Customization

DrawMotive provides several ways to customize the editor and your diagrams.

Coordinate System

DrawMotive uses a mathematical coordinate system for the viewport:

• Origin — Center of the viewport
• X-axis — Positive to the right
• Y-axis — Positive upward (like a math graph, not like typical screen coordinates)

This convention simplifies geometric calculations, especially when working with the constraint solver. The editor handles the conversion between this system and screen coordinates transparently — you don't need to think about it during normal use.

When entering precise coordinates (for fixed point constraints or programmatic positioning), remember that Y values increase upward.

Grid Settings

The background grid helps with alignment and provides visual scale reference. You can customize:

• Grid visibility — Toggle the grid on or off
• Grid spacing — Adjust the distance between grid lines
• Snap to grid — When enabled, shapes snap to the nearest grid intersection when placed or moved

The grid scale adjusts automatically as you zoom in and out, showing finer intervals at higher zoom levels.

Themes and Styling

Shape Defaults

Configure default properties for new shapes:

• Stroke color — Default outline color for new shapes
• Fill color — Default fill for new shapes
• Stroke width — Default outline thickness
• Font — Default font family and size for text objects

Dark Mode

DrawMotive supports both light and dark themes. The editor respects your system preference and can also be toggled manually.

Templates

Start new diagrams from templates to save time on common diagram types. Templates include pre-configured shapes and layouts for:

• Flowcharts
• System architecture diagrams
• Organizational charts
• Network diagrams

Viewport Controls

Zoom

• Scroll wheel — Zoom in/out centered on cursor position
• Keyboard — Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- for zoom in/out
• Pinch — Trackpad pinch-to-zoom
• The zoom level affects grid density and grip handle sizes (grips stay the same apparent size regardless of zoom)

Pan

• Middle mouse button — Click and drag to pan
• Space + drag — Hold Space to temporarily switch to pan mode
• Two-finger scroll — Trackpad scrolling

Reset

Double-click the zoom controls to reset the viewport to the center of your drawing at the default zoom level.