GraphiteEditor/Graphite

Space when dragging to shift what's being drawn

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#2,552 opened on Apr 10, 2025

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Description

For anything that can be dragged with the mouse clicked down, Space should offset it while held down. We have this in a few places (like dragging the next preview segment in the Pen tool), but it should be universal across all dragging actions in every tool.

  • Select tool:
    • Transform cage resizing, skewing, and rotating
    • Box and lasso area selection
  • Artboard tool:
    • Artboard drawing and resizing
  • Gradient tool:
    • Gradient line drawing and endpoint moving
  • Path tool:
    • Box and lasso area selection
  • Line tool:
    • Line drawing and endpoint moving
  • Rectangle/Ellipse/Polygon tools:
    • New shape drawing (and resizing after #1715)
  • Text tool:
    • Text area drawing and resizing
  • And in the node graph:
    • Box (and lasso after #2532) area selection

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
frontend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Familiarity with RustUnderstanding of Graphite's event system
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
55
Research direction
Examine the space drag offset implementation in the Pen tool (likely in `editor/src/messages/tool/pen tool.rs`) to understand the pattern. Then apply the same pattern to other tools listed in the issue: Select tool, Artboard tool, Gradient tool, Path tool, Line tool, Rectangle/Ellipse/Polygon tools, Text tool, and the node graph. Each tool may have its own drag handling in separate files under `editor/src/messages/tool/`. Look for common drag state struct or event handling to minimize changes.