Setting Up Your Drawing Space

You can customize your drawing space to suit your needs.

Displaying a grid

When you are drawing your objects, it may be difficult to draw them on a plain white surface that does not have any reference points. You can choose to display a grid that appears behind your drawings.

To display the grid in the panel:

1. Select View > Toggle Grid.

2. Select the type of grid you want to use from the View > Grid menu. You can choose from the following types:

Normal: the grid is divided into a standard set of squares of equal size.
12 Field: the grid measures 12 fields in each compass direction from the grid centre.
16 Field: the grid measures 16 fields in each compass direction from the grid centre.

Tip

Other ways to display the grid:

Select View > Toggle Grid submenu in the panel’s pop-up menu.

Windows users can use the [Ctrl]+[G] shortcut.

Mac OSX users can use the [Command]+[G] shortcut.

When this tool is active, press [Shift] to deselect an object while keeping the other selections active.

Moving within the drawing space

It is only natural to want to rotate your drawing space while you are working. Getting the best drawing angle, while seeing all of the relevant parts of your drawing enables you to finely craft your drawings.

To rotate the drawing space:

Select View > Rotate Clockwise.

Select View > Rotate Counterclockwise.

To return your drawing space to its original angle, select View > Reset Rotation.

Tip

Select the View submenu in the panel’s pop-up menu to access these commands.

Use the following keyboard shortcuts to rotate your drawing space:

To rotate clockwise, press [V].

To rotate counterclockwise, press [C].

To reset rotation, press [Shift]+[A].

To pan a drawing:

Hold the [Spacebar] down (your cursor arrow is replaced by a small open hand) while you click the mouse. Your cursor becomes a closed hand. Drag the cursor in the Drawing View to change the area displayed.

Tip

Use the following keyboard shortcuts to pan your drawing space:

Press [N] to centre the image at the current mouse position.

To reset the pan, press [Shift]+[N].

To zoom the Drawing View:

1. Select Tools > Zoom to activate the Zoom tool.

2. Click the Drawing View to zoom in.

Tip

Other ways to activate this tool:

From the Tools Toolbar, click the Zoom

button.

Select Zoom in the panel’s pop-up menu in the Drawing View.

Use the [Alt]+[Z] shortcut.

Use the following keyboard shortcuts to zoom in your drawing space:

Hold the [Spacebar] down, use the middle-mouse button and drag the Drawing View up to zoom out or drag down to zoom in.

Press [1] to zoom out.

Press [2] to zoom in.

Press [N] to centre the image at the current mouse position.