Element Properties

Properties let you attach typed metadata to individual measurement elements. Every line, area, rectangle, circle, or other shape can carry its own values. You define the properties once on a template; from then on, every element drawn under that template can be filled in with the corresponding values, and those values are included when you export your measurements as a CSV or XLSX table or as part of a PDF.

Typical uses for properties:

The material on each wall area (brick, drywall, concrete).
The manufacturer or model on each window rectangle.
A status flag on each fixture (ok, needs repair, replaced).
A diameter class on each pipe length.
An inspection grade on each defect circle.

Properties are always attached to individual elements, not to the image as a whole or to a folder. If you need a value that is the same for every element in an image, you should choose a different mechanism (for instance, the image's name, or a folder-level setting).

Property types

A property has a type, which determines the input widget that ImageMeter shows and how the value appears in the output.

Text: Free-form string. Use this for notes, model numbers, free-form descriptions.
Whole number: An integer value. Optionally bounded by a minimum and maximum (for instance, a rating between 1 and 5) and with an optional default value.
Decimal number: A floating-point value with an optional default. Useful for measurements that are not derived from the drawn geometry, such as a wall thickness, a weight, or a temperature.
Yes / No: A simple checkbox. Useful for flags such as load-bearing or needs repair.
Choice: The user picks one option from a fixed list that you define on the template. For example, a material property whose options are wood, plastic, and aluminium.
Hierarchical choice: A multi-level dropdown with up to three levels. Use this when one option has natural sub-options, such as material → species → finish or category → product → variant.

Defining a property on a template

To add a property to a template:

Open the ImageMeter Settings → Templates and data tables, and pick the template you want to extend.
Switch to the Properties section of the template.
Press '+ Add property'.
Choose the property type and give the property a display name. The name is what the user sees in the value-entry dialog and as the column header in the export.
Fill in the type-specific options: the list of choices for a Choice property, the bounds for a Whole number, the default value, and so on.
Choose which kind of element the property should apply to (see Assigning properties to element types below).
Save.

Fig. 1: the Properties section of a template.

Fig. 2: defining a new property (name, type, and assignment target).

Assigning properties to element types

Not every property makes sense on every kind of element. A wall thickness has no meaning for a text label; a window manufacturer does not fit a free length measurement. When you define a property, you choose which element types it should be available on:

Any element: the property is shown on every element, regardless of type.
A specific type: Length, Area, Rectangle, Angle, Circle, Counter, or Text label.

Entering values while measuring

While editing an image, select the element you want to annotate. Press the tag icon in the toolbar to open the dialog with the element's tag and properties. Each property that you have defined in the template and that matches the selected element is shown there.

The input widget depends on the property type:

Text: single-line text field.
Whole number / Decimal number: numeric input.
Yes / No: checkbox.
Choice: dropdown menu listing the predefined options.
Hierarchical choice: one dropdown per level. Choosing an option in the first dropdown filters the options in the next.

Fig. 3: property values for a selected element.

Each element's values are stored independently. Two rectangles drawn with the same template can carry different values for the same property.

Loading a hierarchical choice from a text file

If you have a long list of hierarchical choices (a catalog of window-frame materials, a product taxonomy, a list of room types with sub-types, …), you do not have to type the entries one by one in the editor. Instead, prepare them in a plain text file and import them all at once. This feature is currently only available in the desktop version.

In the Enum tree editor, press 'Load from text file…' and pick your file. The file format is:

One entry per line.
Indentation defines the hierarchy: child entries are indented more than their parent.
All siblings on one level must share the same indentation. You may use spaces or tabs, but be consistent.
Up to three levels of nesting are supported.
Empty lines are ignored.

The following example describes a small catalog of window-frame materials.

wood
  pine
    white
    yellow
    red
  oak
    beige
    brown
plastic
  ABS
    white
    grey
    black
  PVC
aluminium

Properties in exports

Property values become columns in CSV and XLSX exports and in PDF tables generated from a table layout. Each property contributes one column to the output. Hierarchical-choice properties expand to one column per level, which is convenient when you want to filter or pivot the data in a spreadsheet.

Fig. 4: custom property columns in a PDF export.