Module 04

Sketch Paper

Sketch, trace, repeat. Every project carries one Sketch Paper — an infinite canvas for the thinking that happens before anything belongs on the record: overlay options on trace, redline a placed sheet, pin up references, work it live with your team. It is deliberately upstream of the record — and one deliberate door leads out.

4.1 · Opening it

Opening Sketch Paper

The Sketch Paper card on the project dashboard — “Open Sketch Paper” — opens a full-screen surface with a back chip to the dashboard. Every project member can draw; there is no per-object ownership. It’s shared scratch space, and everything saves continuously as you work.

4.2 · The tools

The tools

Select V · Pan P · Draw D · Highlight H · Eraser E (erases only the swept part of a stroke, like a real eraser)

Rectangle R · Circle O · Line ⇧L · Connector ⇧N (elbowed; stays attached and reroutes when shapes move) · Arrow A

Text T · Sticky note ⇧S · Comment K · Trace ⇧T · Frame ⇧F · Save region to Files ⇧X

Place a sheet · Place an image I · Upload a file (PDFs render as pages) · Undo ⌘Z / Redo ⇧⌘Z

Styles. Six ink colors, three weights, solid/dashed/dotted/centerline strokes; six sticky-note colors; rich text with bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullet lists, and four faces (Sans, Serif, Mono, Hand). Shapes take centered labels on double-click.

The camera is a whiteboard, not a viewer

The wheel pans; ⌘+wheel zooms at the cursor; 0 fits everything. Hold Alt for wayfinding pills that point to off-screen frames, stacks, and sheets.

4.3 · Trace stacks

Trace stacks — the signature move

⇧T, drag a region, and a sheet of vellum lays over whatever is beneath — “Trace laid. Drawing lands on it — Esc lifts the trace.” Add sheets and the lower ones fade with depth, like real trace. Fan spreads the stack side by side to compare options; pull a sheet out, restack it, reorder, rename. Two people can each work a different sheet of the same stack at once.

A101 — placed sheet

trace · Option A

trace · Option B

trace · Option C — on top

lower sheets fade with depth · Fan to compare

4.4 · Bring the project in

Bring the project in

“Place a sheet” opens a picker over the current set. A placed sheet is pinned to the exact version you placed — it never silently updates. If it goes stale, a gold badge says Superseded by ASI 04 · Jun 12 (or a red Voided badge) — so you always know when you’re tracing history.

Upload or paste files. PDFs and Office documents render as real pages — flip through, scroll, grid, or fan them. Double-click opens the record.

4.5 · Working together

Working together

Live cursors with names and colors, a presence stack, and click-an-avatar to follow their view (Esc stops). Comment pins (C) carry threads and anchor to placed pages. Sketch Paper is members-only — there is no guest link.

4.6 · The airlock

One door to permanence

The airlock

The canvas is working space: no versions, no history, no sheet numbers. Nothing reaches the project record until you choose it — “Save region to Files” (X, or a Frame’s save action): name it, tag it Sketch / Coordination / Working, and it lands in project Files as an image marked “Saved from Sketch Paper.” One-way, by design: the saved file never links back to the canvas.

From Files it behaves like any project file — attach it to an RFI, include it in an issuance, send it on a transmittal.

4.7 · Not an SK

Not the same thing as an SK

Three sketches, three meanings

An RFI “Sketch” response is a PDF you attach to the RFI record; the “Sketch” issuance type is a formal issuance. Sketch Paper sits upstream of both: work it out here, save the region to Files, then use that file wherever the record needs it.

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