Add part marks manually in drawings

In an open drawing, you can add part marks for all building objects, such as parts, bolts, surface treatment and connections, or for the selected building objects only.

Tip:

Use orthogonal snapping when you create marks and associative notes with leader lines. Orthogonal snapping allows you to place your marks and notes in a more consistent way in exact locations. When you start dragging a mark or note from a leader line end handle, and you have orthogonal snapping on, the leader line end handle locks to the closest orthogonal point in the drawing (0, 45, 90, 135, 180 degrees). To activate orthogonal snapping, press O.

Review mark properties

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

If you create marks using applied properties: In an open drawing, select the mark type, for example Part mark, from 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 marks using view level mark properties: Double-click the view frame of the view where you want to add the part marks, and select a mark type, for example Part mark, from 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. When you are done, click Modify and OK.

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 marks, see Mark elements. For instructions on modifying existing marks, see Modify marks or notes.

Add part marks


To	Do this
Add part marks for all building objects in a drawing	On the Annotations tab, click Part mark > For all parts. Tekla Structures adds the part marks by using the current view level part mark properties. If you have deleted marks manually from the drawing, this command will not create the marks, and you will have to create them manually part by part.
Add part marks for selected building objects in a drawing	Select the building objects in the drawing by using one of the following methods: Activate the Select parts in drawings selection switch and select the parts using area selection, for example. Open the Drawing content manager from the side pane, and click Show to populate the Drawing content manager list. You can also narrow down the selection by selecting areas, single or multiple views, or single or multiple building objects. Then ensure that building object selection is active in Drawing content manager, and select the desired building objects from the list. Create the marks by doing one of the following: On the Annotations tab, click Part mark > For selected parts. Tekla Structures adds the part marks by using the current view level part mark properties. Right-click and select Add mark and then select Using view properties or Using applied mark properties. Note that if you select several building objects at the same time, and some of the selected objects already have marks, the content of the existing marks does not change.

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."
If marks of only one mark type without content have been created, the property pane opens immediately indicating in the visual editor that the content is not defined, and you can add the desired content.
If marks of two or more mark types without content have been created:
- Property pane opens, and there is an exclamation mark next to the object type list arrow button indicating that the list contains mark types with empty marks.
- The property pane keeps all marks with empty content visible in the object type list so that you can select each mark type and add mark content if desired. You can also leave the marks with no content, or delete them.

Modify mark properties

To modify the mark properties, click the mark. If the property pane is not open, double-click the mark. If you want to modify several marks, hold down Ctrl and click the marks.
Click the Properties or Values button to show either the property name or the property value in the mark editor view. These buttons are only available when you edit an existing mark.
Modify the properties.
If you have selected several marks, the properties that have different values have the text Varies. You can select another value from the list.
Click Modify to apply the changes in all selected marks.

Delete unnecessary marks

To delete a 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 selection by selecting certain drawing views, areas or multiple marks, and then delete those.