Visual Space manual, Live Apps, Sketch Model And Review A Blueprint

This walkthrough takes a Blueprint from an empty, references-first file to a saved CAD-lite design with a closed sketch, a dimension, the supported horizontal constraint, an extruded preview body, a model-linked drawing, and an exported `.svg` sheet. You will also inspect the design, leave review context beside it, and reopen the file to prove that its editable snapshot returned. Blueprints is useful for concept parts, learning, and technical review. **The body, measurements, and drawing remain

This walkthrough takes a Blueprint from an empty, references-first file to a saved CAD-lite design with a closed sketch, a dimension, the supported horizontal constraint, an extruded preview body, a model-linked drawing, and an exported .svg sheet. You will also inspect the design, leave review context beside it, and reopen the file to prove that its editable snapshot returned.

Blueprints is useful for concept parts, learning, and technical review. The body, measurements, and drawing remain approximations. This workflow does not create manufacturing-ready geometry, certified measurements, or a production drawing.

Before You Start

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Sign in and join the space - Open the space that should own the Blueprint. A private area remains available only to members of that area.

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Choose an active area - Create the file in a non-archived space area. Check the area or folder before starting so the Blueprint appears where collaborators will expect it.

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Confirm Blueprints access - Creating and saving requires Blueprints app access in addition to the relevant space and area access. Opening an existing shared file does not necessarily mean you can create another one.

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Coordinate the editing handoff - Blueprints shares accepted snapshots, not simultaneous unsaved commands. If someone else may edit the same file, agree on one active editor and wait for that person's latest work to save before taking over.

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Use a comfortable viewport - A larger screen makes sketch handles, the model tree, and inspection panels easier to read. Compact layouts keep the same supporting destinations in a drawer.

Blueprints has no meeting mode. Complete this walkthrough in the standalone Live App opened from the space area.

Create or Open the Blueprint

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Open Blueprints - From the intended area, open Apps, choose Blueprints, and confirm that the explorer is showing the correct area or folder.

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Create the file - Choose New blueprint. Visual Space creates a linked draft named Blueprint Part and opens it directly. To continue an existing design instead, choose its Blueprint file from the explorer and make sure it is not archived.

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Give it a useful name - Use the editable title at the top of the viewport and enter a short name such as Mounting plate study. Confirm the edit before creating geometry.

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Recognize the blank start - A new file should show its grid, origin, base planes, and axes, but no sample sketch, feature, body, drawing, or assembly content.

The Blueprint belongs to the selected area and is paired with a Visual Space document for context and comments. Creating it does not publish a feed post.

Confirm Units and References

Blueprints currently displays document units and precision but does not provide a complete unit-conversion or precision-configuration workflow. Confirm the shown units before trusting any value in a review.

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Open Status - Choose Status and read Units, Precision, Grid, and Snap. Record the units in your review note if collaborators could otherwise assume a different system.

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Open the model tree - On desktop, use Show model tree panel; on a compact layout, open Tree. Find Origin, the XY plane, YZ plane, XZ plane, and the X, Y, and Z axes.

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Inspect a reference - Select the origin, a plane, or an axis in the tree, then open Inspect. Confirm its position, visibility, and locked state. Built-in references are anchors for the design, not ordinary sketch geometry to move.

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Return to the document - Keep the tree available, because it is the dependable way to select the sketch, annotation, feature, and body created in the next stages.

Checkpoint: the file is in the intended area, its title is recognizable, the units are understood, and the empty workspace contains only reference geometry.

Create and Edit a Closed Sketch

Use a rectangle for the full walkthrough because it supports both a closed extrude profile and the current horizontal constraint. A circle can also produce a closed profile and a radius dimension, but a horizontal relationship does not meaningfully orient a circle, so skip that constraint for the circle variation.

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Create the profile - Choose Rectangle. Blueprints adds a closed rectangular entity to the active sketch and selects it. For the circle variation, choose Circle instead.

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Confirm the new selection - Look for the selected entity and its edit handles in Sketch view. The model tree should now list the sketch and the new rectangle or circle.

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Edit the geometry - With the unlocked entity selected, choose Edit handle. This applies one undoable local handle edit. Check that the geometry changes and that the status pill reports the command.

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Inspect the result - Open Inspect. A rectangle exposes local values such as area, diagonal, coordinates, and bounding box; a circle exposes radius, diameter, area, coordinates, and bounds.

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Undo and redo once if useful - Use Undo local command to compare the earlier shape, then Redo local command to restore the edit. These commands operate on local snapshots and are not peer-safe history for simultaneous editors.

Checkpoint: the sketch contains one closed, selected profile with a visible edit result, and the tree and inspector agree about what is selected.

Add Design Intent and Read Diagnostics

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Add a dimension - Reselect the rectangle in the tree if needed, then choose Dimension. Blueprints creates the entity-appropriate dimension in the current document units. A rectangle receives a width dimension; a circle receives a radius dimension.

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Try a value edit - With the new dimension selected, choose Set dimension. The stored value changes and the command enters local history, but the fallback analysis does not fully rebuild the sketch around that typed value.

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Reselect the rectangle - Choose the rectangle again in the tree so an annotation command targets the sketch entity rather than the dimension.

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Add the supported constraint - Choose Constraint. For the rectangle, Blueprints stores the current horizontal intent and shows its glyph. Horizontal is the only constraint currently backed by this command. Do not infer coincident, vertical, tangent, equal, or other solver behavior from the general label.

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Open Status - Review Solver state, Solver issues, Fully constrained, Under-defined, Over-constrained, Solver unsupported, Dim issues, and Con issues.

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Inspect the annotations - Select the dimension and constraint in the tree and open Inspect for each. Read their value, target, status, and diagnostic message rather than judging validity only by how the sketch looks.

A rectangle with one dimension and one horizontal constraint can still be reported as Under-defined. That is useful feedback, not a failure of this walkthrough: the current analysis records and explains intent but does not provide a complete parametric solve.

Checkpoint: the dimension and horizontal intent appear in the sketch and tree, Status exposes their diagnostic state, and no displayed value has been treated as proof of regenerated or production-valid geometry.

Create the Extruded Preview Body

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Select the closed source - In the tree, select the rectangle itself or its closed profile. Do not leave the dimension or constraint selected.

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Create the feature - Choose Feature. The command creates an extrude-add feature and a matching preview body, selects the feature, and adds both to local history.

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Confirm Model view - After a body exists, non-sketch tools such as Select, Measure, and Pan view use Model view. The body should appear shaded with edges and the reference guides should remain available as context.

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Return to Sketch when needed - Select the source rectangle in the tree and use a sketch command such as Edit handle, Dimension, or Constraint. The viewport follows that work back to Sketch. Choose Select or Measure afterward to return to Model and see the refreshed preview.

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Pan without changing the part - Choose Pan view and drag to move the current model camera. Panning changes the view, not the design.

There is no independent Sketch/Model tab in the current workspace: the active command determines the view. Model orbit, complete zoom and fit behavior, persistent camera setup, and dependable face or edge picking are not currently available. Fit view reports command status but should not be relied on as a complete framing control.

Checkpoint: the tree contains the source profile, extrude-add feature, and body; Select or Measure shows the shaded preview; and a sketch edit refreshes the preview when you return to Model.

The model tree and approximate shaded body provide the dependable checkpoint for selection and model structure.

Inspect the Approximate Model

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Select the body - Choose the generated body in the model tree rather than trying to pick a face or edge in the viewport.

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Open Inspect - Review Bounding box, Preview volume, and Coordinates. Mass remains unsupported until material density exists.

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Choose Measure - Activate Measure to read the selected geometry without changing it. Compare the selection readout with the document-wide bounds.

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Open Status - Check Measure, Bounds, Validity, Inspect warn, Inspect error, Model display, and Solid boundary. A normal preview identifies itself as local, approximate, or not export-ready geometry.

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Read the section boundary - The section information is a placeholder. It does not compute or display a clipped cut through the body.

Treat the bounding box and preview volume as a way to catch an obvious scale or extent mistake. They are not certified metrology, robust mass properties, or evidence that the part can be fabricated.

Inspect connects the selected preview body to its useful scale checks while keeping the approximation warning visible.

Verify the Model-Linked Drawing and Export It

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Open Drawing - Choose Drawing. A valid closed profile, supported feature, matching body, and positive body extents should produce a sheet automatically. If the panel says No drawing sheet is available for this Blueprints file yet., return to the source profile and feature diagnostics.

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Check the sheet - Confirm that Format describes an A4 landscape sheet. Review the title block, revision, scale, material placeholder, and model-linked dimensions.

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Review the views - Under Model Views, find Front, Top, Right, Isometric, and Section A-A. The section entry is an explicit placement placeholder; clipped section geometry is unavailable.

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Compare the source - Check that width, height, and extrude depth correspond to the current preview body. A later supported feature edit, undo, or redo should regenerate this drawing metadata.

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Export the sheet - Choose Export SVG, complete the device's local save dialog, and wait for the export result. A cancelled dialog is not a successful export.

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Verify the file - Open the saved .svg outside Visual Space. Confirm that the sheet, views, dimensions, notes, and title block are present and readable.

Checkpoint: the Drawing panel shows a model-linked A4 landscape sheet and the verified local file ends in .svg. SVG drawing is the only current export; there is no PDF, PNG, DXF, STL, 3MF, GLB, STEP, IGES, or other 3D or manufacturing export behind the preview.

The Drawing panel keeps the sheet, model views, dimensions, and export boundary visibly tied to the current preview body.

Add Context and Review Comments

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Open Article - Choose Article to read the Visual Space document paired with this Blueprint. If you are its author, add a short note describing the intended use, confirmed units, and the fact that the body is an approximate concept preview. Other readers may see the context without being able to edit it.

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Open Comments - Choose Comments and read the existing review threads. If your comment permission allows it, add a focused question or checkpoint, such as asking a reviewer to confirm the overall width shown in the drawing.

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Read linked discussion honestly - Saved Blueprint metadata can identify comments already linked to design context, and those comments remain visible in the shared discussion. The current Blueprints panel does not offer a general drag-to-link workflow for creating a new geometry anchor, so do not promise that a new comment is attached to a face or edge.

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Coordinate overlapping changes - If another person is present, use the discussion to agree who edits next. A newer accepted snapshot can refresh another viewer, but concurrent unsaved commands are not merged command by command.

Keep durable review context in Article and Comments. Presence, the active tool, and temporary selection are useful live signals, but they do not become part of design history.

Wait for Autosave and Reopen

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Stop editing - Finish the final geometry, title, and review changes, then leave the workspace open for several seconds so the debounced Blueprint snapshot save can run.

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Check snapshot readiness - Look for Snapshot ready in the title area or status pill. In Status, verify that Snapshot is ready and Persistence reports that the linked document and Blueprint snapshot can reload.

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Use the status carefully - Snapshot ready means the current state can be serialized for saving; it is not a detailed save receipt. Reopening the file is the clearest user-facing confirmation that the accepted snapshot is durable.

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Avoid a competing handoff - Do not let a collaborator begin overlapping edits while your latest snapshot may still be pending. Whole snapshots converge after accepted saves, but unsaved commands do not merge.

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Leave and reopen - Return to the Blueprints explorer in the owning area, find the renamed file, and open it again. You can also use its direct document link if your current account still has access.

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Verify the sketch checkpoint - Confirm that the rectangle or circle, edit, dimension, horizontal constraint when used, and selection-aware diagnostics returned.

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Verify the model checkpoint - Confirm that the extrude-add feature and preview body are in the tree and that Select or Measure opens Model view with the expected approximate bounds.

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Verify the drawing checkpoint - Open Drawing and confirm that the linked A4 sheet, its standard views, and its measurements still correspond to the body.

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Verify review context - Open Article and Comments and confirm that the note and discussion are available to the current account.

The restored sketch, feature, body, drawing, title, and review metadata prove that the Blueprint returned as an editable design snapshot rather than as a frozen viewport image.

Fix Common Problems

New blueprint is missing or opens an access prompt.

Confirm that you are signed in, joined to the space, allowed into the selected private area, working in a non-archived target, and entitled to Blueprints. Access to an existing file does not automatically grant creation access.

Dimension, Constraint, or Feature is disabled.

Open the tree and select the correct source. Dimension and Constraint need a sketch entity; Feature needs an eligible closed rectangle, circle, or derived closed profile. A selected annotation is not the source profile.

The constraint stays under-defined.

Only horizontal intent is currently supported, and the fallback analysis does not completely solve geometry. A circle should not be given horizontal orientation intent. Read the diagnostics and keep the limitation in the review context.

Changing the dimension does not resize the whole part as expected.

Set dimension updates a stored local value, but complete solver-driven regeneration is not available. Inspect the actual sketch and preview bounds after every value edit.

Model view is hard to navigate or select.

Use Pan view for camera movement and the model tree for body or feature selection. Orbit, complete zoom or fit, and dependable face or edge picking are not current controls.

The drawing is empty.

Confirm that the source is a supported closed profile, the extrude-add feature is valid, its body exists, and width, height, and depth are positive. Open Status and Inspect for the blocking diagnostic.

The exported file is missing.

Check whether the device showed a save dialog, whether the export was cancelled, and where browser or platform downloads are stored. Retry Export SVG while the valid Drawing panel remains open.

Reopening shows an older state.

Pause editing and coordinate with collaborators. The latest accepted complete snapshot wins the shared convergence path; simultaneous unsaved commands are not merged. Reopen after the active editor has stopped changing the file and allowed autosave to finish.

Continue From Here

You now have a reviewable Blueprint with controlled sketch intent, an approximate 3D body, a linked SVG drawing, shared context, and a verified recoverable snapshot. Read Blueprints for the full CAD-lite boundary, compare it with Poly when visual scene composition matters more than dimension-driven part intent, or return to Live Apps to choose another focused workspace.