A placard puts words on the panel: the name of a switch, a breaker or a control, such as BOOST PUMP or AVIONICS MASTER, or a placard of its own, such as the passenger warning. Placards are drawn to scale and appear in every picture of the panel: the ones you export, the one on the Equipment List, and the one sent with a CAD, Cut, Paint & Label request.
Add a placard to an instrument. Click the instrument once to select it, then click Placard, the tag in the tool row. The placard appears just below the instrument, or above or beside it where it would not fit on the panel below, and its box opens. Type the words, then press Enter or click Done. Until you choose a side or a distance, the placard moves to a side where it fits if its words grow too long for the one it is on. The placard moves with its instrument however the instrument is moved, and is deleted with it.
A span placard across a row. One placard bracket for a whole row of switches, such as OFF under a row of toggle switches, or CABIN HEAT over a row of knobs. Click the first switch, Shift-click each of the others (or click a group), then click Placard. Type the words, such as OFF, and press Enter. The words are centered under the row, and a solid line runs from the first switch to the last, broken around the words, with each end turned up toward the switches like an L. The span placard fits itself to its row whenever a switch in it is moved, aligned or spaced, and when a switch in it is deleted it spans the ones left; with only one left, it becomes a placard on its own. Select instruments one above another and the span placard runs down the column, to its right. Double-click it to change it: it has every setting of a placard, and also:
- Side: Below or Above the row (Right or Left of a column). The ends always turn toward the instruments.
- Distance from instruments: from the row's lowest edge (highest, above it) to the letters.
- Bracket height: how tall the turned-up ends of the line are: None, 1/16, 1/8 (the standard) or 1/4 in, or any other height under Other.
- Ends: End centers, at the centers of the first and last instruments (the standard), or Past the outer edges of the row, by 1/8 in to start or any distance you type.
Place a placard on its own. With nothing selected, click Placard. The placard starts in the middle of the part of the panel you can see and is not attached to anything. Drag it where it goes. To unhook a placard from its instrument, click Stand alone in its box: it stays where it is and no longer moves with the instrument.
A new placard starts fresh, with the standard font, letter height, colors and border. To make a run of placards alike, check Use these settings for new placards at the foot of the box: each new placard then starts with the settings of the last one you finished (the font, letter height, justification, colors, border, distance from the instrument, and a span placard's bracket height and ends; never the words or the box size). The designer remembers it on this computer until you uncheck it. To give placards you have already made the same look, select them all (click the first, then Shift-click the others) and change them together in one box.
Change a placard. Double-click it. The box has:
- Text: the words. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line, for a placard of several lines such as the passenger warning.
- Font: Sans, Condensed, Geometric, Mono or Grotesk. Condensed fits more words in a narrow row of switches.
- Letter height: the height of the capital letters, whatever the font: 3/32, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 1/2 or 1 in, or type any other height up to 3 in under Other, as a decimal or a fraction, for a registration number on the panel.
- Justify: Left, Center or Right.
- Box size: the placard's width and height, in inches, as a decimal or a fraction. Leave either empty (Auto) and the placard is as wide or as tall as its words. With a width, the words wrap onto new lines by themselves; with a height, they are centered top to bottom. When the placard has a border or a background, the border and background are drawn at that size.
- Text color: black, white, red, yellow, gray, blue or green, or More colors, the last square, for the full palette: grays, ten colors, and three lighter and three darker shades of each. To match a color exactly, type its number in Color # (for example
c8102e) and press Enter; the round button beside it opens your computer's own color chooser. - Background: none (the panel shows through), or any color, picked the same way.
- Border: none, square or rounded. The border is drawn in the text color.
Move the box out of the way. Drag it by its title bar. It stays where you put it for every placard after, until you reload the page.
For a placard on an instrument, the box also has:
- Side: Above, Below, Left or Right of its instrument. A placard at the left or right reads across and ends, or starts, toward the instrument.
- Distance from instrument: in inches, from the instrument's edge to the letters, or to the placard's edge when it has a border or a background. The minus and plus change it by 1/32 in, or type a distance as a decimal or a fraction, such as 0.1 or 1/16.
- Stand alone: unhooks it from the instrument.
Change several placards at once. Select the placards: click the first, then Shift-click each of the others. Then click Placard. One box opens for all of them: the font, letter height, justification, box size, colors and border you choose are set on every one. For placards that are all on instruments, the side and distance can be set too, and for span placards their bracket height and ends. Delete in that box deletes all of them. Undo takes back the whole change in one step.
Move a placard. Click it to select it, then drag it or use the arrow keys. A new placard is selected already, so you can drag it before you have typed its words. A placard on an instrument stays attached: it keeps its new place and still moves with the instrument. When a placard and its instrument move together, in a group or a selection, the placard keeps its side and distance.
At the edge of the panel. A placard can hang past the edge of the panel, as an instrument can: when its instrument is close to the edge, or when it is moved there. The part of a placard past the edge is not in pictures of the panel. The canvas scrolls to it past any edge: scroll up or left to see a placard past the top or left edge. To bring it back, drag it onto the panel, change its side or its distance in its box, or move its instrument.
Use the other tools on placards. Select placards on their own or together with instruments, the same way you select instruments. Align, center, Move / Space Items, the arrow keys, Group, Lock, the Arrange tools, Undo and Redo work on them as they do on instruments. Snap-To works on a placard dragged by itself.
Delete a placard. Select it and click Delete in the tool row or press the Delete key, or click Delete in its box. While you are typing a placard's words, the Delete, Backspace and arrow keys change only the words.
Placards are saved with the design, including where they sit in front of or behind instruments. A design holds up to 500 placards, each up to 12 lines and 600 characters, with letters from 1/32 in to 3 in high. A copy of a design keeps its placards: both a copy made with Copy the design on My designs and the working copy our shop makes from a CAD, Cut, Paint & Label request.