No. Plandot runs entirely in your browser. Your drawing, your template and your rules are read on your own computer and never sent to a server. The files it makes are created on your computer too.

Only your rules (including the outline of any symbol you boxed), plan name, room settings and chosen language, kept in your own browser so they are still there next time. Drawings and templates are not kept. That information stays on your computer. Start over clears the rules and settings, and so does clearing your browser's site data. A saved setup file holds your rules but never a drawing.

No. Plandot never connects to Fieldwire. It only makes a file that you import yourself. Pins are added as new items with a blank ID, so nothing already in your project is edited or deleted.

No. Plandot is an independent tool and isn't made, endorsed or supported by Fieldwire or Hilti. Fieldwire and Hilti are trademarks of their owners.

PDFs exported from design software such as AutoCAD or Revit, where the text is real text and the lines are real lines. Callouts can only be found if you can select the text in a PDF reader. A scan or a photo of a drawing has no text for Plandot to read, and it will tell you so.

Not directly. Export or plot the sheet to PDF from your CAD software first. Keep the text as text, not as outlines or an image, and Plandot can read it.

You choose one page at a time. Each page is its own plan in Fieldwire, so you make one import file per page.

• The text must match exactly, including capital letters, and not be broken into separate pieces in the PDF.
• Callouts drawn as outlines or part of an image can't be read. Try exporting the PDF again with text kept as text.
• Check the search area isn't limited to part of the sheet.
• If the rule uses a pattern, check the pattern.

Slide How closely a copy must match towards Loose to catch more copies, or towards Exact to avoid wrong ones. Tick the options for turned or mirrored copies, or for copies at a different size, if they apply. Draw the box tightly around one clean example, with nothing else inside it.

Pins are placed by percentage across and down the sheet, which is how Fieldwire reads the import file. They should land on the callout or the dot at the end of its leader line, but always look before you import. For a new kind of drawing, use Check pin positions first: it makes nine test pins you can import to confirm positions.

Plandot works in current versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox. A laptop or desktop is best, because large drawings are awkward on a phone.

No. Use Save setup to keep your rules, then Open setup on the next drawing.

Thirteen: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish and Czech. The translations haven't yet been checked by native speakers, so please tell us if something reads oddly. These help pages are in English only for now.

It's completely free!

We'd like to hear about it. When Plandot shows an error, press Copy details next to it and paste the text into a message to us using Send feedback in the menu at the top. The details contain the version, browser and a few settings, and never a file name or anything from your drawing.