Editing & selection
The tools, how selection and manipulation work, the edit sheets and action palettes, undo/redo, handedness and help mode.
Every tap and drag on the canvas means something different depending on the active tool. This page explains the tools, how you select and manipulate elements, and the editing model underneath (undo, edit sessions, handedness).
The tools
The tool palette runs down one side of the canvas. On Mac and full-screen iPad it’s always visible with labels; on iPhone you tap to fan it open. Each tool has a number-key shortcut on Mac (⌘1–⌘9).
| Tool | What a tap / drag does |
|---|---|
| Pan & Zoom (pointer) | The default. Drag pans, pinch zooms, a tap selects nothing. The right-side menu (Open · Save · Layers · Properties · Settings) only shows in this mode. |
| Room | Drag anywhere inside a room to move the whole room; the nudge pad moves the active room. Snapping and “connect rooms?” prompts engage as one room nears another. |
| Wall | Tap a wall to select and edit its materials. Sub-tools (Line · Box · Box Set) draw new walls; the Edit Mode pill opens Wall Edit Mode. |
| Door | Tap a wall to drop a default 0.9 m door (centred and clamped); tap an existing door to edit it. A wall-snapped marker previews placement and greys off open space — doors only go on walls. |
| Window | Same as Door, placing a default 1.2 m window. |
| Fixture | Tap empty space to open the fixture picker; tap an existing fixture to select it for move / rotate / scale. |
| Furniture | The same, filtered to furniture. |
| Light | Tap empty to open the light picker (wall-mounted types snap to the nearest wall); tap a light to select it. |
| Radiator | Like Light, but wall-linking is mandatory — placement always snaps to the nearest wall. |
On Mac and large iPad the rail is persistent; a chevron hides or shows its labels. On iPhone it fans open and dims the canvas behind it. The Wall tool takes over the side with its own sub-tool column.
Selecting and manipulating
Tap an element to select it. What happens next depends on the kind:
- Walls, doors, windows open an edit sheet (a half-height panel on iPhone, a side panel on Mac/iPad).
- Fixtures, furniture, lights, radiators show an in-canvas action palette with quick actions, plus a Property button that opens a detail sheet.
For placed items (fixtures and furniture) you get direct handles:
- Move — drag the item.
- Rotate — drag the rotation handle. With Rotation snap on it snaps to 90°; the angle pill lingers ~5 s so you can tap it to type an exact angle.
- Scale — drag the size handle; the size pill opens a Resize sheet with a numeric scale and recommended sizes.
- Grid snap — toggle per item to align to the grid.
Other selection aids:
- Nudge pad (bottom corner) — arrow buttons move the selection by 10 mm, or 100 mm with grid snap. In the Room tool it nudges the active room.
- Deselect — a top-centre ✕ clears the selection without hunting for empty canvas.
- Auto-focus — selecting an element re-centres the camera on it (see Canvas & navigation).
Edit sheets at a glance
| Sheet | Opens from | Edits |
|---|---|---|
| Door / Window | Selecting a door or window | Style, width, door hinge/opening/open-state, window thickness, Remove |
| Wall layers | Selecting a wall | The material stack |
| Light | Light → Property | Type, brightness, colour, mounting height |
| Heat | Radiator → Property | Type, output (W), length, height, mounting height |
| Properties | Menu → Properties | The title block |
| Room management | The room pill | List / add / rename / delete / solve rooms |
| Settings | Menu → Settings | Canvas & wall style, units, decimals, handedness |
| Layers | Menu → Layers | Nine visibility toggles |
Undo & redo
Every action is reversible:
- ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z on a keyboard, or the Undo / Redo buttons at the top of the menu on iPhone.
- The history is 50 steps deep.
- One gesture is one step. A whole drag, or a sheet’s worth of slider tweaks, collapses into a single undo entry. Opening and closing a sheet without changing anything adds nothing.
- A refused action (for example a wall delete that would break a room) leaves your redo history intact.
Keyboard, handedness & help
- Keyboard (Mac / iPad with a keyboard): Esc clears the selection and exits Wall Edit Mode; Delete removes the selection; arrow keys nudge; ⌘C / ⌘V copy and paste a placed item (offset 100 mm, keeping rotation and scale). Full list in Keyboard shortcuts.
- Handedness — Settings has a left/right-handed option that mirrors the palettes so the tools sit under your thumb.
- Help mode — tap the ? to label every on-screen button with its name; the next tap dismisses help without triggering anything.