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Snapshots and export

MultiTaction Canvus gives you three ways to take content out of a canvas: a snapshot image, an email of an item, and an export of the whole canvas to a file.

Snapshots

A snapshot captures part of the canvas, or one item, as a PNG image and places that image on the canvas. From there you can email it, output it or move it like any other image.

Snapshot an area of the canvas

  1. Press and hold an empty area of the canvas to open the finger menu.
  2. Tap Toolbox, then Snapshot. On walls that use third-party IR touch, Snapshot is in the main finger menu instead of the toolbox.
  3. A snapshot frame appears. Drag it and resize it to cover the area you want. The frame cannot be larger than the workspace.
  4. Tap the camera button on the frame.

The image appears on the canvas over the area you captured, titled "Snapshot at" followed by the date and time. Tap the cancel button to close the frame without taking a snapshot. An unused frame closes by itself after 30 s.

Snapshot one item

  1. Tap the item to show its sidebar.
  2. Tap more..., then the camera button.

The image appears on the canvas next to the item, titled "Snapshot of" followed by the item's title and the date. A snapshot of a PDF captures the current page and the annotations on it. A snapshot of an IP stream is not available while the stream is paused.

Snapshot resolution

Canvus renders the snapshot at the size the content has on the canvas. If items in the area are scaled down, Canvus raises the resolution to keep them sharp, up to 5 times. Two settings in the [system] section of mt-canvus.ini control the result:

Setting Default Effect
max-snapshot-resolution 8192 Longest edge of a snapshot, in pixels. Larger snapshots are scaled down to fit, keeping their shape. Values below 256 are treated as 256.
snapshot-scale 1.0 Multiplier applied to the snapshot resolution before the limit above.

See the configuration file reference.

Email an item

You can email notes, images, videos, PDFs and browsers from an item's sidebar. See Sending items in email. Two cases differ from sending the original file:

  • A PDF with annotations is sent as a PDF with the annotations drawn into it.
  • An image with annotations, or with other items placed on it, is sent as a snapshot of what you see.

Export a canvas

You can export canvases from a server or from your local canvases to a disk or a USB drive.

  1. Open the Canvas List from the main menu.
  2. Drag one or more canvases, or a folder of canvases, onto the disk or USB drive.
  3. Canvus asks "Export 1 item?" (or the number you dragged). Tap Export.
  4. If the destination already holds a file with the same name, choose Duplicate (export under a new name), Replace or Skip.
  5. If a canvas has an owner password, Canvus asks for it. You can skip that canvas instead. See Canvas passwords.

What you get:

  • One .mtcanvus file per canvas, named after the canvas. A folder you export becomes a folder of .mtcanvus files.
  • A dated folder at the root of a drive. If you drop the canvases on the root of a disk or USB drive, Canvus first creates a folder named Canvus-Export-yyyy-MM-dd-HH_mm_ss (the current date and time) and exports into it. Anywhere else, the files go straight into the folder you dropped them on.
  • No partial copies. If the destination runs out of space, the export stops with the message "Some of the selected canvases failed to export due to insufficient disk space." An export folder that was left empty is removed.

The .mtcanvus file

A .mtcanvus file is a single, self-contained copy of one canvas: its items and their layout, and the files the canvas uses, such as images, videos and PDFs. Presentations stored with the canvas travel with it. Use it to back up a canvas, to move a canvas to another server or wall, or to keep a copy offline. The file is meant to be opened by Canvus, not edited by hand.

Warning

A .mtcanvus file is not encrypted. Anyone who has the file and a copy of Canvus can import it and see the content. Store and transfer it as you would the original files.

Import a canvas

To bring an exported canvas back into Canvus:

  • Into a folder. Open the Canvas List and drag the .mtcanvus file (or a folder of them) from the disk or USB drive onto a server or folder. If the folder already holds a canvas with the same name, choose Replace or Skip. Replacing a password-protected canvas asks for its owner password.
  • Onto an open canvas. Drag the .mtcanvus file onto an open canvas. Canvus asks "Import 'name' to server?". Tap Import to add the canvas to the default folder on the server that hosts the open canvas.

A progress indicator shows the import, and "Imported name" appears when it is done. When you drop the file on an open canvas and the default folder already contains a canvas with the same name, the import fails and the existing canvas is not changed. To replace it, import the file through the Canvas List and choose Replace.