Skip to content
ArchTect Docs

Canvas

The canvas is the central diagram surface in ArchTect. It displays the currently active view and provides interactive editing capabilities.

Canvas showing a populated diagram with the toolbar visible at the top

Section titled “Navigation”
Action How
Pan Hold Space and drag, or use the middle mouse button
Zoom in Scroll wheel up, or Ctrl/Cmd + +
Zoom out Scroll wheel down, or Ctrl/Cmd + -
Fit to view Ctrl+0 or the toolbar Fit button
Zoom to 100% Ctrl+1

Selection

Section titled “Selection”
Action How
Select element Click on a node or relationship
Multi-select Shift+click additional elements
Select all Ctrl+A
Deselect all Press Esc or click empty space

When an element is selected:

  • Selection handles appear around the element.
  • The Inspector opens on the right with the element’s properties.
  • The element is highlighted on the canvas.

Editing on the canvas

Section titled “Editing on the canvas”

Moving elements

Section titled “Moving elements”

Drag elements to reposition them on the canvas:

  1. Click an element to select it.
  2. Drag to the desired position.
  3. Alignment guides appear when the element aligns with others.
  4. Release to drop.

You can also nudge selected elements with the arrow keys (hold Shift for larger increments).

Creating relationships

Section titled “Creating relationships”
  1. Drag from one element to another to create a relationship.
  2. Edit the relationship’s properties in the Inspector.

Deleting elements

Section titled “Deleting elements”
  • Select an element or relationship and press Delete or Backspace.
  • Or right-click → Delete.
  • Use Ctrl+Z to undo within the current session.

Layout

Section titled “Layout”

ArchTect supports multiple layout engines. The layout engine is set per view and saved in the DSL properties.

Auto layout

Section titled “Auto layout”

The layout engine positions elements automatically. The layout is deterministic — the same model always produces the same diagram.

Available layout engines:

Engine Description
Default Built-in default layout
Graphviz Classic graph layout — good for dense, interconnected graphs
Dagre Directed acyclic graph layout — good for tree-like structures
ELK Eclipse Layout Kernel — hierarchical, layered layouts

Auto-layout directions:

  • Top to bottom (default)
  • Left to right
  • Bottom to top
  • Right to left

Keyboard shortcuts

Section titled “Keyboard shortcuts”
Shortcut Action
Space + drag Pan
Ctrl+0 Fit to view
Ctrl+1 Zoom to 100%
Ctrl+Z Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Y Redo
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V Copy / Cut / Paste
Ctrl+D Duplicate
Ctrl+A Select all
Delete / Backspace Delete selected
Esc Deselect all
Shift+click Add to selection
Arrow keys Nudge selected elements
Shift + Arrow keys Nudge (large increment)
Ctrl+G Group
Ctrl+Shift+G Ungroup
[ / ] Send back / Bring front
Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] Send to back / Bring to front

See also

Section titled “See also”