboard
  • Anything you'll send to someone else → generate from a result set

Printing the drawing​

Like the submittal form, the drawing is HTML rendered in the browser. Saving to PDF or printing uses the browser's standard print dialog. The same hygiene applies:

  • Disable the browser's headers and footers (Print → More settings → Headers and footers) to avoid URLs and timestamps cluttering the output
  • For PDF output, "Save as PDF" rather than printing to a physical printer
  • For digital deliverables, capture the resulting PDF; for physical, print at the destination's required paper size

Try it​

In an analyzed project with at least one violation:

  1. Open the focal feature's dashboard, click Export Tools (download icon), and pick Generate Drawing (1":400') with Legend
  2. In the new tab, confirm the focal feature is centered, arcs project around it with criteria-appropriate colors, violation lines connect it to violating features, and the legend card sits in the bottom-left
  3. Print to PDF and toggle off the browser's headers and footers; confirm the saved PDF is clean
  4. Capture a result set named Snapshot 1, generate a drawing from the result set's Export Results menu, and confirm the drawing carries the snapshot's symbology rather than the live project defaults