Sketch tool: draw directly in the browser

How to use it

• Pick a tool on the left of the bar, then draw on the canvas.
• Lines, rectangles, circles and arrows are dragged out: press, hold, release.
• Polylines and polygons are clicked point by point and finished with Enter or a double-click.
• An arc takes three clicks: start point, end point, then the bulge.
• Hold Shift to snap lines to 45 degrees, turn rectangles into squares and ellipses into circles.
• With the text tool, click where the text should go and type right there. Enter places it, Esc discards it, and clicking somewhere else places it and starts the next one.
• The eraser also removes parts of shapes you already drew.
• Insert an image with the button in the toolbar, by dragging it onto the canvas, or with Ctrl + V from the clipboard.
• The move tool picks up a finished object and drags it elsewhere. Arrow keys nudge it pixel by pixel, Delete removes it.
• The four corners resize an object, the handle above it rotates. To take several at once, drag a frame around them on empty canvas.
• Clicking the colour dot next to “Line” or “Fill” opens the palette. Each keeps its own colour and its own opacity, and the dot shows what applies. Fills work on rectangles and ellipses.
• The eraser has two modes: “Cut apart” splits a line where you drag across it, “Whole object” removes what you touch completely – including text and images.
• Two buttons at the bottom of the toolbar flip the selection horizontally or vertically.
• The disk icon saves as an image (PNG with or without transparency, JPG, WebP) or as vectors: PDF and DXF keep lines, shapes and text as real geometry instead of pixels.
• The DXF opens in AutoCAD, BricsCAD, Revit or ArchiCAD, and every drawing layer becomes a CAD layer. Images and eraser strokes have no equivalent there and are left out.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut lives in the tool itself: the question mark at the top right of the bar opens the full list – from the number keys for the tools through selection, stacking order and layers to the mouse combinations with Shift and Ctrl. Esc closes it again.

Shortcuts only work while the focus is not in a text field – there you can type normally.

Working with layers

The layers sit to the right of the canvas. You always draw on the active layer – click a name to switch, double-click to rename. The eye hides a layer without deleting anything, and Up and Down change which layer sits in front of which. Read top to bottom, the list is the stacking order: whatever is at the top is in front.

This helps when, say, a floor plan sits on one layer and dimensions, variants or comments each have their own. A variant can then be shown and hidden without redrawing the base. One thing to note: the eraser only affects the active layer – anything underneath stays untouched.

Clicking the number next to a layer name opens and closes the list of its objects. Whatever is selected on the canvas is marked red in there, and clicking an object row selects that object. Drag an object row onto another layer and the object moves there – if several are selected they all move, and an object in a group takes its group along.

Replay the drawing and save it as a video

Every stroke and shape is stored as its own object, in the order you drew it. That is what the replay is built from: Play replay rebuilds the sketch from the start, stroke by stroke. The speed selector ranges from calm step-by-step (0.5×) to time-lapse (4×), and the Esc key cancels playback.

Save as video runs the same replay once and records it. You end up with a video file on a white background – useful for explaining how you arrived at something instead of only showing the result. Like the drawing itself, the recording is produced entirely in the browser; nothing is uploaded.

The file is saved in WebM format, which Chrome, Edge and Firefox play directly. Browsers without recording support show the button greyed out – on-screen replay still works there.

Everything stays on your device

The drawing is created entirely in the browser and is never sent to the operator's server. A file is only produced when you save it as a PNG, and your browser stores that locally. Close the tab and the drawing is gone, so save it before you leave the page.

Typical uses

• A schematic sketch of a detail that needs to go straight into the minutes.
• A freehand sketch of a connection to accompany a query to the design team.
• A simple floor plan idea or furnishing variant for a meeting.
• An explanatory sketch for apprentices and on-site training.