Object marks: a reference on every object

Every object you place gets its own mark: the prefix of its category and a number, such as C03 for the third glamping pod or SF01 for the first bench. Marks let you tell twelve identical pods apart on a plan, in a schedule and on site.

What a mark is

A mark is the category's prefix plus the object's number, padded to two digits: C01 … C99, then C100. The number belongs to the object; the prefix belongs to the category. Change a prefix and every object in that category is relabelled at once.

The default prefixes:

Marks work on every kind of site: residential, retail and events. On an event site an object takes the category it is listed under there, so a glamping pod is C (Camping & glamping) and a porta-loo is W (Welfare). On a residential or retail site the same pod is in Amenities, so it is AM.

Numbers run per prefix

Numbers are unique per prefix, across the whole design. Two categories that share a prefix share one number run, so no two objects on a plan ever show the same mark. Waste and Waste & Recycling both use WA by default, so a skip and a wheelie bin are WA01 and WA02, never both WA01.

Placing, pasting and duplicating

• Each object you place takes the next number in its prefix: the highest number already used, plus one. Place three pods and they are C01, C02, C03.
• Deleting an object leaves a gap; gaps are not filled automatically. Deleting the highest number frees it, so the next pod you place reuses it.
• A pasted or duplicated object always gets a new number. A copy never repeats its original’s mark. A group paste numbers each member.
• Arrays. The copies of an array (a row of porta-loos along a road) are numbered by their run: W01–W08. Lengthen the run or raise its count and the new copies take the next numbers; shorten it and the last numbers go. While the array editor is open, shortening and lengthening again gives the same numbers back. A copy’s mark is set by its run, so it cannot be edited on its own. If you delete a single copy, its number is kept for it and comes back with it when the run is next redrawn.
• The panels of a Heras or barrier run have no marks: the run is the fence, with its own fence-schedule ref.

Opening an older design

Objects placed before marks existed are numbered automatically when the design opens, in the order they were placed, after any marks already there. Opening the same design twice gives the same marks. Opening never marks the design as changed and adds no undo step; the numbers are saved with your next save.

Editing an object’s number

Select one object and open 🏷 Data (on the edit bar, the right-click menu or the iPad ⋯ menu). The Mark row at the top shows the prefix and the number. Type a new number and Apply; it is one undo step. Numbers run from 1 to 99999.

If another object with the same prefix already has that number, the edit is refused and the message tells you the next free number: “C07 is already used by another object (Glamping Bell Tent). The next free number is C13.” Nothing is changed. A locked object must be unlocked first, and an array copy is numbered by its run. On a residential or retail site the 🏷 Data button now shows whenever a marked object is selected, even with no data fields defined.

The 🔖 Object marks dialog

Open it from the sidebar, 3 · Algorithm & Settings › 🔖 Object marks…, or from Prefixes… on the Mark row. It lists each category offered on this site, its prefix and the marks in use. Type a new prefix (1 to 4 letters, A–Z) and the message line tells you what Apply will do before you commit. ↺ resets one row to its default and Reset all resets every row. Prefixes are saved with the project, not with a template, so a new project starts on the defaults.

Giving two categories the same prefix. Allowed: they then share one number run. When the new prefix is already in use, the category you changed is the one renumbered, after the numbers already there, so marks that may already be on issued drawings stay as they are:

• Set Site & traffic to S while Structures holds S01–S05 and Site & traffic holds ST01–ST03: Structures keeps S01–S05, and the site kit becomes S06–S08.
• Set Structures to ST instead while the site kit holds ST01–ST10: the site kit keeps ST01–ST10, and the structures become ST11–ST15.

Setting it back (Site & traffic to ST) only relabels: the site kit reads ST06–ST08. ↻ Renumber on a row numbers every object with that prefix 1, 2, 3… in the order placed, closing the gaps. Each Apply and each Renumber is one undo step.

Tags

A tag shows an object’s mark. With Ref only ticked a tag shows just the mark, C03, centred on the object; a full tag’s second line reads C03 · 6 beds · B · L · D, or SF01 · Street Furniture. Tag all on Camping & glamping with Ref only tags every pod with its own mark. See Plot numbers, house type marks, text labels & tags.

Where marks appear

• The selected object’s caption on the edit bar starts with its mark: C03 · Glamping Bell Tent · 6 beds.
• The 🏷 Object data panel, and the Ref column of the 📋 Object data table, its CSV and the object data schedule.
• On an event site, the Event objects schedule lists each row’s marks, compressed to ranges (C01–C12, C01–C05, C08); so do the Ride capacity schedule and the Event Safety Plan’s Objects and Rides tables. A long list is shortened on the sheet with “…+N”; the CSV and the report carry it in full.
• The Event Safety Plan’s hire table gains a Marks column beside the H-ref, on every line that hires placed objects. Barrier, trackway, car-park and delivery lines leave it blank. The quote request is unchanged.
• The Event Safety Plan’s entry controls and the Security plan name each gate, control room and HVM opening by its own mark.

Marks are not drawn on the plan by themselves: put them there with tags. The design review does not name marks yet; its findings read as before.

Trees and plants

Trees, shrubs and plants with a species have no mark. They keep the references they already have: a plant its planting code, a tree its landscape-schedule T-ref, so the planting plan still keys to the planting and landscape schedules. Landscaping marks (LS) number planters and the other landscaping objects.

The security key

The control room is numbered in Medical & safety (M) and HVM openings in Entry & movement (A), like any other object. A sheet, export or shared copy that hides the security layout leaves their marks out everywhere, so M and A show a gap there, exactly as a deleted object would. Marks are never renumbered for display, so an object reads the same on every output.