Variants palette

Many JobEngine template blocks have switchable appearances — the same placard block can show different utility variants, an attachment diagram can show different roof types, a diagram symbol can show different equipment. The Variants tab inventories all of them: every variant-carrying block in the drawing, grouped with its placed instances (which sheet, which one), each showing its current variant.

Open it with DT_VARIANTS or the ribbon toggle .

Why not just use the Properties panel?

You can — but its visibility dropdown re-renders the drawing as you browse, which crawls on heavy permit sheets. The Variants tab lists the choices as plain text (type to filter), so browsing costs nothing; the drawing only redraws when you actually apply.

Switching a variant

• Pick an instance's row, choose the new variant from the picker, done. One change is one undo step — Ctrl+Z reverts it cleanly.
• The block header's picker switches every instance at once and says exactly how many it's about to touch ("Set all N → …") before you commit.
• The panel repaints from what's actually in the drawing after each apply — what you see is re-read truth, not an optimistic guess.

Blocks the project data manages

Some variant blocks are set automatically from the project's design data when you run LOAD_DT or DT_RESYNC — those carry a badge in the panel. You can switch them manually (e.g. to test appearance), but expect the next load/resync to set them back to what the design says.

Finding the block you mean

• ⌖ (zoom) on any instance row zooms to and highlights it on the canvas. If the instance lives in the other model/paper space, the panel says so instead of yanking you over.
• Pick on canvas goes the other way: click a block in the drawing and the panel filters to it.
• Selecting a variant block on the canvas highlights its row in the panel automatically.

Prerequisites

An open drawing — no sign-in needed to browse or switch. The project-managed badges need the data-mapping bundle, which the plugin keeps cached after any LOAD_DT.