Infinite canvas

The canvas is Sumi Studio's main workspace: a board you can pan and zoom without limit. Nodes sit on it, and connections between them show how data flows. This chapter introduces the canvas interface and how to move, zoom and pan it.

The canvas interface

When you open a canvas (/canvas/your-canvas-ID), the interface has a few main areas:

• Top bar: on the left are the canvas title (double-click to rename; click to open a menu with back to home, project resources when the canvas belongs to a project, version history, new canvas and delete canvas, plus “Share” and “Publish” when the top bar is narrow), the save status (“Saved”, “Saving”, “Unsaved” and so on) and the project it belongs to. On the right, in order: “Assets” (opens your assets), “Share” (its menu has “Publish to community” and “Share via link”; team canvases also have “Invite to collaborate”, and people who can edit also see “Become an official template”), the appearance toggle, your credit balance (click it for the membership dialog) and your avatar. Team canvases also show an “N online” collaboration badge in the middle of the top bar;
• The canvas itself: a board you can pan and zoom without limit, with nodes placed on it and connections showing how data flows;
• Vertical toolbar on the left: from top to bottom, “Add”, “Elements”, “Assets”, “Templates” (official templates), “My workflows” (workflows you've saved), “Sticky note” and “Comments”, then “Shortcuts” (opens the quick-reference panel) and “Help”. On narrow screens these move into the “More” menu.

Quick-start cards

A new, empty canvas shows the hint “Double-click the canvas to add a node” in the middle (on touch screens: “Double-click empty space, tap +, or long-press on touch screens”), along with three quick-start cards: “Character views”, “Image to video” and “Audio to video”. Click any card to insert a ready-made set of example nodes and connections in one go, as a template to learn from or build on. The simplified mode on phones only prompts you to tap “Add” to start and doesn't show the cards.

Move, zoom and pan

• Box select and hand tool: press V for box select (drag to draw a selection and select several nodes), H for the hand tool (drag the canvas itself), and P for the pen to draw annotations;
• Zoom: pinch with two fingers on a trackpad, or hold ⌘/Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel. ⌘/Ctrl + = zooms in and ⌘/Ctrl + - zooms out;
• Fit view: ⌘/Ctrl + 0 or ⇧1 zooms and centers the canvas to show everything;
• Pan: scroll with the mouse wheel or swipe with two fingers on a trackpad, hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle or right mouse button.

Version history

Click the canvas title to open its menu and choose “Version history” to preview earlier saved versions of the canvas and restore one when you need to.