Navigation

Moving around the board and changing the zoom.

A board is an infinite canvas. You look at it through a virtual camera, the canvas camera, that can move in any direction and zoom in and out.

Moving the canvas camera changes which part of the board you see. Camera shapes define a position, zoom, and area shown for it, so animations and presentations can return to that exact framing. See Cameras.

Basic navigation

Mouse

  • Pan in any direction: drag with the middle button, or hold Space and drag with the right button.
  • Pan up and down: turn the wheel.
  • Pan sideways: hold Shift and turn the wheel.
  • Zoom around the pointer: hold Ctrl or Cmd and turn the wheel.

Trackpad

  • Pan in any direction: swipe with two fingers, or hold Space and drag with a right-click.
  • Zoom around the pointer: pinch, or hold Ctrl or Cmd and swipe with two fingers.

SpacePilot

A SpacePilot 3D mouse drives the canvas camera with its cap.

  • Pan in any direction: push the cap sideways.
  • Zoom around the center of the screen: press the cap down or pull it up.

Connect it from App Settings, where you can also set its pan and zoom speed and invert each axis. Use a desktop browser with WebHID support, such as Chrome or Edge.

Navigation tools

Beyond the basic controls, the Tools panel has two navigation tools.

Explore canvas selected in the Tools panel, with Zoom area shown above it

Explore canvas

Explore canvas lets you pan and zoom while the editor's panels stay on screen:

  • Using shapes: interactive shapes respond to clicks one at a time, as in the Player. An activated embed can keep a drag for itself.

  • Seeing the Player's controls: use Player mode instead.

  • Pan in any direction: drag on the board.

  • Zoom in: double-click.

  • Zoom out: triple-click.

Zoom area

Zoom area zooms in steps or straight to an area of your choice.

  • Zoom in one step: click.
  • Zoom out one step: hold Alt and click.
  • Fit an area in the view: drag a rectangle around it.

Navigation actions

The Zoom multi-button in the Main panel holds two actions that move the canvas camera in one step.

The Main panel with Zoom to selection and its Reset zoom alternative

Zoom to selection

Brings the selected shapes into view at a zoom that fits them.

  • Operation: click Zoom to selection in the Main panel.
  • Result: the canvas camera frames:
    • With shapes selected: the selected shapes.
    • With no shapes selected: all the content on the board.

Before using Zoom to selection:

The mountain shapes selected in a view of three studies

After using Zoom to selection:

Zoom to selection framing the selected mountain shapes

Reset zoom

Goes back to 1x zoom.

  • Operation: click Reset zoom in the Main panel.
  • Result: the zoom returns to 1x, and the view stays centered on the same spot.

Minimap

The Minimap in the bottom left has two modes, switched with Show minimap next to it. The Minimap is hidden on small screens.

The canvas camera frames the mountains while the Minimap shows all three studies

Compact

Compact is the default mode. It shows the current zoom as a value you can edit to set an exact zoom.

Compact Minimap with the zoom set to 1x and the Show minimap button

Expanded

Adds a minimal picture of the whole board with a rectangle marking the area the canvas camera shows.

  • Move the canvas camera: click outside the rectangle to center the view there, or drag the rectangle.
  • Set an exact zoom: edit the value, as in compact mode.
Expanded Minimap showing three groups and the current camera coverage