Surveys
Record versioned property inspections, numbered markers with photos, categories and severity, then export a PDF report.
A survey is a versioned inspection that lives inside a project, alongside its drawings and scans. It freezes a drawing as a fixed base layer and lets you drop numbered observation markers on top, so you can record the condition of a property and re-inspect it over time without losing the history of earlier visits.
Why a survey isn’t an engine
An engine links live to a drawing and reflects later edits. A survey does the opposite: it snapshots the drawing when you create it, so a completed inspection stays exactly as it was even if the source drawing is later edited or deleted. That’s why surveys sit in the Projects page as a sibling of Drawings and Scans, not inside the engine picker.
Concepts
- Survey, a named inspection tied to a project.
- Issue, a dated version of the survey. The first is Issue 1; each later inspection creates a new issue without overwriting earlier ones.
- Snapshot, when an issue is created, the chosen drawing is captured as a frozen copy. Editing the original drawing never changes an existing survey.
- Marker, a numbered pin recording one observation: a title, category, severity, photos, a comment and its position on the plan.
Creating a survey
In a project (or Unfiled), open the Surveys section and tap + New. You’ll pick the drawing to snapshot and fill in Issue 1’s details, inspection date, surveyor, tenant, client or landlord, property address, notes and a survey type. The survey needs at least one drawing in the project to snapshot.
Adding markers
Open the survey view to see the frozen plan with pan and zoom. The plan carries the same door and window callouts (D01, W01, …) and corner scale readout as the PDF report - the readout shows your grid size and the current scale - and pins stay a constant on-screen size however far you zoom.
- The view opens with Add marker mode already on: a floating pin previews where the next tap lands, and tapping an empty spot drops an auto-numbered marker, the editor opens so you can describe it. Tapping an existing pin selects it instead of stacking a new one.
- Each marker carries a title, a category, a severity, up to eight photos, a comment and its plan position.
- Switch the pin toggle off for pointer mode: tap a pin to select it; a selected pin drags to reposition and shows an inspector card with Edit and Delete.
- The ⋯ menu holds a number-ordered Markers list - tap a row to jump to that marker’s editor, swipe to delete - and Export PDF….
Marker numbers are stable, deleting one never renumbers the others, so your photos and exported reports stay consistent.
Categories and severity
- Categories are app-wide and editable, seeded with Structural, Safety, Electrical, Plumbing and Heating. Adding a category from the editor appends to that shared list; a marker stores the category name, so editing the list never rewrites past markers.
- Severity is a fixed four-step scale, info, minor, major, critical, each with its own colour on the pin.
Photos
Add up to 8 photos per marker from the camera (iPhone/iPad), your photo library, or Files. Photos are copied into the survey so it stays self-contained and travels with the project when you move or share it.
New issue
When you re-inspect, use New issue to take a fresh snapshot and start a new dated pass. You pick which of the project’s drawings to snapshot - it defaults to the one the current issue used. Markers start empty, each issue is independent, preserving the previous one as a historical record.
Export a PDF
Export an A4 report with:
- an overview page, the survey name, issue and date, the inspection metadata (people, address, type, marker count), the plan with every numbered marker plus door/window callouts and a scale reference, and a severity legend. The report plan hides lights, radiators and measurement labels so the markers read clearly;
- a detail page per marker, in number order, severity, title, category, photos, comment and plan position. Long comments flow onto continuation pages so nothing is clipped.
Kaleidoscope Plan is free to use. When you export a report on the free tier, you can choose a watermarked sample at no cost, or spend one export credit for a single clean copy. Full access always exports clean with no prompt. See Pricing for what each option includes.
Where surveys live
Surveys appear in the Surveys section of a project’s workspace, name, issue count and latest inspection date, with swipe actions to rename, move or delete. They’re intentionally not in the Library tab: a survey is a project-scoped historical record, not a flat-library type.