Drawing and Editing

This guide covers the core drawing and editing features in DrawMotive.

The Editor Interface

The DrawMotive editor consists of:

• Toolbar — Shape tools, selection tool, and drawing modes along the top or side
• Canvas — The main drawing area with an infinite, pannable surface
• Properties panel — Edit properties of selected shapes (color, stroke, dimensions)
• Grid — Background grid lines that help with alignment (can be toggled on/off)

Drawing Shapes

Lines

1. Select the Line tool from the toolbar
2. Click on the canvas to place the start point
3. Move the mouse and click again to place the end point
4. The line is created with default stroke settings

When creating a line, hovering over an existing shape highlights it with a thicker border, indicating you can connect the line endpoint to that shape.

Rectangles

1. Select the Rectangle tool
2. Click and drag to define the rectangle's bounding box
3. Release the mouse to finalize

Circles

1. Select the Circle tool
2. Click to set the center point
3. Drag outward to set the radius
4. Release to finalize

Text

1. Select the Text tool
2. Click on the canvas to place the text box
3. Type your text
4. Click outside the text box to finish editing

Selecting Objects

Single Selection

Click on any shape to select it. A bounding box with blue grip handles appears around the shape.

Multi-Selection

There are two ways to select multiple objects:

• Drag selection — Click and drag on an empty area of the canvas to draw a selection rectangle. All shapes within the rectangle are selected.
• Shift-click — Hold Shift and click additional shapes to add them to the selection.

Deselecting

Click on an empty area of the canvas to deselect all shapes.

Editing Shapes

Moving

Click and drag a selected shape to move it. If multiple shapes are selected, they all move together.

Resizing with Grips

Selected shapes display grip handles — small squares on corners and edges. Drag a grip to resize the shape:

• Corner grips — Resize width and height simultaneously
• Edge grips — Resize along one axis only
• Line endpoint grips — Move individual endpoints of a line

Modifying Properties

With a shape selected, use the properties panel to change:

• Stroke color — The outline color
• Fill color — The interior fill
• Stroke width — The outline thickness
• Font size — For text objects
• Opacity — Transparency level

Deleting

Select one or more shapes and press the Delete key to remove them.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z
Delete	Delete
Select all	Ctrl+A
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
Pan	Space + drag, or middle mouse drag
Zoom in	Ctrl+= or scroll up
Zoom out	Ctrl+- or scroll down

Pan and Zoom

Panning

• Middle mouse button — Click and drag
• Space + drag — Hold Space, then click and drag with the left mouse button
• Two-finger drag — On trackpads

Zooming

• Scroll wheel — Scroll to zoom in/out, centered on the cursor position
• Pinch — On trackpads, pinch to zoom
• Keyboard — Ctrl+= to zoom in, Ctrl+- to zoom out

The grid scale adjusts as you zoom, showing finer or coarser intervals to match the current zoom level.

Layers and Z-Order

All shapes exist on the Graphics layer and are rendered in creation order. Shapes created later appear on top of earlier shapes. You can reorder shapes using:

• Bring to front — Move a shape to the top of the z-order
• Send to back — Move a shape to the bottom

The Background layer (grid and guides), Transient layer (selection feedback), and Grip layer (manipulation handles) are managed automatically by the editor.

Undo and Redo

Every action in DrawMotive is recorded as a transaction. Undo (Ctrl+Z) reverses the most recent transaction, and Redo (Ctrl+Y) reapplies it.

Undo and redo work correctly in collaborative sessions. When you undo your own action, it only reverses your changes — not changes made by other users. The CRDT system tracks which transactions belong to which user and handles the reversal accordingly.