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Add reinforcement marks manually in drawings

Tekla Structures
Modified: 10 Mar 2026
2026
Tekla Structures

Add reinforcement marks manually in drawings

You can add marks manually to reinforcement and meshes in drawings.

Reinforcement marks may already exist in the drawing if you have selected to create the marks at drawing creation. If there are no marks, you can add them manually.

Note:

If you have created rebar marks automatically but you cannot see the marks, recreate the marks or modify the view or drawing level settings for rebar or neighbor rebar marks.

Note:

To make the unit setting for the length attributes CC, CC_CROSS, CC_DIAMETER_CROSS, CC_DIAMETER_LONG, CC_EXACT, CC_EXACT_CROSS, CC_EXACT_LONG, and CC_LONG work in rebar marks and tags, you need to set the unit type to Length in contentattributes_global.lst, which is the default. If you leave the unit type empty, the filtering using these attributes works but the unit settings do not. Here is an example line from contentattributes_global.lst of a situation where the unit settings work in drawings: CC_EXACT CHARACTER LEFT TRUE 20 0 Length mm.

Before creating marks, ensure that you have the suitable reinforcement mark properties available. To adjust the mark properties, do one of the following:

  • If you create reinforcement marks using applied properties: In an open drawing, select Rebar mark in the property pane object list. Ensure that the displayed properties are the ones that you want to use, and modify the properties if needed. You can also load predefined properties.

  • If you create reinforcement marks using view properties: Double-click the view frame of the view where you want to add the part marks, and select Reinforcement mark in the options tree. Ensure that the displayed properties are the ones that you want to use, and modify the properties if needed. You can also load predefined properties.

For a detailed list of mark settings and their options, and instructions on using the mark editor, see Mark properties. For a list of elements that you can add in reinforcement marks, see Mark elements. For instructions on modifying existing marks, see Modify marks or notes.

  1. Open a drawing that contains reinforcement.
  2. Select the reinforcement by doing one of the following:
    • Hold down Shift and select the desired reinforcement.
    • Open the Drawing content manager, and click Show to populate the Drawing content manager list. You can select areas, single or multiple views, or individual reinforcement. Then ensure that building object selection is active , and select the desired reinforcement from the list.
  3. Right-click and select Add mark, and then select Using applied mark properties to use the applied reinforcement mark properties, or Using view properties to use the view level reinforcement mark properties.

    The reinforcement marks are created.

    You can drag the reinforcement marks and the leader line associativity points to a new location.

    Tekla Structures optimizes the leader line associativity point automatically. You can switch off the optimization and place the leader line associativity point where you want to by setting the advanced option XS_ENABLE_REBAR_MARK_LEADER_LINE_BASE_POINT_OPTIMIZATION to FALSE.

What happens if mark content is not defined

When you create a mark manually, and the content in the properties is not defined for the object type you have selected in the drawing, the result depends on the setting of the advanced option XS_SHOW_EMPTY_MARKS. This user-specific advanced option is located in the Drawing properties category in the Advanced options dialog.

If you set XS_SHOW_EMPTY_MARKS to TRUE (default):

  • Tekla Structures creates the marks that have no content with the "Content not defined" text.
  • The following status bar message is displayed: "Marks without content have been created. Use XS_SHOW_EMPTY_MARKS to control this."
  • You can double-click the mark and add the content in the property pane.

If you set XS_SHOW_EMPTY_MARKS to FALSE:

  • Tekla Structures creates the marks that have no content and selects these empty marks in the drawing.
  • The following status bar message is displayed: "Invisible marks without content have been created – Add elements to mark content and click Modify."
  • The property pane opens immediately indicating in the visual editor that the content is not defined, and you can add the desired content.

Modify mark properties

  • To modify a reinforcement mark, in an open drawing, click a reinforcement mark. If the property pane is not open, double-click the mark. Then change the properties and click Modify.

Delete unnecessary rebar marks

  • To delete a rebar mark, select the mark and press Delete on the keyboard, or right-click and select Delete. You can also delete marks in Drawing content manager, where you can narrow your object selection by selecting certain drawing views, areas or multiple marks, and then delete those.

Include rebar marks in rebar dimension marks

You can include rebar marks directly within rebar dimension marks by adjusting the Rebar dimension mark properties in the property pane. In this feature, rebar marks are associated with the rebar dimension marks. Consequently, the rebar marks will automatically adjust their position whenever the rebar dimension mark is moved. For more information, see "Include rebar marks in rebar dimension marks" in Add dimensions to reinforcement manually.

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