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Design View

Switch a map between Install view and Design view — label tags with your Sign IDs, colours by sign type, and a legend.

3 min readUpdated September 28, 2026organiser

Every plotted map has two views of the same pins.

Install viewDesign view
Pin labelSign number on the pinA label tag beside the pin: the Sign ID, sign name or sign number
Pin colourInstall status (pending, in progress, installed…)The sign type's Design view pin colour
Legend—Sign types on the map, with counts
Who it's forInstallers and progress trackingDesigners, clients, install packs and sign-off plans

Install view is unchanged and is what contractors see in the field app. Design view is a presentation layer — switching views never changes any sign.

Switching views

Open a map and use the Install | Design toggle in the toolbar. Your choice is remembered for that map on your device.

To make Design the view a fresh visitor lands in, go to the event's Settings tab › Map presentation › Default map view. A viewer's own toggle choice still wins on their device.

What the label says

Under Map presentation › Design label, choose what the tag shows for every sign on the event:

  • Sign name
  • Sign number
  • Sign ID — the sign's own ID with its instance number, for example N21Aw-1_2. See Sign IDs.

A sign with no Sign ID falls back to its sign number.

Colours

Design view colours pins and tags by sign type. Set a Design view pin colour on each sign type in your library, override it per event, or leave it automatic for a palette colour. See Design view pin colours.

The legend

In Design view a legend sits in the top-left of the map listing the sign types on the map and how many signs each has. Click its header to collapse it to a Legend · N signs pill and click again to open it. The collapsed state is remembered on your device. If any labels could not be placed without overlapping, the legend says so.

Label placement

Tags are placed automatically: on the side the sign faces where possible, otherwise the nearest clear position, always avoiding other pins and tags.

  • Move a label — drag the tag. The new position is saved with the sign and used in the Design Map PDF.
  • Put it back — click the pin to open its popover, open the Sign actions menu (⋯) and choose Reset label position. The item only appears once a label has been moved.

Survey pins on the same map are treated as obstacles, so tags never cover them.

Field app label

Contractors always see install status colours. To show them Sign IDs instead of sign numbers on pins and in their sign list, set Settings › Map presentation › Field app label to Sign ID. Signs without a Sign ID still show their number.

Exporting

Export this map as PDF in the map toolbar opens the export dialog preset to the view you are looking at, and Export current view as image saves a PNG of the viewport. See Exporting a Design Map PDF and map images.

Design View — Help Centre | Signplanr