Drawing tools
The tool rail
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
Select (V) |
Drag a shape to move it, or drag empty space to box-select several at once. |
Shape (R, E) |
Click to draw a rectangle. Press and hold for Ellipse, Triangle, Polygon, Star, or Arc — the polygon's side count, the star's points and inner radius, and the arc's radius and angle are set in the bar above the canvas. For an arc, drag out from its centre: the distance sets the radius and the direction sets where it starts (it sweeps clockwise); a plain click draws one with the radius from the bar. Arcs export to DXF as true arcs. |
Pen (P, F) |
Click to place nodes; click the first node again, or press Enter, to finish. Press and hold for Freehand — drag a rough line and it's automatically smoothed into a bezier curve, with a Smoothness setting in the bar above the canvas. |
Text (T) |
Click to place a text label. In the Properties panel, Letter spacing adds space between the letters (in % of the font size; negative moves them closer) and Line spacing sets the distance between lines (120 % by default). Pattern labels have both too; their line spacing applies to the notes lines. To run a text along a curve, select the text and a path and choose Path → Put Text on Path: the text becomes one line sitting on the path, starting at its first node (or centred on it, or ending at its end, with the text alignment buttons), and follows whenever you edit or move the path. Drag the text to slide it along the path, or type an Offset along path in the Properties panel. Double-click it to edit the words in place: the cursor and the selection run along the path with the letters. Path → Flip Text to Other Side puts it on the other side, running the other way. Rotating, scaling, flipping and nudging leave a text on a path where it is, since its place comes from the path; move the path to move it, or select both and drag them together. Copying the text with its path keeps the copy on the copied path; copying the text alone gives ordinary text. Letters past the end of an open path are hidden; on a closed path the text wraps around. Release Text from Path makes it ordinary text again, and deleting the path does the same. SVG and DXF export write it letter by letter along the path, and Convert to Path turns it into letter shapes where they sit on the path (the path itself stays). |
Pattern label (L) |
Click once on a piece to mark it: an auto-assigned piece code (A1, A2, B1…), an optional notes line for cut count or material, and a grain-direction arrow. |
Dart (D) |
Click 3 points — one leg, the apex, then the other leg — to draw a fabric-shaping dart. Escape cancels a dart in progress. |
Eyedropper (I) |
Select the shapes you want to restyle, then click the shape whose look they should take. They get its colours, stroke, dashes and arrows, line type (cut, score…) and material; text and labels also take its font and letter and line spacing (not the size). The selection stays as it was, so you can keep clicking. One undo step per click. |
| True Up | Click 2 points on one piece to measure a seam edge, then 2 points on the piece it sews to. Reports whether the two lengths actually match. Escape cancels a pick in progress. |
Distance (M) |
Click two snapped points — a vertex, midpoint, or edge intersection — to measure the distance between them. Press and hold for Angle and Outline length. Angle measures the angle at a corner: click a point on one leg, the corner, then a point on the other leg (handy for darts and bevels); Escape cancels a pick in progress. Outline length measures a whole shape's perimeter (or a path's length) with a single click instead. Like distances, both stay attached to the shapes and update when you edit them — also when you add or delete nodes, reverse a path, break or join paths, round corners or simplify curves, a measured point stays where it was on the outline; drag a label to move it out of the way. |
Editing a path after drawing it
With a path selected, Alt-drag a node to pull a curve handle out of it. Hover a straight segment to add a new node there, or hover an existing node to delete it.
The Path menu (and the right-click menu) has the node operations:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Break at Selected Nodes | Select one or more nodes first. A closed path opens at the node; an open path splits into separate pieces there |
| Join | Select two open paths: they become one, joined at their nearest ends. Or select both end nodes of one open path to close it. Ends that touch merge into a single node |
| Reverse Direction | Runs the path the other way round |
| Close Path / Open Path | Adds or removes the edge from the last node back to the first |
Seam allowances, notches and bevels stay on the edges they were set on through all of these.
Node types
As in Inkscape, a node has a type that decides how its two curve handles move together. Select nodes and pick one from the Path menu (or the right-click menu), or press its key:
| Type | Key | Marker | When you drag one handle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corner | Shift + C |
Diamond | The other handle stays where it is, so the path can make a sharp point |
| Smooth | Shift + S |
Square | The other handle turns to stay on one line with it, keeping its own length: the curve runs through without a kink |
| Symmetric | Shift + Y |
Square | The other handle mirrors it exactly, same line and same length |
| Auto-smooth | Shift + A |
Circle | The handles are set from the neighbouring nodes and follow when you move nodes. Dragging a handle makes the node smooth |
Making a node smooth or symmetric lines its handles up straight away; a node without handles gets them from its neighbours. Alt-dragging a handle turns any node into a corner. A node you've never given a type works as before: the other handle mirrors, and Alt lets it move on its own just for that drag. Node types are saved in exported SVG files the way Inkscape saves them, and read back from Inkscape files.
Escapealso backs a multi-node selection out to whole-object selection, andDelete/Backspacedeletes whatever's currently selected — as long as the canvas itself has focus.
Everyday editing
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Copy, cut, paste | Ctrl + C / X / V, or the Edit menu. With Ctrl + V the paste lands under the mouse when it's over the canvas, as in Inkscape; right-click → Paste puts it where you clicked. From the Edit menu it lands slightly offset, and each further paste steps further. Edit → Paste in Place (Ctrl + Alt + V) puts it exactly where it was copied from. Works between two patterns open in different tabs too, images included |
| Duplicate | Ctrl + D — a slightly offset copy, leaving the clipboard alone |
| Paste style | Ctrl + Shift + V, or Edit → Paste Style. Gives the selection the style of what you copied (the topmost copied shape, if several), the same way the Eyedropper does — shapes, text and positions stay as they are. Works between tabs too |
| Select all / deselect | Ctrl + A selects everything that isn't locked or hidden (measurements stay out; inside an entered group, only its shapes); Ctrl + Shift + A or Escape deselects |
| Select same | Edit → Select Same. Selects every object that shares something with the selection: Fill Color (or gradient), Stroke Color, Stroke Style (width, caps, joins, dashes, arrowheads), Material, Line Type (e.g. every score line at once) or Object Type (closed shapes and open lines count as different types; on a measurement it selects all measurements). Locked and hidden objects stay out. Also in the command palette |
| Nudge | Arrow keys move the selection — or just the selected nodes — by 1 mm (Shift: 10 mm; 1/16 in and 1/4 in with imperial units) |
| Flip | Shift + H / Shift + V, or the Object menu. Mirrors the selection around its centre; text, labels and images move to the mirrored spot but stay readable |
| Transform by exact values | Ctrl + Shift + M, or Object → Transform…. Move by a distance, rotate by an angle, scale by a percentage or to an exact size, or skew (paths only — text, labels and images just move along). Rotate, scale and skew pivot on the point you pick in the 3 × 3 grid, either of the whole selection or of each object separately. Apply leaves the dialog open, so you can repeat a step |
| Step and repeat | Object → Step and Repeat…. Makes several copies of the selection at once: In a row, each one a set distance from the last, or Around a center, turned step by step around a point (rivets on a ring, scales, flower petals). While the dialog is open, faint copies on the canvas show what you'll get and follow every field you change; the dialog sits to the side, dragging the canvas pans it and scrolling zooms. Untick Preview to hide them. The center is a point of the selection from the 3 × 3 grid, moved by a distance you give — for petals, pick the bottom and move it down by the radius. Spread evenly around a full circle works out the angle for you; untick Turn the copies to keep every copy upright. The original and all copies end up in one group. Click that group later and the Properties panel shows a Step and Repeat section: Edit… reopens the dialog with the same settings, and Update makes the copies again. Select original picks out the original; edit it — its shape, nodes, colours, size — and every copy follows by itself, undone together with the edit in one Ctrl + Z (changes made to single copies are replaced then). Moving or recolouring the whole group changes it as it is, without remaking the copies. Untick Follow the original to keep the copies as they are until you press Update; ticking it again brings them up to date straight away. Repeats of images always wait for Update. Remaking the copies keeps each one in its place as the same object, so a measurement you put on a copy stays on it; only copies you add or take away are new or gone. Release keeps the copies as a plain group that forgets its settings. Along a path puts the copies on a line or curve — stitch holes along a seam edge, rivets along a strap. Select the motif and the path, then open the dialog: the longest selected path is the guide (with several, pick it from the list). Choose a Number of copies, spread from one end to the other, or Every so many mm (Adjust to fit nudges the distance so the last copy lands on the end; on a closed path the copies go all the way round). Start inset and End inset keep the first and last copy away from the ends, Start from the other end swaps the direction, and Distance from the line moves the copies to one side — positive is right of the path's direction, e.g. stitch holes 3 mm inside an edge. The 3 × 3 grid picks which point of the motif sits on the path, and Turn the copies along the path turns each copy with the curve (draw the motif as if the path ran left to right). A line under the fields shows how many copies you'll get. Here the group holds only the copies: the original and the path stay where they are, and Hide the original (on by default) hides the motif so it isn't exported. The Step and Repeat section then also has Show original / Hide original. Reshape or move the path and the copies move along with it |
Every one of these is a single undo step — a quick run of arrow presses included.
The right-click menu
Right-click a shape for the actions that fit what's selected: clipboard, Paste Style, Duplicate, Delete, Group/Ungroup, stacking order, Flip, Toggle Symmetry, the boolean operations, the node operations above, Convert to Path and Trace Bitmap. Commands that don't apply right now are left out rather than greyed. Right-click empty canvas for Paste, Select All and Zoom to Fit.
Groups
Object → Group ties the selection together: a click on any of its shapes picks the whole group. Groups can hold other groups — group a group with more shapes and it stays a group inside the new one. Ungroup takes one level apart at a time.
To work on something inside a group without ungrouping it, double-click it: you're now inside the group, shown by a dashed blue frame, and a click picks a single shape (or a group within it) instead of the whole group. Double-click again to go one group deeper. Group and Ungroup now work inside that group, Ctrl + A selects only its shapes, and paste and duplicate put the copies into it. Press Escape, double-click empty canvas or click a shape outside the group to come back out. Double-clicking a text inside a group first enters the group; double-click it once more to edit the text.
In the Layers panel, a group shows as its own row inside the layer, with its shapes (and groups) folded in under it. Click a group row to select the group, click a shape row to select just that shape, double-click a group's name to rename it. Deleting every shape of a group removes the group too.
Object menu
Group/Ungroup, Transform by exact values, Step and Repeat, Flip Horizontal/Vertical, stacking order (Bring to Front/Forward, Send Backward/to Back), alignment and even spacing across a selection, clipping masks, and generating scaled size variants of a piece. Toggle Symmetry is the one pattern-specific standout here — it live-mirrors a selected path across an axis as you keep editing it, and clicking it again keeps the mirrored copy as its own independent shape.
Path menu
Boolean shape operations (Union, Subtract, Intersect, Divide, Trim, Merge, Crop, Outline), Make Hole/Release Holes, the node operations above, and Convert to Path, which turns text and pattern labels into plain shapes for cutting machines that can't use fonts — see Exporting.
Path → Trace Bitmap… turns an inserted image into shapes: select the image (a scanned drawing, a photo of a paper pattern, a logo) and the dark areas become filled shapes, grouped and placed right on top of it. The image stays, so you can compare and then hide or delete it. Threshold sets how light a pixel may be and still count as dark; Smoothness rounds the outlines off and uses fewer nodes; Ignore specks smaller than drops dust and small holes; Outer outline only keeps just the outside shapes, without holes or anything inside them; Invert traces the light areas instead.
Switch the dialog from Brightness to Colors for a picture in several colours — a printed logo, a patch, a painted design for vinyl or foam layers. The image is reduced to the Number of colors you choose (the background counts as one), and each colour becomes shapes filled with it. The shapes are stacked: each colour's shapes also reach under the colours on top of them, so there are never gaps between neighbouring colours — cut every colour as one layer and stack them. Leave out the background (on by default) skips the colour that runs along the image's edge. Asking for more colours than the picture really has just gives the colours it has.
Center line is for line drawings — a scanned or photographed paper pattern, a sketch. Instead of a filled outline around each drawn line (which Brightness gives you: two edges per line), you get one line down the middle of it, as an ordinary path you can edit, add seam allowance to or cut along. The line width is set to the drawing's average line thickness. Where lines meet, they're split into separate paths; a line that runs on uninterrupted stays one path. Tiny branches that thinning leaves at corners are cleaned away, and Ignore specks smaller than only removes dust on its own, never a short part of a bigger drawing such as an arrowhead. Threshold and Invert work as in Brightness. Lettering in the scan (a piece's name, "cut 2") is traced too, as lines, and with Put lettering on its own layer (on by default) it goes on a new layer, Text from trace, right above the image's layer — hide it, delete it or keep it. What counts as lettering: small shapes, at least three in a row, about the same height and close together; a row of plain straight strokes such as hatching or a dashed line stays with the drawing. Letters touching the drawing stay with the drawing too. The letters are lines, not editable text. A crop on the image is respected. While the dialog is open, the canvas shows the shapes you'll get over the dimmed image and follows every setting you change; the dialog sits to the side, dragging the canvas pans it and scrolling zooms. Untick Preview to hide them. If the result still isn't right, press Ctrl + Z and trace again — the dialog keeps your settings. Very large images are scaled down to about 4 megapixels first, which is still far finer than a cutter needs.