Editing shapes

Shapes you have finished are locked: they show their label, and new clicks with the Add tool start a new shape instead of adding to them. This page covers every way to change a shape afterwards. You need to be able to edit the project: people who can only view it cannot change shapes.

Lock and unlock#

A shape you are drawing is unlocked. Its pins show, the measurements box follows it, and each click with the Add tool adds a corner to it. You lock it with lock Lock polygon in the bottom toolbar, or the lock button in its middle: see finish and lock the polygon.

To unlock a finished shape:

1. Click the shape to open its panel.
2. Press lock_openUnlock.

The panel closes and the shape is yours to change again. The  Crosshair mode switches to match it (polygon or polyline), and for a circle or rectangle the magic button switches to that tool. You have one unlocked shape at a time: if you were drawing another one, it is locked.

With the shape unlocked:

• the forwardMove tool moves one corner at a time (on a locked shape it moves the whole shape, see below);
• the addAdd tool adds corners after its last one;
• changes to the default style in the settings apply to it too (see default polygon style).

When you are done, lock it again from the bottom toolbar or with lockLock in its panel. Polygons made from cadastral parcels and from buffers, splits, joins and duplicates arrive locked.

Move, add and delete corners#

The magic button's tools change corners. Choose the tool, hold Shift for the crosshair, and click:

• forwardMove: click a corner, then click where it goes. A corner of an unlocked shape moves on its own. A corner of a locked shape moves the whole shape, with its holes and buffers. A corner shared exactly with another polygon (drawn with snapping) moves on its own, in every polygon that shares it.
• shareInsert: click a corner, then one of its neighbours, then where the new corner goes between them.
• removeDelete: click a corner to delete it. Deleting a shape's last corner deletes the shape, after you confirm.

The steps and snapping are explained in the magic button. You can also place a corner by typing its coordinates, bearing or angle in its panel: see points and spots.

Type an exact length#

To make a side exactly 12.5 m long, for example:

1. Make sure the side's length is showing on the map. If not, turn on Show intermediate distances in the shape's panel.
2. Click the length. A small Edit distance box opens on the map, with the length in your distance unit.
3. Type the length you want and press Set or Enter.

The side's second point, in the order the shape was drawn, slides along the same direction until the side has that length. The other corners stay where they are. This works on locked shapes too, and in the 3D view, where the same box opens above the side's label.

Rotate#

1. In the shape's panel, press rotate_leftRotate.
2. Drag the slider, or type an angle in degrees. The shape turns clockwise around its centre as you go, holes included.
3. Press Done.

Duplicate#

Press Duplicate in a shape's panel. The copy is named after the original with "(Copy 1)", "(Copy 2)" and so on, and is placed beside it, towards the south-east, so both can be seen. It keeps the original's style, products, grid, holes and pictures, and it is locked: move it where you need it with the Move tool.

Split a polygon#

1. In the polygon's panel, press Split. The panel closes, the polygon turns grey, and a red clear button appears near the magic button.
2. Hold Shift and click on the outline where the cut starts. The crosshair snaps onto the outline.
3. If the cut is not straight, click inside the polygon at each bend.
4. Click on the outline where the cut ends.

The polygon becomes two, named after it with -1 and -2, locked and with its style. Holes stay in the half they fall in, and a hole the cut crosses opens up. While you are cutting, undo Undo takes back the last point of the cut and redo Redo puts it back; the red clear button, or Esc, cancels the split.

Join two polygons#

1. In one polygon's panel, press Join. The panel closes.
2. Click inside a polygon that overlaps the first one.

The two become one polygon, with the first one's name and style, and the pictures and descriptions of both. If they do not make one area, a message says so and you can click another. Joining a hole with the polygon it is cut out of fills the hole in. To cancel, press Esc or undo Undo, or choose another tool on the magic button.

Subtract a polygon#

To take the ground another polygon covers off this one, such as a pond out of a field:

1. In the polygon's panel, press indeterminate_check_boxSubtract. The panel closes.
2. Click inside a polygon that overlaps the first one.

What is left of the first polygon takes its place, locked and with its style. When the second one cuts it into several pieces, each is a polygon of its own, largest first: the largest keeps the name and pictures, and the others are named after it with -2, -3 and so on. A polygon lying wholly inside leaves a hole, and the holes it does not cover stay. The second polygon does not change. If the two do not overlap, or nothing would be left, a message says so and you can click another. To cancel, press Esc or undo Undo, or choose another tool on the magic button.

Undo and redo#

Press undo Undo or redo Redo in the bottom toolbar, or use the keyboard: Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo (⌘Z and ⌘⇧Z on a Mac). The keys do not act on the map while you are typing in a field or have a window open.

• Each step is one action: a corner, a move, a split, a delete, a clear. Typing a name or trying out colours on the same shape is one step.
• Undo keeps up to 100 steps, for as long as the project stays open. Reloading the page or opening another project starts again.
• With a shape or a corner picked for a step you have not finished, such as a join or a move, Undo and Redo only let go of it.
• Undo takes back only what you did. If someone else has changed a shape since, their change is kept and a message says so.
• Attaching or removing pictures is not undone.

Delete a shape#

• In the shape's panel, press the red delete_foreverRemove and confirm. Its holes are deleted with it.
• Or pick several shapes in the  Geometries list and press delete_outlineRemove: see selecting several shapes.

undo Undo brings a deleted shape back.

Clear the map#

To remove everything, or everything of one kind, press delete_sweep Clear Map in the bottom toolbar, or in the menu Menu of the top toolbar. Only the people who work on the project can clear it: its owner, its members and the owner of its organisation. Visitors of a shared link cannot, even when the link lets them draw, and nobody can on a map embedded in another website.

In the Clear Map window:

• Everything lists what the project holds, counted, and Clear everything removes it all, except the comments: they stay, and the window says how many.
• Choose lets you pick:
  • Where: Whole map, Current view (what the map shows now; on the flat map only) or, when the project has groups, Groups (the shapes in the groups you tick, or in No group);
  • What: Areas, Lines, Spots, Groups, Image overlays, Imported map layers and Comments, each with how many will go. Holes go with their areas. Clearing groups alone leaves their shapes on the map, ungrouped.

Before anything is removed, a restore point of the project is saved. After the clear, press undo Undo on the message (or in the toolbar) to bring everything back, or restore it later from project history. If the restore point cannot be saved, nothing is cleared and the window offers Clear anyway: Undo still works while the project is open, but there is nothing to restore later.

Everyone working on the project sees the map cleared.