Available · iteration 2

Pan

How to move the drawing view with dedicated and temporary panning in Cadivari.

Updated August 20263 min readWorkspace & 3D

Recommended test

Test both navigation styles over empty canvas and directly over geometry.

  1. Leave Select or Spline active. Hold the middle mouse button over a detailed part outline and drag. Confirm the entire view moves and the object is not selected or edited accidentally.
  2. Release the middle button and confirm the original tool remains active.
  3. Switch to CAM, press H, then left-drag across the canvas. Confirm the cursor changes from an open to a closed hand.
  4. Zoom in, pan, and inspect the grid, axes, source spline, and mirrored result. They should stay locked together.
  5. Press F to frame the drawing again, then switch to CAM and confirm Pan remains available.

01 · TEMPORARY

Hold the middle mouse button

Press and hold the mouse wheel over any part of the canvas, drag to the desired view, and release. This works while Select, Spline, Rectangle, or another tool is active, so short navigation adjustments do not interrupt the workflow.

Safe over geometry

The middle-button gesture is captured before object hit testing. Starting the drag directly over a thin line, spline, handle, or reference image does not select, reshape, or move that object.

02 · DEDICATED

Use the Hand tool in CAM

In CAM, choose Pan from the left tool rail or press H. Hold the left mouse button and drag anywhere on the canvas. In CAD, the toolbar position is used by Move; middle-mouse drag provides temporary panning without changing tools.

Press V to return to Select, or choose another tool normally.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTE

The drawing never moves

Panning changes the viewport’s screen offset. It does not change millimetre coordinates, add an undo command, alter zoom, or modify the CAD document revision. Geometry, reference images, active mirror guides, grid, axes, snapping, and coordinate conversion all consume the same offset.

The cursor-coordinate readout is recalculated while the view moves so it continues to describe the mathematical point under the pointer.

REFERENCE

Controls

Middle-mouse dragTemporarily pan from any active tool
HActivate the dedicated Pan tool in CAM
Left dragPan while the CAM Hand tool is active
GActivate Move in CAD
VReturn to Select
FFit the complete drawing
0Reset zoom and view origin to 100%

CURRENT SCOPE

Not implemented yet

  • Spacebar plus left-drag temporary panning
  • Touchpad two-finger pan and touchscreen gestures
  • Animated inertial or momentum panning
  • View bookmarks
  • Dynamic ruler values that follow the view offset
  • Saving the current view in a project file

The next focused navigation step should be zoom-aware ruler labels. It can be developed separately from the next drawing step, mirror expansion.