How to Use Sketch and Inscription

Find the Sketch & Inscription step at Step 4 of the New Quote. It's where you enter each decedent's information and draw a visual sketch of the monument with your customer. Think of it as your pen-and-paper drawing board, but digital. This step appears for both monument orders and service orders.

Decedent Information

For each decedent, fill in:

First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name (all optional). If you already entered decedent names in the Cemetery & Logistics step when adding plot information, these fields are pre-filled automatically. You can leave them blank if you don't have the names yet.

Date of Birth and Date of Death. Both fields accept any text format. Type the date however you want it to appear. Examples that all work:

• “April 3rd 2026”

• “Mar 25 2026”

• “March 25, 2026”

• “March 2026”

• “2026”

• “04/03/2026”

Whatever you type is saved and displayed exactly as you typed it. The system does not change or reformat your text.

You can also click the calendar icon next to the field to pick a date from a calendar. The picker fills in MM/DD/YYYY format, and you can edit the text afterward if you want a different style.

Epitaph. Enter any inscription text that goes on the monument.

Multiple decedents

You can Duplicate a decedent to copy all the fields into a second entry, click Add Another Decedent to add a blank set of fields, or Delete a decedent you no longer need.

When you move on from this step, MonuDesk tidies up your decedent list as it saves: completely blank rows are dropped, and exact duplicates (matching on given names, surname, middle name, birth, and death) collapse into a single entry. So if you duplicate a decedent and leave the copy unedited, the two will merge back into one on save, which is expected.

The Sketch Builder

The Sketch Builder is the canvas where you sketch the monument with your customer. Before you draw anything you'll see a Start Your Sketch prompt with a few hints to get going.

Every sketch has two sides: a Front Side and a Back Side. A coloured side badge in the top-right corner shows which side you're on (blue for FRONT and green for BACK), and you can click it to flip between them. As you drag elements around, alignment guides appear and snap edges into line so your layout stays tidy. If your design grows taller than the canvas, a See more button expands the view to fit everything (and See less shrinks it back).

Toolbar tools

The toolbar runs across the top of the canvas. The "add" tools, left to right, are:

• Monument: places a headstone shape on the canvas.

• Bench: adds a memorial bench (seat only, or with a backrest).

• Box: adds a rectangle or base shape.

• Circle: adds a circle, handy for a vase or accent.

• Heart: adds a heart shape.

• Line: adds a straight line.

• Draw: turns on the free-draw pencil so you can sketch freehand. Click Draw again to stop drawing.

• Arrow: adds a dimension or callout arrow. Hold one of the blue circles with your mouse to stretch the arrow toward whatever you want to point at. This is great for combining with text so your designer knows exactly what to draw. Arrows only appear on the side you add them to. An arrow added to the Front Side won't show on the Back Side.

• Text: adds a text inscription. A small text box opens; type your text, then click Done. The new text lands in the centre of the canvas, and you drag it into place.

• Photo: uploads a photo or piece of artwork directly onto the canvas.

To the right of a divider you'll find Bring forward and Send backward (to move a selected element up or down the layer order), followed by Undo, Redo, and Delete selected. These buttons stay visible even when nothing is selected, so you can always see what they do.

Shapes and the Settings panel

A Settings panel sits below the canvas and stays on screen the whole time so the canvas never jumps around. It's dimmed when nothing is selected and lights up when you click an element, showing the controls that fit what you picked.

When a shape is selected you get:

• Outline colour: the colour of the shape's edge.

• Fill colour: a paint-bucket control. Picking a colour also turns the fill on, so there's no separate "fill shapes" switch to flip first.

• Outline thickness: opens a slider you can set from 1 to 10.

The Monument tool places a die and a separate, slightly wider base beneath it. They're added together but are two independent objects, so you can click the base on its own to move or resize it.

For monument shapes, a Stone Profile picker lets you click a thumbnail to choose the top shape: Serp top, Flat, Wave top, Oval top, or Triangle. Box shapes have their own set of profiles, and Bench shapes let you pick Seat only or With backrest. A shape settings gear opens per-profile geometry sliders (things like corner radius, depth, curve start, angle, and wave intensity), so you can fine-tune the exact silhouette.

Working with elements

When you select any element on the canvas, drag it to reposition it or drag its corners to resize it. Use Bring forward and Send backward in the toolbar to change the layer order when elements overlap, and Undo / Redo to step back and forth through your changes. To remove an element, select it and click Delete selected.

Fonts and text styling

When you select a text element, the Settings panel shows text controls:

Font lets you choose from Times Roman, Arial, Optima, Cinzel, Copperplate, Futura, Cormorant Garamond, and EB Garamond.

Text size can be set with a slider, and Text colour changes the colour of the text.

Design Notes and attachments

Below the sketch you'll find a Design Notes card. Use the notes box for instructions to your designer. These are kept separate from production notes and order notes.

Under the notes there's an Attach file button (the paperclip). Use it to attach an emblem or any reference image. Files you add here are saved to the order and stay attached when you finish and reopen it later; they appear in the Order Overview as Reference documents and are internal-only by default, so they won't show in the customer portal unless you choose to share them.

One thing to note: an emblem can only be attached after the quote has been created. If you try before then, you'll see "An emblem can be attached once the quote has been created." Save the quote first, then attach.

Exporting your sketch

You can export your sketch by clicking the export button. Available formats are PNG, PLT (plotter), and DXF (CAD).

Sketches on PDFs

When you save the sketch, MonuDesk turns it into a drawing file and attaches it to the order automatically. The drawing file is set to Internal by default so it stays hidden from the customer portal, but it renders on the Contract and Shop Ticket PDFs alongside any drawings you uploaded manually.

If you edit the sketch later, the attached drawing file regenerates. If you delete the sketch, the drawing file is removed.

When you're done, click Next to continue to How to Set Up Billing and Payment.

Related articles:

• How to Set Up Lettering and Carving

• How to Set Up Billing and Payment

• How to Review and Finalize Your Order