Draw circles and circle grids · Docs

When to use the Circle tool

The Circle tool draws one of two things — a single filled circle at a chosen centre and radius, or a rectangular area filled with a regular grid of small circles. Reach for a single circle whenever the thing is round (a tank, a silo, a radial zone, a camera cone). Reach for a circle grid when you need many identical dots on a lattice — pillar layouts, seat plans, storage pods, sensor arrays. In a store or a venue, a round information desk or the coverage zone of a ceiling sensor are single circles; a block of café or stadium seating is a circle grid.

To open the tool: click the Draw button on the left toolbar and pick Add circle, or press C on the keyboard. O and 5 also open it. Saved circles are listed under Circles in the side panel and in the toolbar's Layers menu.

C O 5

Open the Circle tool (Add circle).

Pick a sub-mode first

When the Circle tool opens, the Placement section at the top of the side panel shows a two-button picker: Single circle or Grid of circles, plus a "Stop drawing" button. The chosen mode decides how your next clicks are interpreted. Flip modes before you draw: once a circle is saved it is auto-selected and the side panel switches to that circle, so the picker and "Stop drawing" only come back once nothing is selected (press Esc to leave the tool and clear the selection, then reopen it). Below the picker are the Appearance, 3D & Altitude, Labels and Tooltip settings the next circle will use.

Sub-mode	How you draw	What you get
Single circle	Click and drag.	One circle. The click point is the centre, the release point sets the radius.
Grid of circles	Click, click.	A rectangular area between the two clicks, filled with a regular lattice of circles — one inscribed in each cell.

Drawing a single circle

1
Press and hold the mouse
The point where you press becomes the centre of the circle. While you hold, the map draws a live preview at your current colour.
2
Drag outward
The distance from the centre to the cursor becomes the radius. The basemap does not pan while you drag — Spatial Map temporarily disables map dragging so the preview tracks the mouse cleanly.
3
Release the mouse
The circle is saved with a default name of "Circle" and is auto-selected. The tool stays active so you can draw another right away.

Drawing a grid of circles

1
Flip the sub-mode picker to Grid of circles
A Dimensions section appears in the side panel with two fields: Cell size (default 20 m, minimum 0.5 m) and Circle radius (default 8 m). Set them before you start clicking — every circle in the grid will use these values.
2
Click the first corner
An anchor lands at the click. Move the mouse to see a live preview of the grid filling the rectangle to the cursor.
3
Click the opposite corner
The grid is saved with a default name of "Circle grid" and is auto-selected. The tool stays active. Clicking the same spot twice cancels.

The side-panel sections

When one circle is selected, the side panel shows these sections, top to bottom.

Section	What lives there
Role	What this circle represents in this facility, picked from the facility's role list. New facilities start with Area, Zone, Spot, Station and Point of interest; edit the list in the facility settings. Optional.
Actions	Move · Rotate (grid mode only) · Fit · Duplicate · Delete · Edit linked data.
Linked data	A read-out of any data linked to this circle (shown when there is some).
Dimensions	Single mode — Radius. Grid mode — Cell size + Circle radius. Both — Rotation slider (−180° to +180°).
Appearance	Color · Border · Border width (0–6 px) · Opacity (0–100%).
3D & Altitude	Elevation (metres above the ground) + Height (extrusion) + Receive shadows. Flat when both are 0; 3D block when either is above 0.
Labels	Label text; once it has text, Label color, Label size, "Lay label flat on surface", and Label X / Y offset.
Tooltip	Hover (the default) or Click: when the tooltip shows.
Data links	The data links that use this circle, with an Add button. See Data links.

Actions on a selected circle

Button	What it does	Notes
Move	Drag the circle to a new spot. In grid mode this moves the whole rectangle together.	Works in both sub-modes. Arrow keys nudge single circles only (Shift for bigger steps).
Rotate	Spin the grid around its centre by dragging a handle.	Only shown for grid-mode circles. [ and ] rotate ±1° (Shift ±15°).
Fit	Centre the map on the circle (zoom 16 or closer).	Button only — the F key fits racks, not circles.
Duplicate	Copy the circle with " (copy)" appended. The copy is offset by a few metres so it doesn't sit exactly on top.	⌘/Ctrl + D.
Delete	Remove the circle. Click once to arm — the button turns red and reads "Click to confirm". Click again to delete.	Delete key.
Edit linked data	Open the data card for this circle — status, SKU, capacity, notes, external code, custom properties and media URLs for its tooltip.	—

Changing dimensions after the fact

Every dimension of a saved circle is editable in place through the Dimensions section — you never have to redraw a circle to change its size.

Single circle — the Radius field takes a value in your display unit. Minimum 0.1 m. The − and + keys shrink or grow the radius by 5%.
Circle grid — Cell size (minimum 0.5 m) and Circle radius. Circle radius is auto-clamped to Cell size ÷ 2.
Rotation — a slider from −180° to +180° with 0.5° precision.

Editing many circles at once

With the Select tool, Shift-click (or ⌘/Ctrl-click) circles on the map, or drag a rectangle with Marquee select (Q), to build a bulk selection. The side panel switches to "N circles selected" with sections for the bulk actions, Appearance, 3D & Altitude, and Labels. Fields where the selected circles disagree show a "Mixed" badge.

Section	Bulk-editable fields
N circles selected	Fit · Delete all (two-click confirm).
Appearance	Fill · Border · Border width (0–10 px) · Opacity.
3D & Altitude	Elevation · Height · Receive shadows.
Labels	Show labels toggle.

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