- Using Hoylu Sketch
- Sketch Tool Palette
- Opening and Creating a Workspace
- Joining an Existing Workspace
- Saving Files and Returning to a Workspace
- Sharing
- Adding Text
- Converting to Text in a Different Language
- Copying and Pasting
- Cutting and Pasting
- Erasing an Item
- Deleting an Item
- Drawing in Sketch
- How to Change Parts of a Drawing
- Resizing a Drawing
- Rotating a Drawing
- Flipping a Drawing
- Selecting an Item Using the Harpoon
- Selecting an Item Using the Lasso
- Presenter Mode
- Importing into a Workspace
- Working with Objects in your Workspace
- Object Manipulation
- Options
Using Hoylu Sketch
In Sketch, every movement of the pen on the screen creates a line. These lines are stored as vectors and can be manipulated in many ways. The primary way to manipulate the lines that are generated is through the Sketch Tool Palette.
The Sketch tool Palette is the primary menu for using Sketch. To access the tool palette, click and hold on the board with the interactive pen. Alternatively, you can right click on the sketch field with a mouse and have the same effect. Each pen/user gets its own palette and that is indicated by the background color of the palette. Each palette has its own history connected to it. An undo from a palette undoes the actions of that palette.
You can capture a palette by clicking on the palette that is not owned by you. Click on the palette you want to capture, and it will change to your color. You will inherit all of the actions that that palette has done and thus can undo the actions of that palette’s previous owner.
The palette is divided into five major sections:
1 The first is the color section where you select your colors. On either end of the color selector, there are two buttons. The one marked with an X will close the palette. The one marked with two arrows will allow you to flip the palette for left or right-handed people.

2 To the left of the central wheel is the eraser button. The eraser can be changed to one of 5 types of eraser. The first is called small point eraser which erases a small area, then point eraser which is a larger version of the same eraser tool. And finally, there is large point eraser which is the same tool but bigger again. Then there is stroke erase which removes an entire stroke, and finally intersect erase which erases a line segment if it is cut by another line. To access these options hit the arrow next to the eraser icon.
3 The central wheel on the palette has the position controller which is located in the center most circle. Hit and hold on this button to drag the palette around the screen. On the left side there is the undo button and on the right side is the redo button for the palette.
4 The next offers a pen, marker and highlighter. There are two arrows on the ends of the menu. The one on the left allows you to change to the sketch version of the pen. You will be presented with two sections to choose from: the one on the left is the stroke thickness and the section on the right is stroke opacity. The arrow to the right changes the stroke color palette between pastel, whiteboard, and primary colors.
5 Finally, there is the Lasso icon on the right side of the central wheel. This allows you to group select objects on the Sketch. Drag a circle around the object you wish to gram to select them. This will grab objects as long as it has some small portion touching or inside the Lasso loop. You can change that to a Harpoon capture by selecting the harpoon icon from arrow on the right side of the icon.
Create documents with a pre-installed template or a custom template.
1 Open A Saved Workspace (Saved file on computer): Menu >
Open >
Browse on disk > Select Document
2 Open An Existing Shared Workspace: Menu >
Open >
Open Shared… > Type in 9 Digit Document ID
3 Create New Workspace: Menu >
New >
Select template or
Select custom template
When working in a shared Workspace, you do not need to save the file before closing. All edits and history are automatically saved.
1 You can download the Workspace by selecting navigating to Menu >
Download Copy. This will save a copy of the file to your local system.
2 You can also open a shared Workspace at any time by entering the nine digit Document ID or selecting from Recent Files.

Share a document with other Sketch users to collaborate in real time at any time. Simply provide the unique 9-digit code found in the Share menu.
Menu >
Share >
Choose a title for your document:
- Optional:
Set Password
- Share via 9-digit workspace ID, QR Code, or a link to our web version that allows Guest view only access.
- Optional:
Adding and editing text is easy with multiple input options. Either just start writing on your workspace once the pen tool is selected on a touch screen, or double click to type.
Touch or Pen Input:
1 Write directly into the workspace using a pen or your
finger
Edit through sub-menu:
1 After writing using a pen or your
finger, select
Lasso Selection tool
2 Draw a circle around the word(s)
3 Drag the edges of the selection to manipulate the word(s) into any size
4 Open the Menu that appears in the center of the highlighted item(s)
5 Open the Left Sub Menu
6 Click on Convert to Text
3 After conversion, the text can now edited from the Left Sub Menu by clicking
Edit
Hoylu’s conversion to text functionality is based on the Windows handwriting recognition functionality and the language currently set for Windows. If you are having problems converting text, please double check that the language you are writing in matches the Windows setting. For example, if the language for Windows is set to English, then any strokes being converted will be assumed to be in English regardless of the language setting in the Hoylu applications.
If the convert to text option is disabled, it is likely that there is not a language with text recognition installed on Windows.
To install a text recognition, please follow the directions below:
For Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise:
1 Open the Start Menu and click Control Panel
2 Under Clock, Language, and Region, click Change keyboards or other input methods
3 In Region and Language Windows, click Change keyboards button
4 Click Add button and Add Input Languages should appear with a list of languages
5 Select a language that comes with keyboard feature and expand it to select the specific language
6 Click OK button
7 Select default input language to a language you added
8 Click OK button; Or, click the Apply button for instant switch language
For Windows 10:
1 Open the Start Menu and click on Setting
2 Select Time & Language
3 On the left pane, Select Region & language
Note: If your language is already installed but has no Handwriting icon, then try to remove it by selecting the language and click Remove button
4 In Preferred languages section, click + button next to Add a language
5 Select a language that has Handwriting icon (otherwise text recognition won’t work) and click Next button
6 Click the Install button (Make sure Handwriting is marked in Check-box)
7 Press Windows key + space to switch language to write and convert to text
Note: When switching a language, wait up to 30 seconds before converting to text
In order to copy and paste, follow these steps:
1 Select the Lasso Selection tool
2 Draw a circle around the item(s) you want to copy
3 Open the Menu that appears in the center of the highlighted item(s)
4 Click the Copy menu item
5 Tap the workspace to bring up the Paste button
6 Paste your item(s)
In order to cut and paste, follow these steps:
1 Select the Lasso Selection tool
2 Draw a circle around the item(s) you want to cut
3 Open the Menu that appears in the center of the highlighted item(s)
4 Click the Cut menu item
5 Tap the workspace to bring up the Paste button
6 Paste your item(s)
The selections tools let you select existing strokes and images to transform or modify them. Two selection tools available are the lasso tool and the harpoon tool.
Lasso Selection tool
The lasso tool selects items by circling them. It can be accessed on the right side of the tool palette.
Harpoon Selection tool
The Harpoon tool is only available in the extended menu. This menu can be accessed by clicking and holding the arrow next to the
Lasso Selection tool on the right side of the tool palette. The harpoon tool will automatically switch to lassoing when circling objects.
In order to resize an item, follow these steps:
1 Use the Lasso Selection tool to circle the item you want to resize
2 Click the circle that appears on the line that surrounds the selected item
3 Drag the circle inwards or outwards until the item is at the size you would like it
3 Remove the pen from the screen surface
While in a shared Workspace, you can take control of the view by turning on the Presenter mode. This mode will make other viewers of the Workspace follow your screen movement.
1 Tap the Presenter icon to take control of the Workspace from your location.
2 Tap the Presenter icon again to release control and return to
Following mode.
Multiple people can select to be the Presenter during a session. This will allow different team members to bring attention to different areas of the Workspace as desired.
Assemble and differentiate your Workspace from others with the import option. The import option allows you to add many different objects directly into your workspace. Try the drag and drop function from the menu and your native files too!
1 Icons: Menu >
Import >
Icons > Drag and drop icon
You can change the color of your shapes at the top before using in a workspace.
2 Emojis:Menu >
Import >
Emojis > Drag and drop emoji
3 Shapes:Menu >
Import >
Shapes > Drag and drop shape
You can change the color of your shapes at the top before using in a workspace.
4 Images: Menu >
Import >
Images > Add folder or Browse folders > Select desired folder > Drag and drop image into the workspace.
Or from your file finder you can drag and drop any image into the workspace.
5 PDF Documents:Menu >
Import >
PDF Document > Browse to open file finder > Select PDF
6 PowerPoint Presentations:Menu >
Import >
PowerPoint presentations > Browse to open file finder > Select PowerPoint
7 BIM Objects:Menu >
Import >
BIM object > Drag and drop desired product
Each object in a workspace can be selected with the lasso tool from the palette. Once selected you will be given a menu with 2 sub-menus.
1 Main Object Menu
Duplicate
Copy
Cut
Delete
3 Left Sub Menu: Formatting
To Front
Edit
Export
To Back
Background
Add/Edit Link
Convert to Text
2 Right Sub Menu: Edit
Stroke Thickness
Color Selection
Opacity
Create documents with a pre-installed template or a custom template.
1 When you select an object using the Lasso or Harpoon tool a series of options become available. These options are to change and manipulate the item you have selected. Let us start with the basic manipulation tools.
2 When an object is selected a yellow line with a hamburger menu will appear. On the very outside of the object will be a blue circle with a blue line passing through to the center of the circle. The circle and line are how you change the scale and rotation of the selected items.
3 To rotate the object put the pen on the circle and start moving the pen around the circle. The circle will add indicators for rotation landmarks at 90, 180, and 270 degrees of rotation. The object will rotate around its geometric center.
4 To change the scale of a selected object; place the pen on the blue line. Slide the pen up and down the line to change the size of the object. The line will add marks for halving and doubling the objects size.
5 To move the object around the screen, hold the pen anywhere inside the yellow outlined area that does not include the hamburger icon. Move the pen around the screen to move the selected object.
6 Please note that all the marks for changing the objects size are not relative to the objects current size and not to its original size.
7 To flip an object, use the arrows in the center of the object.
8 All objects that are placed in Sketch can be manipulated using these tools.
The Options page has a lot of customizable features to help you manipulate the way the software behaves. When the software installs, it looks for specific system settings and prepares itself accordingly to allow for ideal functionality. However, in this section we are going to go over these options and what they do.
- Display with touch support: This is for touch enable panels. It allows for touch interactions to be counted as inputs into Sketch. It is not useful for the HoyluWall as it is reducing the number of inputs into the system to one. Changing to this option will require a restart of the software to take effect.
- Display with pen support: This is used for multi user displays. It can be used for touch enable display but is primarily used for the HoyluWall. Changing to this option will require a restart of the software to take effect.
- Pen can be used for drawing. Touch will move the canvas; A touch interaction will move the entire canvas.
- Pen can be used for drawing. Touch will start a harpoon selection; A touch interaction will act a s a harpoon selection tool.
- Pen can be used for drawing. Touch will start a lasso selection; A touch interaction will create a lasso selection.
- Optimize applications UI for (Large screens or wall, small display or laptop); This option changes the way the UI is presented to the user. Small display will mount the menu to the right side and will lock its position. Large display will allow for the menu to be mobile across the top and bottom of the screen.
- Send template data; Having this option checked wills end the template to a shared Sketch document. Without this option checked the template will not be uploaded to the cloud.
- Fix sketch:// links; This option will generate a link for cloud-based documents that you can use to view the shared document.
- Advanced Options; Advanced options are for fixing the aspect ratio and page sizes for the scale of the screen being used. This part of the software is usually autodetected. It is recommended that you do not change the settings. Any changes made in this section effect a new document, so after changes you will need to create a new document to see their effect.