Layouts

What are layouts on mobile

A layout is an interactive 3D plan of your site: the walls and rooms, the equipment placed on it, the cable trays, pipes and conductors that connect it, and the issues pinned exactly where they are in the field. On the phone you open the same 3D scene the web editor shows, walk around it with your fingers, see the live status of every linked asset, and pin issues from where you stand.

Drawing walls, placing equipment and routing services by hand stay on the web app; on the phone you view the plan and work with issue pins — or pick the Layout Builder assistant in chat, describe the plan (or photograph a drawing) and watch it appear in the viewer.

Open Layouts from the drawer. It appears only when the Layouts module is on for the project, and viewing requires the layouts.read permission. Every layout has a number (LY-1, LY-2, …) shown on its card and in the viewer header.

The layouts list and creating a layout from the phone

The Layouts screen lists every layout of the project as a card: its LY-number, name and description, chips with what it contains (walls, objects, rooms, issue pins and routes) and when it was last updated. Pull down to refresh. Tap a card to open it in 3D.

The + button in the header (requires layouts.create) creates an empty layout with a name and an optional description. The phone cannot draw walls or place equipment by hand — create it here, then draw it on the web or ask the Layout Builder assistant in chat to build it ("build a layout of the switchroom with two transformers and a busbar"). The new layout opens in the viewer right away and fills in live as the assistant works; the "Layout created — Open" card in chat takes you straight to it.

Moving around the 3D plan

The viewer fills the screen. Drag with one finger to orbit around the plan, pinch to zoom, and drag with two fingers to pan. The buttons on the right switch views: Top view looks straight down like a drawing, 3D view returns to the angled overview, and Fit re-frames the whole plan from wherever you are looking. Lower walls cuts every wall to about a metre so you can see inside a building from any angle; tap it again to restore full height.

The back chip in the header returns to the list. The plan keeps drawing only while the screen is in front of you — it pauses when you switch screens or background the app, so it costs no battery in your pocket.

Status markers, issue pins and layers

Equipment linked to an asset carries a floating gem above it in the asset's status colour, so a glance at the plan tells you what is commissioned, in progress or blocked. Issues pinned on the plan show as map pins with a pulsing ring, coloured by the issue's status. Colours come from the project's own status sets.

The Layers button in the header opens switches for what is drawn: asset status markers, asset ID labels under them, issue pins, room areas, routes (trays, pipes, conductors) and X-ray walls, which makes every wall see-through. Layers are a display choice — they change nothing in the layout.

Tapping equipment, pins, rooms and routes

Tap any element to select it — a card slides up from the bottom. For linked equipment the card shows the asset tag, its status and Open asset, which opens the same asset sheet as the Assets screen. For an issue pin it shows the issue number, title, status and priority, with Open issue for the full issue (comments, attachments, status changes). Rooms show their name and linked location; routes show their label and system. Tap empty ground, or the ✕ on the card, to deselect.

A tap only counts when your finger stays put — letting go after orbiting the camera over an object does not open it.

Pinning an issue from the field (add, move, remove)

With layouts.update you can place issue pins from the phone. Tap Pin issue at the bottom left, pick the issue from the list (search by title) or tap New issue to create one on the spot, then tap the place on the plan where it is. The pin is saved immediately — there is no separate Save step on the phone.

From a piece of equipment's card, Pin an issue here does the same but drops the pin at that equipment. From a pin's card, Move pin lets you tap the new spot, and Remove pin takes the marker off the plan — the issue itself is untouched.

Pins created on the phone appear on the web editor within a second, and vice versa.

Live updates and working alongside the assistant

The viewer listens for changes while it is open: when the assistant adds equipment from a chat, when someone edits the plan on the web, or when an issue or asset changes status, the scene and its colours refresh on their own — no need to leave and come back. Opening a freshly created layout and asking the assistant to build it is a good way to watch a plan appear on your phone.

Layouts troubleshooting on mobile

"Layouts are off for this project": a project admin can switch the Layouts module on from the project settings on the web.

"You don't have permission": you need layouts.read; pinning needs layouts.update. Ask a project admin.

"This device can't show 3D layouts": the phone's browser engine has no WebGL, which is very rare on supported devices. Restart the app, and if it persists open the layout on the web.

The plan looks empty: the layout may be new — the cards on the list show what each contains. Layers can also hide things: open Layers and make sure issue pins and routes are on.

PDF underlays (a drawing traced under the plan on the web) are not shown on the phone.