The canvas is the area in the middle of the screen where Synthspec shows the current sheet. You use it during Setup to confirm diagram regions and during Review to inspect fixture counts. This page lists the controls that appear on the canvas and the gestures that move and scale the view.
The toolbar appears in two forms:
- Full toolbar — a floating bar centered along the bottom of the canvas. It carries the tools, the zoom dropdown, and (in Review) the active fixture-type chip.
- Minimal toolbar — a smaller bar pinned to the top-right of the canvas. It appears on read-only views (such as a sheet that is still processing) and shows zoom controls only.
Tools
The full toolbar shows a row of tool buttons on the left. Hover any button for a tooltip. Only one tool is active at a time.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pointer | Selects and edits objects on the canvas — diagram regions, fixture instances, comments, the ruler. The default tool. Hold the spacebar to pan temporarily without leaving Pointer. |
| Hand | Pans the canvas without selecting anything. Click and drag to move the view. |
| Draw box | Starts a new diagram region — RCP or fixture schedule — on the current sheet. Hidden on read-only sheets. |
| Ruler | Measures distance on the sheet using the calibrated scale of the active RCP region. Disabled until a region’s scale is set. |
| Comment | Drops a comment pin on the sheet. Used to flag a question or note for a teammate reviewing the same project. |
Tools that do not apply to the current view are hidden. For example, the Draw box tool is hidden when the sheet is read-only, and the Ruler is hidden on views that have no scaled region.
Zoom controls
To the right of the tools, the toolbar shows three zoom controls:
- Zoom in — steps the zoom up to the next preset.
- Zoom dropdown — shows the current zoom percentage. Click to choose a preset.
- Zoom out — steps the zoom down to the next preset, stopping at the minimum.
Range and presets
The zoom range is 10% to 400%. The default zoom on a freshly opened sheet is whichever preset best fits the sheet to the canvas, which is shown in the dropdown as Fit (NN%) when it falls below the standard ladder.
The standard preset ladder is:
10% 25% 33% 50% 67% 80% 90% 100%
125% 150% 200% 300% 400%The ladder is denser below 100% — finer control when zooming in from a fit-to-view state — and sparser above, so large zoom changes take fewer clicks.
Pan and zoom gestures
You can pan and zoom the canvas without touching the toolbar.
Pan
| Input | Gesture | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mouse | Select the Hand tool, then click and drag the canvas. | Pans the view. |
| Mouse | Hold Space, then click and drag the canvas (any tool). | Pans the view temporarily; releases on key-up. |
| Mouse | Scroll the wheel. | Pans the view vertically. Hold Shift to pan horizontally where supported by the OS. |
| Trackpad | Two-finger scroll. | Pans the view in both axes. |
Zoom
| Input | Gesture | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mouse | Click Zoom in or Zoom out on the toolbar. | Steps to the next preset. |
| Mouse | Choose a preset from the zoom dropdown. | Snaps to that preset. |
| Mouse | Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or Cmd (macOS) and scroll the wheel. | Zooms in or out anchored at the cursor. |
| Trackpad | Pinch. | Zooms in or out anchored at the cursor. |
The cursor position is the zoom anchor for pinch and Ctrl/Cmd-scroll: the point under the cursor stays fixed while the view scales around it.
Read-only canvas
When a sheet is still processing — for example, during fixture schedule extraction or counting — the canvas is read-only. The full toolbar is replaced by the minimal toolbar in the top-right corner.
The minimal toolbar shows Zoom in, the zoom dropdown, and Zoom out. On the fixture schedule preview, it also shows a Focus button that centers the view on the active fixture schedule region.