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:
- Turn on Add mode and tap an empty spot to drop an auto-numbered marker — the editor opens so you can describe it.
- Each marker carries a title, a category, a severity, up to eight photos, a comment and its plan position.
- In pointer mode, tap a pin to select it; a selected pin drags to reposition and shows an inspector card with Edit and Delete.
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. 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;
- 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.
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.