Drawing

Draw mode lets you create features by drawing them directly on the canvas.

Entering Draw mode

Select the Draw tool from the toolbar, or press D. A bar appears at the bottom of the canvas where you choose what to draw and where it goes.

Choosing a geometry type

Pick polygon, line, or point from the bar. Once you start drawing, or once you target a layer that already has a type, the type locks so a layer never mixes geometry types.

Drawing shapes

• For points, each click drops a point.
• For lines and polygons, click to place each vertex, then double-click to finish the shape. You can close a polygon by clicking on the initial vertex.

Finished shapes stay on the canvas as you keep drawing more. Click Done, or press Enter, to commit everything you have drawn.

Snapping

Two kinds of snapping help you draw precisely:

• Angle snap — hold Shift while drawing a line or polygon to lock the current edge to the nearest 15° step to help with right angles and regular shapes.
• Vertex snap — turn on the magnet button in the action bar to enable snapping of placed vertices to an existing vertex, whether on a visible layer or on the shape you are drawing.

Self-intersection

While you draw a polygon, Graticule highlights any edges that cross to form an invalid geometry and prevents you from committing these shapes. Remove the offending vertex and continue, or cancel the shape.

Choosing where shapes go

By default, your shapes go to a new layer, created when you commit. To draw into an existing layer instead, click Target layer and pick a layer from the panel — the draw type adopts that layer’s data type. Click New layer to switch back to creating a fresh layer.

Undo, finish, and cancel

• Press Cmd/Ctrl+Z to remove the last vertex you placed, and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z to put it back.
• Press Enter, or click Done, to commit your work to the layer.
• Press Escape, or click Cancel, to discard the current shape. Press Escape again to clear everything drawn in the session.