Selecting, Editing & Transforming

Once your LED curves are on the canvas, you'll spend a lot of time refining them — moving strips, duplicating rigs, flipping mirrored installations, and adjusting channel assignments. This page covers everything from basic selection to the sidebar's project management features.

[GRAPHIC: Screenshot of the canvas with several curves selected (white selection outlines visible) and the transform handles showing — center dot for move, corner squares for scale, top handle for rotate. Conveys that the tool feels like a familiar design app]

The Select tool (V)

The Select tool is your default mode for interacting with what's already on the canvas.

Selecting items

• Click a curve or fixture slice to select it
• Shift + Click to add or remove from your selection
• Click and drag on empty canvas to draw a marquee selection rectangle — anything inside (or touching, depending on hit testing) gets selected
• Shift + drag for an additive marquee (adds to existing selection rather than replacing it)
• Cmd/Ctrl + A — select everything in the current Surface
• Escape — deselect everything

Transform handles

When one or more items are selected, transform handles appear:

Modifiers that change handle behavior:

• Alt + drag corner → scale from center instead of from the corner
• Shift + drag corner → uniform scaling (locks aspect ratio)
• Shift + drag rotation → snaps rotation to 15° increments

[GRAPHIC: Annotated screenshot showing a selected group of LED slices with each handle type labeled — move dot, scale corner, rotation handle. A small diagram showing "Shift = uniform scale" and "Shift = 15° snap"]

---

Edit operations

Undo and redo

Filament keeps a 50-step undo history per project.

Duplicate

Cmd/Ctrl + D duplicates the current selection in place. The duplicated items land slightly offset from the originals so you can immediately move them.

Alt + drag to duplicate while moving: Hold Alt before you start dragging a selection and Filament enters "duplicate mode." You'll see your selection copy follow your mouse while the original stays in place. Release to keep the duplicate where you dropped it, or press Escape to cancel without creating a copy.

[GRAPHIC: Screenshot of the canvas with duplicate UI showing — original curves in one color, duplicate being dragged to a new position. This image should convey the idea of easy duplication with Alt+drag]

Delete

Press Delete or Backspace to remove selected items. For curves, this removes the curve and all the LED slices it generated. For individual slices, only those slices are removed.

Deleted items can be undone with Cmd/Ctrl + Z.

Flip and rotate

The Edit toolbar (top of canvas) provides one-click transform operations:

• Flip Horizontal — mirrors the selection left-right around its center
• Flip Vertical — mirrors the selection top-bottom
• Reset Rotation — returns rotation to 0° (useful after accidental rotation)

These are especially useful for mirrored installations — draw one side, duplicate, flip.

---

Editing existing curves

A curve isn't locked after you create it. You can reshape it, change its LED count, or switch the fixture type at any time.

To edit a curve:

• In the Select or Draw tool, double-click the curve, or select it and press Enter
• The anchor points and control handles become visible and draggable
• The LED configuration dialog is available to change LED count, fixture, and start channel

[GRAPHIC: Side-by-side showing a curve in "view" mode (just the path and ghost LEDs) vs "edit" mode (blue anchor points, handle lines visible, control handles draggable). Conveys that curves are always editable]

Adding, removing, and simplifying anchor points

With a curve selected in edit mode, the toolbar exposes both batch and single-point tools:

• Add anchor points — subdivides every segment, roughly doubling the number of control points. Use this when you need more precision around a tight bend.
• Add single anchor point — switches the curve editor into an add-point mode so you can click directly on the selected curve and insert one anchor where you need it.
• Remove single anchor point — switches the curve editor into a remove-point mode so you can click an anchor off the selected curve without rebuilding the whole shape.
• Simplify anchor points — reduces the point count by ~30% using the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm, removing redundant points while preserving the overall shape. Use this to clean up overly complex curves drawn with the freehand tool.

For quick patching from the project tree, you can also double-click a curve's channel badge in the sidebar to edit its start channel inline, or use the curve context menu for settings, duplicate, save-to-library, and delete actions.

---

The sidebar: your project control panel

The sidebar on the left is more than a viewer — it's an interactive control panel for your entire project structure.

[GRAPHIC: Annotated screenshot of the sidebar showing a Surface expanded with its curve and fixture group items, highlighting the inline-editable channel number, the eye/hide button, and the right-click menu appearing on one item]

Surfaces in the sidebar

Each Surface (output group) appears as a top-level item with:

• Expand/collapse arrow — show or hide the contents
• Enable checkbox — disable a Surface without deleting it (its LEDs go dark)
• Name — double-click to rename inline (Enter to confirm, Escape to cancel)
• Eye icon — hide/show the Surface's slices on the canvas without disabling output

Use the + button in the sidebar header to create an empty Surface directly inside the current project.

When expanded, you see the Surface's current output summary, then the list of its parts.

Curves and fixture groups in the sidebar

Each curve appears with:

• A link icon (if it's part of a daisy chain)
• Curve label and LED count
• Channel range (e.g., "ch 1–180")
• Double-click the channel number to edit it inline

Each fixture group (slices not on a curve, or matrix fixtures) shows:

• Fixture name
• Channel range
• How many fixtures are in that group

Click any item to select it on the canvas. Shift + Click adds to selection.

Right-click context menus

Right-clicking a Surface gives you:

• Edit Settings — protocol, destination/target IP, universe, and related routing options
• Open on Canvas — navigates to Canvas tab with this Surface active
• Select All Items — selects everything in this Surface on the canvas
• Save to Library — saves the current state as a library entry
• Duplicate — clones the entire Surface
• Remove — deletes with confirmation

Right-clicking a curve gives you:

• Curve Settings — opens the LED configuration dialog for editing
• Edit Start Channel — quick channel override
• Save to Library — saves this curve's configuration
• Duplicate — clones the curve
• Delete — removes with confirmation

---

Tips for efficient layout work

• Build one side, duplicate and flip for symmetric installations (arches, wings, mirror rigs)
• Use the sidebar's inline channel editor to quickly adjust start channels without switching to the Output tab
• Name your Surfaces clearly (e.g., "Stage Left — WLED 192.168.1.10") so the sidebar reads like a patch list
• Use the disable checkbox to temporarily mute a Surface while troubleshooting other parts of your rig
• Undo is deep — don't be afraid to experiment; 50 steps of history has you covered