Old clouds left on the sheet
Clouds from the previous revision are not cleared, so the new issue shows changes from two rounds and nobody can tell which are new this time.
Revision clouds
Revision cloud: marking a change, or a comment, on a drawing
A revision cloud is the scalloped outline drawn round part of a drawing to say: look here. On an issued drawing it usually marks what changed in this revision; on a reviewer’s copy it marks something the reviewer wants changed. The same shape carries two different messages, which is why what sits next to it, the entry in the revision table or the comment beside it, matters as much as the cloud itself.
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Where clouds cause confusion
A cloud with nothing next to it
A reviewer clouds an area and writes the comment in an e-mail. A week later the cloud is still on the PDF, but the question it stood for has been lost.
Comments that outlive their revision
A cloud drawn on P02 is still open when P03 arrives, and the designer has to work out by hand which of the comments still apply.
What a cloud signals on an issued drawing
By long-standing convention, a designer clouds the parts of a sheet that changed in the current revision and ties each cloud to an entry in the revision table, often with the revision letter or number in a small triangle beside it. Many offices clear the clouds of earlier revisions when they issue the next, so that only current changes are clouded. The revision table, not the cloud, is the lasting record: the cloud says where to look, the table says what changed and why.
Reviews, RFIs & issues
Clouds as reviewer comments
On a review copy the same shape works the other way round: the reviewer clouds what they want changed. In a Fidrel review every markup, clouds included, has a number, a thread of its own and a status, and can be given an assignee and a due date. The list of markups and goals beside the drawing filters by open items, your own, a single file or an assignee, and the markups can be downloaded as a review report in Excel or printed to PDF.
Clouding a drawing in a Fidrel review
Step 1
Start or join the review
Open the drawing in a review of a single document or a whole folder, with its participants and deadline. Only participants can add markups: if you were not invited, join the review or ask the person who started it to add you.
Step 2
Draw the cloud
Choose Revision cloud and drag between two points on the drawing, or tap the start and the end on a touch screen. The cloud is saved at once and appears for the other participants without anyone reloading.
Step 3
Say what it means
Write a comment for the markup, give it an assignee and a due date, and follow it from Open through In progress to Resolved, or to Rejected. Replies stay in the markup’s own thread.
Step 4
Raise an RFI if it needs an answer
If the cloud asks something that needs a formal reply, choose Create RFI from markup. The RFI keeps the exact revision the cloud was drawn on and the markup it came from.
The other markup tools
Beside the cloud, the review toolbar has arrows, lines and polylines, rectangles, ellipses and polygons, freehand and highlight, text and callouts, pins and numbers, each with a line colour, fill, opacity and line width. Markups can be drawn on PDFs, images and DWG files. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files cannot be marked up; they take written comments instead.
Clouds and the next revision
Review markups stay fixed to the revision they were drawn on. When a newer revision arrives during a review, the person who started it, or a project administrator, can move the open markups to the latest revision: Fidrel copies them onto the new revision and leaves the originals with their history. Outside reviews, the Drawing Studio’s Mark up mode also has a Cloud tool for marking a PDF or a picture, and the original file is never changed.
What Fidrel does not do with revision clouds
A cloud drawn in a review stays a markup on top of the file; Fidrel never writes it into the PDF or DWG, and it does not update the revision table on the sheet. Fidrel does not cloud changes for you: to find what changed between two revisions, use the overlay, then cloud what matters. Who may remove a cloud is limited: only the person who created the markup, the person who started the review or a project administrator.
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Revision clouds
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usA scalloped outline drawn round part of a drawing to draw attention to it, most often to show what changed in the current revision or what a reviewer wants changed.
Practice varies between offices and projects. Many designers clear the previous revision’s clouds so that only current changes are clouded, and rely on the revision table for the history.
Yes. In a review, choose Revision cloud and drag across the area. The cloud is numbered, saved immediately and shown to the other participants straight away.
Yes. Choose Create RFI from markup. The RFI is linked to the exact revision the cloud was drawn on and to the markup itself, so the question never loses its place.
While the review is open, the person who started it or an administrator can move the open markups to the latest revision. The originals stay on the earlier revision with their history.