Dragging
- Move: drag a selected shape. Hold Shift to keep the move horizontal or vertical. The moving points snap.
- End points: drag the end of a line or curve to move only that end. Dragging an arc's end changes its angle.
- Bézier handles: dragging a curve's end carries its handle along; hold Shift to leave the handle where it is. Dragging a handle with Shift keeps its direction and changes only its length. Ctrl+Shift moves the handle of the joined curve symmetrically (both curves selected). Double-click a handle to make the joined curve's handle symmetric. Right-click a handle to make the joined curve's handle symmetric, the same length, or lined up with it (flat); a straight line joined there is turned to line up instead.
- Splitting a curve: Alt+click a selected Bézier curve to cut it in two at that point. The cut happens a moment after the click, once it can't become a double-click (an Alt+double-click selects the chain instead); Esc right after the click cancels it.
- A drag that moves nothing is not an undo step.
Transform handles
With View ▸ Transform handles on, eight square handles and a round rotate handle surround the selection.
- Drag a side or corner handle to scale. Alt scales about the opposite side instead of the centre (or the other way round, following Scale around the centre in Options). The dragged corner snaps to points near it; a dragged side snaps to the points the pointer comes near, so it lines up with them.
- Drag the rotate handle to turn the selection; Shift snaps to 15° steps.
- With a rotation/scaling centre set, the handles turn and scale about it; Alt on a scale handle uses the handle's own pivot instead.
Keyboard and wheel edits
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + arrows | Nudge 1 mm |
| Ctrl + Shift + arrows | Nudge 0.1 mm |
| Ctrl + Alt + arrows | Nudge 0.01 mm |
| [ / ] | Rotate 1° counter-clockwise / clockwise |
| { / } | Rotate 5° counter-clockwise / clockwise |
| Alt + wheel | Rotate |
| Alt + Shift + wheel | Scale (the leather photo instead, when exactly one leather-filled shape is selected) |
| Ctrl + Alt + wheel | Line thickness |
A run of wheel or key edits counts as one undo step.
Rotations turn about the selection's centre; scalings about its top-left corner (or its centre with Scale around the centre in Options).
Rotation/scaling centre. To turn or scale about a point of your own, right-click there (on the canvas or on a selected shape) ▸ Set rotation/scaling centre here. It snaps like a drawn point and shows as a small crosshair. The rotate and scale keys, the wheel, the Shape menu's rotate and scale commands, the Properties section's Width, Height, Scale % and Rotation °, and the transform handles then all use it. It moves along when you move, turn, scale or flip the selection, and goes away when you select something else, or with right-click ▸ Clear the rotation/scaling centre. It isn't saved with the project.
The Properties section (position and size)
With the Select tool, the side panel's Properties section (or the floating Position & size palette) shows:
- Selection: Width, Height (with Keep aspect ratio), Scale %, Rotation °. Scale and rotation show running totals since you selected (Totals since selected). Hide when printing keeps the selection out of print and PDF (see Hiding shapes when printing).
- Shape fields for a single shape: a line's Length, a circle's Diameter, an arc's Radius and Sweep, and the Angle between two joined lines.
- Align: choose what to align to (Selection, or Key shape: click one of the selected shapes to hold it still), then align left, right, top, bottom, or centres horizontally or vertically.
- Distribute (three or more shapes): space centres or gaps evenly, left to right or top to bottom.
- Leather: for leather-filled shapes, see Leather.
Type a value and press Enter; each change is one undo step.
The right-click menu
Right-click a shape (it is selected first) for:
- Cut, Copy, Paste here, Delete
- Group, Ungroup
- Bring to front, Send to back
- Flip horizontally, Flip vertically, Reverse path direction
- Lock, Hide when printing (or Show when printing), Select all of this line type, Hide this line type, Convert to template object (or Separate template into shapes on a template)
- For leather-filled shapes: Rotate leather 90°, Enlarge leather, Shrink leather, Remove leather
- The clicked shape's own entries: on a stitch hole Choose the next hole, End the stitching here, Fix stitching order from here; on a line Tidy the lines joined to this one; on an arc Draw golden spiral and Convert arc to Bézier curve; on a Bézier curve Smooth connected Bézier curves: tangent (G1) or curvature (G2) (the selected curves when several are selected, otherwise the clicked curve and the curves joined to it).
- On a selected curve's handle: Make the joined curve's handle symmetric, Make the joined curve's handle the same length, Line up the joined curve's handle with this one (flat). They are greyed out when nothing is joined at that end.
- On a pattern check marker: Repair: … entries.
- Last, for the point you clicked: Set rotation/scaling centre here (see Keyboard and wheel edits) and Set snap point here (see Snapping), each with a Clear … entry while one is set.
Right-click empty canvas for: Paste here, Select all, Unlock all, View all, Show/Hide print areas, and on a page frame its own entries (see Print areas). While something is selected, the point entries above come last.
Clipboard, undo and delete
| Command | Key | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Undo / Redo | Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) | Every edit can be undone. |
| Cut / Copy / Paste | Ctrl+X / C / V | Works between projects and browser tabs. Pasted shapes keep their position; Paste here puts them at the cursor. Pasted holes keep their stitching order. |
| Delete | Del or Backspace | Deleting holes also removes the stitching links to them. |
Grouping and locking
- Group (Ctrl+G) makes the selected shapes select and move together. Ungroup (Ctrl+U) separates them.
- Lock (Shape menu or right-click) makes shapes unpickable: they stay visible, are printed and exported, and can still be snapped to. Pattern check fixes don't move them either. Unlock all unlocks every locked shape and selects them.
- A whole layer can be locked from the Layers section (see Layers).
Hiding shapes when printing
Some shapes help you draw but shouldn't be on the paper: construction lines, a coin you sized a pocket against, notes.
- Select them and tick Hide when printing in the Properties section, or right-click ▸ Hide when printing. Right-click ▸ Show when printing (or untick) brings them back.
- They are drawn faded on the canvas, so you can tell.
- They are left out of Print and Export PDF. The print dialog's Shapes and line types set to Hide when printing prints them anyway.
- SVG, DXF and STL exports still include them.
- The setting is saved with the project.
To keep every shape of a line type off the paper, use the line type's Hide when printing instead (see Line types).