Vector design

Vector design is a second interface for 2D drawings, modeled on Illustrator: menu bar, tool column on the left, a white artboard on a grey canvas, properties on the right. It edits the same drawing as CAD drafting. This workspace is early; the tables below say clearly what works.

Entering

• Home page "Create › 2D drafting", template "Vector design: A4 artboard (Illustrator)".
• Or switch the workspace "CAD drafting ⇄ Vector design" at the top right or in the status bar of any 2D drawing. Each design remembers its last workspace.
• The selection is shared between the two workspaces and survives switching.

Tools

Single keys match Illustrator. The table below is generated from the source code.

Drawing and selecting

• Rectangle M, Ellipse L: drag to draw. Shift for a square or circle, Alt to draw from the center. New objects use the current fill and stroke (default white fill and a black 1 pt stroke) and are drawn on the current layer.
• Selection V: click, Shift adds or removes, a drag box selects anything it touches. The selection shows a bounding box: 8 handles scale, just outside a corner rotates.
• Direct Selection A selects anchors. Group Selection is a toolbar button. Double-click a group to enter isolation mode; a path bar appears at the top.
• Rotate R, Reflect O, Scale S: click to set the reference point, drag to transform. Alt+click opens a dialog for exact values.
• Moving: arrow keys nudge by one keyboard increment, Shift ten times, Alt copies then moves. Enter opens the Move dialog.
• Smart Guides Ctrl+U: while moving, edges and centers align to other objects and the artboard.
• Properties panel: transform fields (X, Y, W, H, angle), align, fill and stroke.
• Artboard tool Shift+O: drag out a new artboard.
• Zoom: Ctrl+0 fit artboard, Alt+Ctrl+0 fit all, Ctrl+1 100% (1 pt per screen pixel), Ctrl+=, Ctrl+-.
• Line Segment tool \: drag to draw a straight line (a live shape). Shift constrains to multiples of 45°, Alt draws from the center. Click to open Line Segment Tool Options: Length, Angle and Fill Line (only then the fill is kept), drawn from the click point (Alt+click = the point is the middle). The last values are remembered.
• The keyboard increment is set in Edit › Preferences › General… (Ctrl+K), default 1 pt; the same dialog has Scale Strokes & Effects. Preferences are saved in the document.

Selecting, transforming and aligning

• Lasso Q (Lasso Tool) and the Direct Selection Lasso: free-form selection. Both behave the same and select anchors and segments, as in Illustrator. If all of an object's anchors are inside the lasso, the whole object is selected; if only some are, it is partly selected (the enclosed anchors are solid); if a segment passes through with no anchor inside, that segment is selected. Shift adds, Alt subtracts, and with no modifier the lasso replaces the selection. Locked or hidden objects are never picked.
• Select › Same: selects objects with the same fill and stroke, fill color, stroke color, stroke weight, opacity, appearance or graphic style, or everything on the same layers.
• Transform: "Move…", "Rotate…", "Reflect…" and "Scale…" in the "Object" menu open dialogs for exact values, with a "Copy" option. Ctrl+D is Transform Again, and "Reset Bounding Box" straightens a rotated box. The X, Y, W, H and angle fields in the Properties panel take values directly, and can keep width and height proportional.
• Align (Properties panel): horizontal and vertical align, distribute, and distribute spacing. "Align To" offers "Align to Selection", "Align to Key Object" (first click one of the selected objects to make it the key object) and "Align to Artboard".

Pen Tool

• Pen P, Add Anchor Point +, Delete Anchor Point - and Anchor Point Shift+C share one slot in the toolbar; Curvature Shift+~ is in another. Hold the slot for about half a second, right-click it or click the small triangle in the corner to open the tool group; Alt-click the slot to switch to the next tool in the group.
• Pen Tool: click to place a corner anchor point; drag to place a smooth point (both handles symmetric). While dragging, Shift constrains to multiples of 45°; press Alt midway to break the handle and move only the outgoing one; hold Space to move the whole anchor point. Move the cursor over the start point (an o appears) and click to close the path. Click the last anchor point to retract its handle. Click the end point of another open path to join the two. When not drawing, click the end point of an open path to continue it.
• On a selected path, the Pen Tool adds an anchor point when you click a segment and deletes it when you click an anchor point; hold Shift to start a new path instead. Hold Alt for a temporary Anchor Point Tool, and Ctrl for a temporary Direct Selection Tool: Ctrl-click while drawing commits and selects what you have drawn so far, the path stays open, and you can drag its anchor points or handles and then keep drawing; Ctrl-click on empty space or another object ends the path.
• Enter or Esc finishes the path and keeps what is drawn. Backspace, Delete or Ctrl+Z removes the last anchor point, and Shift+Ctrl+Z adds back the points you just removed (within this path only; the document undo history is not touched). The whole path is one undo step. With Smart Guides (Ctrl+U) on, points snap to anchor points within 4 pixels.
• Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool: click a segment to add an anchor point without changing the shape; click an anchor point to delete it and the neighboring curves are refitted. Hold Alt to swap the two.
• Anchor Point Tool: click a smooth point to turn it into a corner; drag from an anchor point to pull out symmetric handles; drag a single handle to move only that one (Shift constrains to 45°); drag a segment directly to change its curvature, and straight segments can be dragged into curves too.
• Curvature Tool: each click adds a point and the curve passes through all points. Alt-click or double-click a point to switch between corner and smooth; drag a point to move it; click a segment to add a point; click the first point to close. It also edits an already selected path. Each point is one undo step.
• Locked and hidden objects and type cannot be edited with these tools.

Fill, stroke and color

• Fill and Stroke: the two overlapping boxes at the bottom of the toolbar. The one in front is what the Swatches panel, the Color panel and the shortcuts change. X swaps front and back, Shift+X swaps the fill and stroke colors, D returns to the default (white fill, black 1 pt stroke), / sets None, and , returns to the last color used. Double-click a box to open the Color Picker. It changes the selected objects and also the appearance of new objects; each change is one undo step.
• Color Picker: a color field plus a hue slider, with HSB, RGB, hex and CMYK fields. A warning icon appears when the color is out of print gamut or not a web color; click it to snap to the nearest color. You can check "Only Web Colors". "Color Swatches" switches to the swatch list.
• Color panel F6: color modes are Grayscale, RGB, HSB, CMYK and Web Safe RGB, switched in the panel menu (remembered); the menu also has Invert and Complement. Below are None, black, white and the spectrum bar. When the current color is a global swatch, the panel shows only the swatch name and a tint slider.
• Proportional adjustment: in RGB, Web Safe RGB and CMYK modes, hold Shift while dragging a slider (or press Shift with the arrow keys) and the other sliders move proportionally. This does not apply in HSB and Grayscale.
• Keyboard: the spectrum bar can be focused with Tab; ←→ change the hue and ↑↓ the brightness (Shift for bigger steps), and each key press is one undo step. In the Color Picker, the arrow keys change saturation and brightness in the color field and the hue in the hue bar (Shift = 10 times). When the ☰ menu of the Color or Swatches panel opens, focus is on its first item; ↑↓ and Home/End move, and Esc closes it and returns to the ☰ button.
• Swatches panel ("Window › Swatches"): the defaults are Basic, Hue Wheel, Earth Tones and Grayscale groups. Click a swatch to apply it to the front box. A global swatch (white triangle in the corner) is linked by name: change the swatch and every object that uses it updates, and you can set a tint. Spot colors are always global swatches. The panel menu has New Swatch, New Color Group (from selected swatches or artwork), Duplicate Swatch, Delete Swatch (objects that used it become plain colors), Ungroup Color Group, Select All Unused, Add Used Colors, Sort by Name, Thumbnail or List view, and Swatch Options. Untick "Global" in Swatch Options and the objects that use the swatch keep their current color (including the tint) but no longer follow the swatch (as in Illustrator); spot colors are always global. You can reach the Swatches panel with Tab: the arrow keys move between swatches, Home/End go to the first or last one, and Enter or Space applies it (same as a click).
• Swatch exchange: "Open Swatch Library (.ase, .json)…" in the panel menu reads .ase or .json files; "Save Swatches for Exchange (ASE)…" and "Save Swatch Library (JSON)…" write the selected swatches, or all swatches if none are selected.
• For gradients see Gradients; for several fills and strokes on one object see Appearance panel.

Gradients

• Gradient panel: "Window › Gradient" or Ctrl+F9. Click the thumbnail to apply the gradient to the selection; the "Gradient swatches" drop-down picks a built-in or saved gradient, and + (New Gradient Swatch) saves the current gradient as a swatch, which also appears in the Swatches panel. "Fill or Stroke" chooses whether it applies to the fill or the stroke (the same setting as X on the fill/stroke boxes in the toolbar; a 1 pt stroke is created if there is none).
• Type: Linear Gradient, Radial Gradient, Freeform Gradient. Switching between linear and radial keeps the stops; converting to freeform turns the stops into color stops placed on the object.
• Linear and radial: Angle (−360 to 360°), Aspect Ratio (radial, 1–10000%), ⇄ Reverse Gradient. Click the stop strip to add a stop (up to 64), drag to move it, and drag it down off the strip to delete it (at least 2 remain); the diamonds above the strip are midpoints and can be dragged. A selected stop can change its color, Opacity and Location, or be deleted with 🗑.
• Freeform: colors come from color stops (Points mode). Click on the object with the Gradient Tool to add a color stop, taking the color at that spot (up to 64). A selected stop can change its color, Opacity and Spread, or be deleted (at least 1 remains). The panel offers only Points mode; Lines mode is not available yet. Lines mode: select a color stop, then click the object with the Gradient tool; the new stop is connected to the selected one (keep clicking for a polyline); Shift+click starts a new line. Colors blend along the lines and spread outward; stops not on a line act as points. Deleting a stop shortens its line; switching back to Points removes all lines.
• .: applies the last-used gradient to the front fill or stroke of the selection (the same as the "Gradient (.)" button in the toolbar); the default is "White, Black".
• Gradient Tool G: drag over the selected objects to set the direction and length (linear = start to end, radial = centre to radius); Shift constrains to multiples of 45°. Objects without a gradient get the last-used gradient first. The gradient annotator on the object lets you drag the origin, the end, the rotation, the stops and the midpoints; radial gradients also have aspect-ratio and focal handles. Ctrl+Alt+G or "View › Hide Gradient Annotator / Show Gradient Annotator" toggles it. While the Gradient Tool is active, Delete (or Backspace) deletes only the selected stop or color stop; with none selected it does nothing and never deletes the object.
• Editing a gradient on an object never changes the swatch itself (the drop-down shows "(Edited)"). Each change is one undo step; a drag is merged into one step.
• Export: in SVG, linear and radial gradients are native and freeform gradients become embedded images, with a notice; in PDF, freeform gradients become mesh shading and the opacity of color stops is not exported. DXF and the CAD workspace use the gradient's average color.

Appearance panel

• "Window › Appearance" or Shift+F6. It lists the strokes and fills of the selection, the top one in front; each row shows the color, a gradient marker, the stroke width and the opacity, and the last row is the object's opacity. An object can have several fills and strokes (up to 64 items).
• The eye hides or shows an item; drag to reorder. With an item selected you can change its color (edit gradient items in the Gradient panel), stroke width and opacity, or move it up or down.
• Buttons at the bottom: Add New Stroke, Add New Fill, Clear Appearance (removes every item as well as object opacity, blend mode and effects), Reduce to Basic Appearance (keeps only the first stroke and the first fill), Duplicate Selected Item, Delete Selected Item. When the selected objects differ (Mixed Appearances), only add, clear, reduce and the object opacity are available.
• Header: with one object selected it shows the kind of object: Path (rectangles, ellipses and other shapes are paths too), Compound Path, Compound Shape, Clipping Group, Type, Symbol Instance.
• Groups: with a group selected the header reads "Group" with a "Contents" row below. The group itself has no appearance (Synhedra has no group-level fills and strokes yet); click "Contents" to edit the appearance of the objects inside, so they are never changed silently.
• Effects: the object's effects are listed above Opacity (e.g. "fx Drop Shadow"). Click the name to edit it, ✕ to delete. See Effects.

Effects

• The Effect menu: Path › Offset Path…, Stylize › Drop Shadow…, Stylize › Round Corners…. Effects are live: only the display changes, the path itself does not (as in Illustrator); change or delete them later in the Appearance panel. Up to 8 effects per object, applied in order.
• Offset Path: moves the outline outward (positive) or inward (negative), with miter, round or bevel joins and a miter limit.
• Drop Shadow: opacity, X/Y offset, blur and color; drawn behind the object. A positive Y offset moves up (Synhedra coordinates; Illustrator's dialog uses down). Blur is approximated with a few offset translucent copies.
• Round Corners: rounds every corner anchor with the same radius (the largest radius that fits when too large).
• Apply Last Effect Shift+Ctrl+E applies the same settings again; Last Effect… Alt+Shift+Ctrl+E opens the dialog with them.
• Distances are in pt, scaled by the artboard scale; with a group selected the effect goes on each object in it.
• SVG, PDF and DXF export do not include effects (the original path is written, with a notice). Feather, Gaussian Blur and other effects are Coming soon.

Drawing modes

• Three buttons under the toolbar: Draw Normal, Draw Behind, Draw Inside. Shift+D cycles through them (Draw Inside is skipped unless exactly one valid target is selected). They only affect new objects drawn with the Rectangle, Ellipse, Pen, Curvature, Type and Vertical Type tools, not menu commands or paste. After a page reload the mode is back to Draw Normal.
• Draw Behind: new objects go just below the lowest selected object (in the same group and layer); with nothing selected they go to the bottom.
• Draw Inside: select one closed path (a compound path is fine) or a clipping group first; dashed corner marks appear around it. The first object you draw turns the target into a clipping mask (the mask keeps its own fill and stroke), and later objects go into the same clipping group. If the target is deleted, the mode returns to Draw Normal.

Layers panel

• "Window › Layers" or F7. It lists layers, sublayers, groups and objects from top to bottom, with front objects on top.
• The eye toggles visibility (Alt-click = show only this layer, click again to show all); the lock toggles locking; sublayers are dimmed with it but keep their own eye and lock state, which comes back when the parent is shown or unlocked again. After hiding or locking, selected objects that are now hidden or locked are deselected. Double-click a name to rename it.
• Outline mode: Ctrl-click (⌘ on a Mac) a layer's eye to switch that layer (and its sublayers) between Outline and Preview. The eye turns hollow; only the display changes, the selection stays, and it can be undone.
• Click a layer row to make it the current layer; new objects are drawn there. The target circle on the right selects that object, or all selectable objects on that layer (Shift adds or removes).
• Drag a layer above, below or into another layer (it becomes a sublayer); drag an object onto a layer row to move it to that layer; drag an object within the same group or layer to change stacking order. Esc cancels a drag.
• The bottom of the panel has Locate Object, Make/Release Clipping Mask, Create New Sublayer, Create New Layer and Delete. The 0 and Defpoints layers cannot be deleted, nor can a layer that a symbol or block definition (or a layout) still uses; deleting a layer with content asks for confirmation.
• Keyboard: the layer list is a single Tab stop. ↑↓ move, Home/End go to the first or last row, → expands, ← collapses (or goes to the parent row if already collapsed), Enter or F2 renames, Space is the target circle (selects the row's contents), and Shift+Space adds to or removes from the selection.
• Panel menu (≡): New Layer…, New Sublayer… (Layer Options opens right after the layer is created), Options for "name"…, Collect in New Layer, Release to Layers (Sequence), Release to Layers (Build), Locate Object. "Collect in New Layer" moves the selected objects (on the same layer, not inside a group, not locked) into a new sublayer at the top of their layer; with nothing selected it wraps the highlighted layer in a new parent layer. "Release to Layers" puts each object of the highlighted layer or group (or of one selected group) on its own new sublayer; "Build" adds one more object to each sublayer (using copies), with the originals on the top sublayer.
• Layer Options: from the panel menu, or double-click a layer row anywhere except the name (double-clicking the name renames it). It has Name, Color (presets or custom), Template, Show, Preview, Lock, Print and Dim Images to (0–100%; the value is stored but the display is not dimmed yet). Template locks the layer, turns off printing and skips the layer in SVG and PDF export; unticking Preview = Outline mode. Layer "0" cannot be renamed.
• Ctrl+L: new layer (above the current layer, made current); to open Layer Options at the same time use New Layer… in the panel menu.

Pathfinder

• "Window › Pathfinder" or Shift+Ctrl+F9.
• Shape Modes: Unite, Minus Front, Intersect, Exclude. Clicking a button makes new paths directly. Alt-click creates a live compound shape instead: the original objects are kept and can still be edited with Direct Selection or isolation mode, and the result updates live; "Expand" turns it into plain paths. The panel menu also has Make, Release and Expand Compound Shape.
• Pathfinders: Divide, Trim, Merge, Crop, Outline, Minus Back.
• Unite, Divide, Outline, Trim and Merge need at least 1 selected object; the others need 2. A group counts as one operand. Nothing runs if the selection includes locked or hidden objects; for type, create outlines first (Shift+Ctrl+O). If the result is empty the artwork is unchanged and you get a message. Each button is one undo step.

Path tools

• Width tool Shift+W: drag along a stroke to change its width at that point and build a width profile. It only works on vector strokes measured in pt; change the plotted lineweight to pt in the Stroke panel first. The "Profile" dropdown of the Stroke panel offers Uniform, Taper End, Taper Start, Lens, Diamond, One Side and Bulge; what you drag by hand is "Custom (Width tool)".
• Eraser Shift+E (Eraser Tool): drag to erase. The brush is round with a 10 pt diameter by default; Alt-drag makes it a rectangle. On a closed path with a fill, the erased part is cut out and the pieces that are no longer connected each become an object. On open paths and paths without a fill, the erased part is deleted and each remaining piece becomes an object. Text, blocks and groups themselves are skipped.
• Join tool (Join Tool, no single key): scrub back and forth across two open path ends to join them. If two paths cross near their ends, the tool trims the leftover tails at the crossing and then joins them. Scrubbing across both ends of one path closes it.
• Dashes: check "Dashed Line" in the Stroke panel and enter dash and gap lengths. There are two modes: keep the exact dash and gap lengths, or align the dashes to corners and path ends, adjusting lengths to fit. A stroke can also get arrowheads. The result of the dash panel is written as DXF linetypes.
• Offset Path: "Object › Path › Offset Path…". Enter the offset, the joins (miter, round, bevel) and the miter limit, and check "Preview" to see the result. The offset can be at most 100000 in absolute value. If an inward offset is larger than the shape, the result is empty and you are told so.
• Outline Stroke: "Object › Path › Outline Stroke" turns a stroke into a filled outline, including width profiles, dashes and arrowheads. If the selected objects have no stroke you get a message.
• Simplify: "Object › Path › Simplify…". Adjust "Curve Precision" and "Angle Threshold", or check "Straight Lines"; check "Preview" to see the result live.
• The Join tool, Eraser and similar tools are in the toolbar on the left; press and hold or expand the tool group to find them.

Type tool

• The Type tool T and the Vertical Type tool (toolbar, no single key). What a click does depends on where you click:
• Point type: click on empty canvas, and that point is the baseline start of the first line.
• Area type: drag on empty canvas (more than about 6 screen pixels) to draw a rectangular text frame; or click inside the fill of a closed path, or on its edge, and that path becomes the text frame.
• Path type: click near the stroke of an open path (about 4 pixels) and the text runs along the path.
• Editing: click on existing vector text and the cursor is placed there so you can keep typing. Locked or hidden objects are not picked.
• Vertical type: with the Vertical Type tool, text runs top to bottom.
• Threading: when a frame cannot hold all its text, an overset mark appears. Click the mark, then drag a new frame or click another empty area-type object, and the text threads into it.
• Character and Paragraph: the "Type" menu opens the Character and Paragraph panels for font, size, leading, alignment and so on. In rotated area type the text follows the actual angle of the frame.
• Create Outlines Shift+Ctrl+O: turns the selected text into paths (in the "Object" menu). Once converted, the text can no longer be edited as text.
• Traditional Chinese: line-break prohibition rules apply, and the centered punctuation used in Taiwan is not squeezed; it keeps its full-width size.

Place, export and clipboard

• Place: "File › Place…" (Shift+Ctrl+P) puts an SVG, PDF or .ai file (a PDF-compatible Illustrator file) into the current drawing. "File › Open…" (Ctrl+O) opens a file as a new document.
• Export: "File › Export SVG…" writes the current artboard. "File › Save a Copy as PDF…" (Ctrl+P) writes one page per artboard, either as vector artwork or as "plotted sheets" (an artboard = one sheet plus a locked viewport, with plot styles and lineweights applied). Check "Preserve editing capabilities" to embed native data in the file so it comes back in full when read again. Clipping masks are written as clipping paths in PDF and SVG, which a few viewers ignore; in that case check "Expand clipping". DXF is in the "File" menu. When this site has configured cloud drives, the "File" menu also has "Open from cloud drive…", "Save to cloud drive…" and "Save a copy to cloud drive…" (not for a read-only drawing); see Third-party cloud drives.
• Export for Screens: "File › Export for Screens…" (Alt+Ctrl+E). Choose all artboards, a range or individual artboards, or the full document. Each format row has a scale (0.5x–4x, 512w, 512h, 72/150/300ppi and so on), a suffix (@2x, -512w and the like are added automatically and can be changed) and a format: PNG, JPG, SVG or PDF. SVG and PDF are vector formats exported at the artboard's real size, ignoring the scale. You can set a prefix and a background color (transparent, white, black; applied to PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF, where SVG and PDF get a full-size background rectangle). With a JPG row you can set "JPG Quality" (default 80); JPG has no transparency, so a transparent background becomes white. More than one file is packaged as one ZIP by default ("Package as ZIP when there is more than one file", up to 1000 files; the total size limit depends on this machine's memory: 128 MB, 256 MB or 512 MB); otherwise the files download one by one.
• Export As PNG: "File › Export As PNG…". Choose the resolution (72, 150, 300 or another ppi), the background (transparent, white, black) and anti-aliasing (None, Art Optimized (Supersampling), Type Optimized (Hinted)). You can use the artboards, or skip them and export the whole document.
• In PNG, 72 ppi = 1x, and 1 pt is one pixel. A side over 16384 pixels is scaled down proportionally, with a notice. With "Export As PNG", multiple files download one by one and are not zipped.
• Clipboard: Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut and Ctrl+V paste, plus Paste in Front Ctrl+F, Paste in Back Ctrl+B, Paste in Place Shift+Ctrl+V and Paste on All Artboards Alt+Shift+Ctrl+V (all in the "Edit" menu). Copying and pasting inside Synhedra uses the native format without loss. For other applications it also writes SVG (where the browser allows) and plain text, so you can paste into other software.
• When pasting, Synhedra tries the native format, then SVG, then SVG inside text, then plain text (which becomes a text object). Plain text that is only a URL or an image tag is ignored, and no image is fetched from the network. Text is limited to 1 MB. The browser may ask first for permission to use the clipboard.

Clipping masks, compound paths and symbols

All of these are in the Object menu, and you can also use them with a sentence in the AI panel.

• Clipping mask: "Object › Clipping Mask › Make" Ctrl+7 uses the top object to clip the others (select at least two objects). "Release" is Alt+Ctrl+7. "Edit Contents" and "Edit Mask" select the clipped content or the mask itself. Nested masks intersect and groups unite. PDF and SVG export keep it.
• Compound path: "Object › Compound Path › Make" Ctrl+8 combines several paths into one object. The direction of holes is adjusted automatically. "Release" is Alt+Shift+Ctrl+8. In the Properties panel, "Attributes" lets you choose the fill rule: Non-zero or Even-odd.
• Join and Average: "Object › Path › Join" Ctrl+J connects the open endpoints you selected. When the Direct Selection tool has exactly two endpoint anchors of open paths selected, it joins those two: coincident points merge into one, otherwise a straight segment is added; the two ends of the same path close it. "Average…" Alt+Ctrl+J aligns the selected anchors to their average position. Average & Join Alt+Shift+Ctrl+J moves two endpoints to their midpoint and merges them into one point.
• Symbols panel: "Window › Symbols" Shift+Ctrl+F11. With artwork selected, press F8 (or the panel's ＋) to create a symbol, static or dynamic. Clipping masks and compound shapes in the selection are expanded into plain paths (the mask actually cuts the contents), so instances look the same as the original artwork, but the mask and the compound shape components can no longer be edited inside the symbol; the dialog tells you first. If a compound shape result cannot be computed, the symbol is not created. Drag a thumbnail onto the canvas, or choose "Place Symbol Instance". The panel menu also has duplicate, replace, delete symbol, symbol options, "Reset Overrides", and import and export of symbol libraries (JSON).
• Edit Symbol: use "Edit Symbol" in the panel, double-click a thumbnail, or double-click an instance to enter isolation mode. Press Esc (or ◀ on the isolation bar, or double-click empty space) to finish, and all instances update together. While editing, the temporary group and the instance cannot be hidden, deleted or moved. Ctrl+Z undoes step by step while editing; going back to the start and pressing it once more discards the edit. After you finish, the whole edit is one undo step.
• Break Link: "Object › Symbol › Break Link to Symbol" turns an instance back into ordinary objects.
• Dynamic overrides: instances of a dynamic symbol can each override their appearance. Use Direct Selection to pick a child object inside an instance, then change its fill or stroke in the Properties panel; only this instance changes. "Reset Overrides" restores it. A dynamic symbol cannot contain text.
• Symbol Sprayer Shift+S: click a symbol in the Symbols panel first, then drag a path to place a batch of instances inside the brush range. Double-click the tool for options: diameter, density, scatter, randomness of size and rotation, and the random seed. The same parameters with the same seed give the same result, though this is not guaranteed to be identical across devices, so save the sprayed instances if you need to reproduce them.
• For how DXF handles symbols, see 2D drafting › DXF notes.

Rulers, guides and grid

These switches are in the View menu. They only change the display: they are not saved in the file and not undoable (as in Illustrator), and this browser remembers them.

• Rulers Ctrl+R: drag down from the top ruler for a horizontal guide, or right from the left ruler for a vertical guide.
• Guides: Ctrl+; shows or hides them, Alt+Ctrl+; locks or unlocks them (locked guides cannot be selected or moved). Make Guides Ctrl+5 turns the selected paths into guides (not text, blocks or images); Release Guides Alt+Ctrl+5 turns guides back into paths; Clear Guides deletes them all. Unlocked guides can be clicked, moved, copied and deleted. Limit: 1000 guides and 50,000 anchor points.
• Grid Ctrl+': shows or hides the grid. Snap to Grid Shift+Ctrl+': while moving, the edges or center of the bounding box land on the nearest grid line (Smart Guides are off meanwhile). Snap to Point Alt+Ctrl+': the dragged point lands on an anchor within 2 px. Snap to Pixel: the top-left corner of the bounding box lands on the 1 pt grid.
• Smart Guides Ctrl+U also snap to guides and show spacing guides: when the gap to a neighbour in the same row (or column) equals the gap between two other adjacent objects, or the object sits exactly halfway between its neighbours, ticked lines mark the equal gaps.

Eyedropper, Shape Builder, Pencil and brushes

These tools are in the left toolbar; double-click a tool button for its options. Each mouse release is one undo step. Locked or hidden objects and objects on locked layers are not changed.

• Eyedropper I: with a selection, click another object to apply its appearance to the selection; Shift-click picks up the color only (into the current fill or stroke); Alt-click applies the selection's appearance to the clicked object. With nothing selected, it samples into the toolbar fill and stroke for the next objects you draw. The options choose what it picks up: appearance, fill, stroke, character style, paragraph style. Locked objects that are visible can be sampled.
• Shape Builder Shift+M: select overlapping shapes, then drag across regions to merge them into one shape; Alt-drag deletes those regions; Shift-drag a rectangle merges every region inside it. New shapes use the current fill. Limit: 200 objects and 20,000 anchor points.
• Pencil N: draws a freeform path. Options: Fidelity, Fill new pencil strokes, Keep selected, Close paths when ends are within, Edit selected paths (drawing near a selected path redraws that part). Hold Alt to close the path when you finish.
• Smooth Tool: select a path and drag along it to smooth that part. Path Eraser: select a path and drag along the part to erase. Neither has a single-key shortcut.
• Paintbrush B: draws a stroke with a brush. Window › Brushes F5 opens the Brushes panel: Basic, 3 pt. Round, 5 pt. Flat 45°, Tapered. Select a path and click a brush to apply it; Remove Brush Stroke turns it back into a plain stroke.
• Blob Brush Shift+B: draws filled shapes (in the current stroke color) that merge with overlapping paths that have the same fill and no stroke. Options: Keep selected, Merge only with selection, Size. [ and ] change the brush size.
• Very long strokes are thinned first (at most 4000 points).

Shortcuts

This table is maintained by hand (source: vectorCombo and the Tab handler in keys.ts). Illustrator combinations that are not done yet are intercepted so the browser does not act on them; the status bar shows a hint.

Illustrator map