Annotations and Dimensions

Annotations and dimensions are two ways to use connectors in a scene.
Annotations display text next to a single connector within the scene.
Dimensionsdisplay the distance between two connectors within the scene.

Both annotations and dimensions are based on mesh connectors. Your scene should have these before you create an annotation or dimension.

Managing Annotations and Dimensions

Open the “Annotations” category in the scene’s explorer. All annotations and dimensions of that scene are listed.

• Create one by clicking the Annotations context menu, then Create Annotation or Create Dimension.

• Delete or Duplicate one by clicking the context menu on the specific annotation or dimension in the explorer, and selecting “Delete” or “Clone”.

• Hide one by clicking the visibility icon on the specific annotation or dimension in the explorer.

Annotation Properties

Property	Options
Name	Your name of the annotation or dimension. Try to keep the name unique. While the same name shared across multiple objects is allowed, doing so makes run-time manipulations more difficult.
Enabled	Set this to false to hide the annotation, or true to show it. You can also click the visibility icon next to its name in the explorer.
Label	The text you want to display. Leave this blank for no text, enter text for static text, or make the text dynamic with a Snap scene rule. The special text {v} in the label of a dimension will be replaced with the current distance in scene units (usually meters). It can accept simple math combined with other text, like {v*100} centiunits. The special text \n in the label will be replaced by a line break, which creates multi-line labels. Dimension values displayed in label text are calculated in scene units. Any settings for scaled units found under Scene Node > Properties > Dimensions > Scalar per scene unit are not used in calculating labels. If your scene uses scaled units, remember to apply the same multiplier used there in these label text calculations. For example, if a dimension is 0.762m long, some ways to display that could be 2.50 feet {{v.vv feet}} 2 feet, 6 inch {{v feet}}, {{v.vv inch}} 2'6" {{v '}} {{v.vv “}} 0.76 m {{v.vv m}} 76.2 cm {{v.vv cm}}
Text Alignment	The label text is placed within an invisible 2D bounding box. This property aligns the text within that box. Left aligns the text along the left edge of the box. Center places the text in the middle of the box. Right aligns the text along the right side of the box.
Annotation Attachment Point: Horizontal Vertical	An optional line can be drawn between the connector and the invisible bounding box that shows the label text. The line can attach to 9 possible positions in that box. Horizontal options: Left, Center, Right Vertical options: Top, Middle, Bottom Before adjusting this parameter, first set your line style to solid. This can help you visualize how the line attaches to the label. Explore other line style choices after you have selected the attachment point.
Font Size	The size of the label.
Line Spacing	If the label has line breaks, this adjusts the space between the lines of the multi-line label.
Font Family	The name of the font family to be used. This must be spelled exactly, such as “Source Sans Pro Semibold”. Unlike theme fonts, annotation fonts must be either present on the user’s device or be referenced in the “Preload Font Stylesheet” parameter. If not, the web browser will render the annotation text using an available font on the user's machine.  Learn more about using fonts.
Preload Font Stylesheet	The stylesheet URL which helps the user’s computer find the font listed in the “font family” parameter. Leave blank to refer to a font installed on the user’s computer. This is risky, as not all computers or mobile devices have the same fonts installed. Enter the path to a stylesheet to refer to a web-based font. This is safer, as it will work well on all modern web browsers, regardless of operating system. Learn more about finding or creating a stylesheet URL.
Billboard	Should the text always face the user’s camera?
Keep on top	Should the text always appear, even if a mesh closer to the user’s camera would block it from view?
Is Pickable	If the user tries to select the annotation/dimension (by clicking it with a mouse, or tapping it on a mobile device), should it accept the selection, or pass the selection through to other objects behind it? By default, this is false for annotations/dimensions.
Scale Text With Camera	If the scene camera can zoom in and out, should the label text remain the same size, or scale realistically with the other scene objects?
Text Color	Color Value The RGBA color value of the text.
Connector	Connector Reference To select a connector, click this field: a note appears at the top of the scene informing you the scene is in connector selection mode. It will remain in this mode until you either select a connector (in the explorer on the left, or in the scene itself), or you Cancel. To clear a selected connector, click the X symbol in the field.
Position Offset	The distance away from the connectors the text and decorations should appear, described as a vector.
Label Offset	By default of [0,0,0], the label will appear directly on the dimension line. Use this vector to give the label an optional additional offset added to the position offset for legibility or styling. For example, a label offset of [0,0.5,0] on a dimension along the X axis would move the label text up the Y axis and away from the dimension line.

Dimension Properties

Property	Options
Includes all the Annotation properties listed above, along with…
Connector 2	Dimensions mark and measure the distance between two connectors. Specify the second connector here.
Align to Axis	Dimensions can appear as a straight line between the two connectors, or they can appear in the styling of an architectural drawing, parallel to one of the scene’s axes.
Label Offset	The label can appear directly on the dimension line, or it can be offset for legibility or styling.
Line Cap Style	How any line cap decoration should appear: none, arrow, or line.
Label Angle	How many degrees the label should be rotated from the orientation of the connector.
Line Style	How any line decoration should appear: solid, dashed, dotted, etc.
Scale Dashed Lines With Camera	(Only appears when line style is set to "Dashed") Like the scale text with camera property shown above, this sets the scale of the styled lines to be either consistent regardless of camera zoom, or changing scale realistically to match other scene objects.
Dimension Line Gap	(Unlike other value paramers in this section, this is a percentage value ranging from 0 to 1. ) How much space should be between the dimension line and the target connectors? The default is 10%, or 0.10

Example: using a custom font in an annotation

First, learn how to use fonts in Epicor CPQ. That will show you how to find three pieces of information that will help your font work in your annotation: the font name, the stylesheet URL, and the font URL. In this example, we will continue the “dancing script” example from that document.

1. Create a connector on some mesh.

2. Create an annotation by clicking the Annotations context menu, then Create Annotation .

3. Set the label property to “This is an annotation with Dancing Script”

4. Set the font size to 0.2

5. Associate this annotation with the connector by clicking the select connector button, and selecting the connector.

6. Use the font name and stylesheet URL of your custom font (as described in the help document on using fonts):

   1. Set the font family to “Dancing Script”

   2. Set the “Preload Font Stylesheet” to “https://produskbmax.blob.core.windows.net/demo-dev/media/demo-fonts/dancingscript.css”

   3. You should see the annotation text appear in the font. If not, check the spelling of your font name and the path of your stylesheet URL.

Example: Managing annotations with Snap rules

Annotation properties can be changed during run-time with Snap rules. For example, you may have a complex product with multiple dimensions. Create a toggle button or action for your user to turn the dimensions on or off as they wish.

Comparing Dimensions, Annotations, and Hotspots

	Dimension	Annotation	Hotspot
Shows	Text only	Text only	Any configurator UI element, such as a group, field, expander, or image.
Location	Within the scene	Within the scene	Floating above the scene, like a sticker on a window.
Orientation	Fixed direction, or Always facing user	Fixed direction, or Always facing user	Always facing user
Interaction	None (ignores clicks), or Clickable (to run your Snap code)	None (ignores clicks), or Clickable (to run your Snap code)	None (ignores clicks), or Clickable (to open or close), or Interactive (type data, select from lists, open expanders, etc.)

The animation below shows the differences in orientation between a dimension and annotation (here, both in a fixed direction) and a hotspot (always facing the user).

Clickable Annotations

By default, annotations and dimensions are not clickable. To change this so they react to a user’s click, complete two steps.

1. Set the pickable property to true (either in the properties, or via Snap in a scene rule or loaded rule).

2. Add one of the interaction Snap blocks to the annotation node, such as “on click” or “on double click”.