Draw on the map

Mark up a Felt map with drawn annotations, such as pins, routes, shapes, and text.

Annotations (formerly elements) are the pins, routes, lines, shapes, text, and images you draw to mark up a map, for example to sketch a site plan or leave notes for your team. Annotations are saved with the map, and everyone with access sees them.

Open the drawing tools

In edit mode, the drawing tools are in the Add to map menu (the pencil icon), in the center of the toolbar at the top of the map.

1. Click Edit map. If you have Contribute access, click Contribute.

2. In the toolbar, click Add to map . With Contribute access, the button reads Add. After you use a tool, the button repeats that tool. To open the menu again, click the arrow next to the button.

3. Open Annotations and click a tool, such as Route, Pin, or Text.

4. Click the map to draw. For a route, click each stop and press Enter to finish.

In the Field App, tap + on the map to open the same tools.

Tool	Key	What it draws
Pin	P	A point that marks one place
Line	L	A line of straight segments
Route	R	A path that follows roads or paths between stops
Polygon	O	An area with any number of sides
Rectangle	E	A four-sided box
Circle	I	A circle with a set radius
Marker	Shift+M	A freehand line
Highlighter	Shift+H	A wide, semi-transparent freehand stroke
Text	Shift+T	A label on the map
Note	Shift+N	A sticky note with longer text
Link	—	A web link with a preview
Image	—	A picture or PDF placed on the map
Video	—	A video link, such as YouTube, with a preview
Extract	—	Polygons copied from boundaries and buildings. See Extract boundaries and buildings.

To change annotations after you draw them, see Edit annotations.

Draw routes, pins, lines, and shapes

Route

1. In Add to map > Annotations, click Route.

2. In the detail panel, under Routing, select a travel mode: Driving, Cycling, Walking, or Flying.

3. Click the starting point, then click each stop. Shift-click to draw a straight segment, such as a trail off the road network.

4. Press Enter to finish the route.

To start or end a route at a pin, click near the pin. The route snaps to it. To snap lines and shapes to layer vertices, see Snap to vertices. In the Style tab, turn on Distance to show the route's length. Routes show distance, not travel time or directions. For the area you can reach in a set time, see Spatial analysis.

Pin

To place a pin, sometimes called a marker, click Pin, click the map, and enter its name in the detail panel. To hide the name on the map, open the Style tab and turn off Label.

• To attach a photo, select the pin and click Upload image at the top of the detail panel. Each annotation holds one image.

• To pin an address or place, find it with Search, click Add… in its popup, and select Pin.

• To pin a coordinate, paste a latitude and longitude, such as 37.7749, -122.4194, onto the map.

Lines, polygons, rectangles, and circles

• Line or Polygon: click the map to add each point, then press Enter to finish. You can also click the first point to close a polygon. Hold Shift to snap a segment to a multiple of 45 degrees.

• Rectangle: click to set a corner, then click to set one side and click again to set the other. Hold Shift for a square.

• Circle: click the center and drag, or open the Style tab and enter an exact Radius.

Only circles accept an exact size. For a line or rectangle, open the Style tab, turn on Distance or Area, and drag the annotation until the measurement shows the value you need.

Draw text, notes, and freehand lines

• Text or Note: click the tool, click the map, and type. A note isn't a comment. See Comments.

• Marker or Highlighter: drag on the map to draw freehand. Hold Shift to draw a straight line.

To draw an arrow, draw a Line, then use Marker to draw the arrowhead.

Only pins show their name on the map. To label a line, route, or shape, place a Text annotation on it.

Add images, PDFs, links, and video

To add images or PDFs, such as a floor plan, drag the files onto the map or click Image. Each file can be up to 20 MB. See Data limits.

• If a photo has location data, click Move to location to place it where it was taken.

• To align an image, drag it and its corners by eye. For exact placement, georeference the image in GIS software and upload it as a GeoTIFF. See Supported file types.

• To show photos as pins, right-click them and click Actions > Convert to pin.

To add a link or video, paste its URL onto the map.

Snap to vertices

Snapping moves the pointer onto the nearest vertex of a visible data layer, or of the shape you're drawing. In the Felt menu, click View > Snap to vertices to turn snapping on or off. To follow roads instead, use the Route tool.

Add attributes

Annotation attributes pair a name with a value, such as "year" and "1990".

1. Select the annotation. In the detail panel, click the Attributes tab.

2. Click Add attribute and enter a name.

3. Press Tab and enter a value.

Annotations and layers

Use annotations to mark up a map and layers to analyze data. To draw features into a data layer, see Add a feature to a layer. To create an empty layer, see Create layers.

Convert annotations to a layer

Converting annotations to a layer needs Edit access to the map.

1. Select the annotations or a group. To select all pins, right-click one and click Actions > Select all with the same type.

2. Right-click and click Actions > Convert to layer. The layer replaces the annotations. To undo, press Cmd+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows).

Only pins, lines, routes, polygons, rectangles, and circles convert. A group converts only if every annotation in it supports conversion. Move unsupported annotations out of the group first.

Copy layer features to annotations

To copy a layer feature, such as one county, as an annotation, click the feature. In its popup, click ···, then Duplicate to annotations.

Export annotations

To download annotations as GeoJSON or GPX, see Export annotations.