One of our biggest goals in 2023 was to get the right PDF markup and collaboration tools in the hands of AEC teams to help them streamline work and coordination.

Our team built and shipped a broad range of tools and features in 2023 that are designed to help teams work better and faster, without paper.

Here are some of our favorites.

Annotation History Advanced view

With the Advanced annotation history, teams can track, manage, and export valuable metadata including your annotations' authors, timestamps, colors, tool types and text annotation content, subject and more.

This feature has been designed to help teams keep track of important document information to increase oversight, reduce risk and keep projects moving forward.

Whether you're looking for annotations added by a particular contributor or searching for annotations that were applied at a certain time or with a particular tool, you can find exactly what you need instantly. You can also export your data as a CSV to get the information you need in the format you want.

Advanced Annotation History is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app.

Hatch patterns

Need to distinguish between different elements on your page? Use hatch patterns to identify elements and materials on your drawings. Understand at a glance which areas are concrete, which are timber or tiling and so much more. Create endless combinations to fit how you work.

Hatch patterns can be used to fill enclosed shapes on the canvas including rectangles, ellipses and clouds and are available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app.

Snap to PDF content

With Content snapping your cursor snaps to embedded content on-page like the edge of a floor plan or the perimeter of an object, ensuring you don’t need to rely on how you place your cursor to start to measure or draw by hand, but be confident that it’s ‘snapped’ into place as you draw. Easily toggle snapping on and off to suit the way you work.

Snap to PDF content is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app and web app. 

Countless line style variations

On Drawboard PDF, users can select from a diverse range of line variations. Apply dashed lines, dotted lines, as well as a range of line endings and line patterns to your documents and drawings.

Use endless combinations of each to distinguish between various elements on your page. 

Line styles and endings are available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on all platforms. On the iOS, macOS and Windows app, users can also add a range of patterns to their lines including slashes, circles, stars and more.

Measurement enhancements

In 2023 we shipped a range of measurement enhancements to help AEC teams work faster on the canvas. On the Windows app, users can select from a range of commonly used calibration presets for quick implementation as well as:

• Calibrate multiple pages or documents to the same scale. Users can apply their calibration settings to all pages or set your calibration settings as the default calibration across your documents.
• Work with feet and inches. The option to set fractional feet and inches was made available to Windows users in 2023. Set your measurement precision to 1, 1/2 , 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 inches or feet.
• See the dimensions of your lines and shapes as you draw them. Work faster by creating your lines and shapes to scale as you build them. User’s can also type to edit shape and line dimensions for more ease and precision.
• Get a birds-eye-view of the page scale. Users can see and edit their page calibration in the bottom left of the canvas.

The measurement toolset is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users. 

Apply annotations to multiple pages at once

With Advanced Paste, you can select any markup or group of markups and apply them to multiple pages in one go.

Apply annotations to all pages, to odd or even pages or a custom set of pages decided by you. Select or right-click your annotations and then tap Apply to pages to get started.

Mark up more seamlessly on multi-page documents and accelerate the way you work.

Advanced paste is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app.

Review and mark up PDFs in multiple windows

Introduced to Drawboard PDF in 2023, teams and individuals can open and work on PDFs in multiple windows. Not just view, but access your entire toolset too. This feature can make reviewing, comparing and marking up drawing revisions easier as users can view and mark up PDFs side-by-side.

Quickly switch between version 1 and revision 2, questions and answers, contract revisions… the list goes on.

The Multiple Windows feature is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited plan users on the Windows app.

Markup library

With your Drawboard PDF Markup library, you can keep every annotation you use regularly at your fingertips. Engineering symbols, stamps, regular notes or markups and more. Your Markup Library is your personalized storage vault for annotations you want to use over and over again. Add what you need and access any time, on any document.

Markup Library is available to Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app.

Take a tour of all Drawboard PDF features.

Want to try Drawboard PDF Pro for free? Start a 7 day free trial today.