About the Canvas

Beta

The features described in this section are currently in beta testing and are subject to change.

Add assets, engineering diagrams, sensor data, charts, images, work orders (events), and 3D models from your Cognite Data Fusion (CDF) project to a canvas. Visualize and explore data from different data sets, summarize results, leave comments, and mention people to collaborate with your coworkers.

Get started

1. Navigate to Canvas on the CDF homepage.

2. Create a canvas or toggle between Private and Public to open existing canvases.

   • A private canvas is only visible to you unless you share the canvas URL.
   • Use Share to make a canvas public.

3. Select Add data to add and connect assets, time series, charts, files, events, and 3D models. You can also drag and drop local .pdf files and images directly onto a canvas (Ctrl+V/CMD+V).

4. Select Open canvas history to see and restore previous versions of a canvas. You can't edit previous canvas versions. Canvas checks for updates every 5 minutes and auto-saves any changes.

5. Use Lock canvas under the More options (...) icon to prevent unwanted changes to your canvases.

tip

To re-use a canvas, duplicate it from the overview page or select More options (...) on a canvas.

Explore and collaborate

To explore the items on a canvas and to collaborate with your coworkers:

• Select the Spacebar key and use the mouse to pan, or use two or more fingers on a touchpad.

• Select and drag to move items on the canvas.

• Use the zoom controls, the scroll wheel on a mouse, or pinch and stretch on a touchpad to zoom in and out.

  

• Select any item on the canvas to see options for changing labels, finding related data, and opening the Data Explorer.

  • For assets and events, such as work orders, use Change fields to select which properties to display.

  • For time series, select a time frame to navigate between current and historical data or set a specific date. Select Apply to all charts and time series to use the time frame for all times series on the canvas. You can also open the time series in Charts to further trend and analyze the data.

• Open Copilot within a document to get help using AI to find or summarize information.

• Add sticky notes using the dots around an existing sticky on the canvas, then connect them using use the lines from the toolbar to create flows and diagrams.

• Use Comment on the toolbar to add comments and mention (@name) coworkers. You'll get an email if someone mentions you in a comment. Open the Comments panel to see all comments. Select Share to share the canvas link.

• When you've finalized your work on the canvas, download a .pdf file, for instance, for evidence and conclusions.

Options from engineering diagrams

Select the purple or orange links and the plus sign (+) to add related engineering diagrams, assets, files, and time series.

For assets on an engineering diagram, you can:

• View live sensor data by pinning a time series connected to the asset to the canvas. Add rules to set threshold values, for instance, temperatures, and use colors to visualize any breaches.
• If there's a 3D model connected to the asset, select the 3D icon to open the 3D view.

Troubleshoot

If you can't add comments or mention coworkers, check with your internal help desk or CDF admin that user profiles are enabled for the CDF project.