The Control panel has two types of controls: permanent and contextual. Permanent controls are displayed constantly, while contextual controls are displayed only when specific tools are active.
Control panel
Permanent controls
Zoom control
You can use this control to read an modify the current zoom level. Click on the control's menu button to open a dropdown with preset zoom levels. You also have options to fit the zoom level to:
- Document - fit to document area
- Selection - fit to current selection
- Element - fit to active element
Canvas control
Toggle the button to show or hide the ruller or open the dropdown menu and click View ruler.
Click on the button to clip the canvas to the document boundaries or open the dropdown menu and click on Clip document.
On the dropdown menu there are the following options, separate by category:
- Grid
- Show grid - show the grid
- Front grid - draw the grid on top of all graphics
- Guides
- Show guides - show the guides
- Lock guides - lock the guides
- Rendering
- Transparency grid - show the transparency grid on background
- Clip document - clip the canvas to the document boundaries
- Pixel preview - view how the objects would be rasterized
- Wireframe - in wireframe mode no fill or stroke are applied to objects
Snapping control
Use the button to toggle snapping on or off.
Click on the control's menu button to open the dropdown menu and configure snapping behavior. The following snapping options are available:
- Pixels - snap to pixels
- Grid - snap to grid
- Guides - snap to guides
- Object points - snap to object's node points
- Object bounds - snap to object's bounding box
- Document - snap to document boundaries
As an optimization, you can use the If in viewport option from the dropdown menu to consider only the objects in the viewport when doing Object points and Object bounds snapping.
Alignment control
The Alignment control provides the following align options:
- Horizontally: Left, Center, Right
- Vertically: Top, Middle, Bottom
- Distribute: Horizontally, Vertically
- Options:
- Align to selection - Align objectes relative to selection bounding box
- Align to document - Align objectes relative to the document's bounding box
If there is only one object selected, it will use the Align to document option by default. Multiple selected objects will use the Align to selection option by default unless the Align to document option is checked.
You can distribute the vertical or horizontal space among 3 or more selected objects by choosing the or options from the dropdown menu.
The align button is initially set to and the last used align option will take its place.
Path operations control
The path operations button is initially set to and the last used path operation will take its place.
The following path operations are supported:
- Unite - Unites two or more paths into a single path.
- Subtract Front - Subtracts the top path from the bottom path.
- Subtract Back - Subtracts the bottom path from the top path.
- Intersect - Results in a path that is the intersection of the selected paths.
- Exclude - Results in a path that cuts the intersections out.
- Merge - Combines all path contours.
- Split - Split a path into its constituent contours.
- Divide - Divides a path based on its intersections, then merges it. Use Split to split it into separate contours.
- Outline - Extracts the stroke into a separate path.
Clip control
The Clip control allows users to perform clipping and masking operations. To open the dropdown menu click on the button. Here you have the following options:
- Create clip path- Use the front-most path as a clipping path and place all other paths inside the clipping group.
- Create clip mask - Use the front-most path as a clipping mask and place all other paths inside the clipping group.
- Draw inside - Use a copy of the front-most path as a clipping path and place the selected paths inside the clipping group.
Other controls
Menu - Open the application menu
Open - Open a new project
Save - Save the current project
Undo - Undo the last action
Redo - Redo the last action
Contextual controls
Transform controls
These controls appear in the Control panel only when the Selection tool is active.
Use the button to center the anchor point on the selected objects. Click and hold the button to open a dropdown that allows you to move the anchor point to corners, sides, and center.
Use the or buttons to flip the selected objects horizontally or vertically using the anchor point as a pivot.
The or buttons are used to rotate the selected objects 90° counter-clockwise or clockwise using the anchor point as a pivot.
Node controls
These controls appear in the Control panel only when the Node tool is active.
For controlling the joints between two path segments you have the following options:
- Straight - Remove control points.
- Disconnected - Control points can be moved independently.
- Mirrored - Control points maintain the 180° angle between them and the distance to the node.
- Asymmetric - Control points maintain the 180° angle between them, but the distance to the node may differ.
Select a path and click the button to reverse its direction. Use the button to change the starting point of a closed path.