Canvas Operation

The canvas area is the main workspace in DFCine for editing workflows and organizing content. You can create nodes, adjust the view, and perform common editing actions here.

Common operations

• Right-click on an empty area of the canvas to open the node menu and create related nodes.
• Use the mouse wheel on the canvas to zoom in or out. The zoom range can be adjusted in Software Settings under Basic Settings > Canvas Zoom.
• Hold the middle mouse button, or drag with the left mouse button, to move the canvas view in any direction.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Ctrl + S: Save the current project and canvas content.
• Ctrl + Z: Undo the most recent canvas editing action.
• Ctrl + C: Copy the currently selected node.
• Ctrl + V: Paste the most recently copied node.
• Delete / Backspace: Delete the currently selected node or connection.

Mouse and combined actions

• Double-click node title: Rename the node.
• Double-click canvas tab: Rename the current canvas tab.
• Alt + drag node: Duplicate the current node and create a new node at the drop position while keeping the original node in place.
• Click a connection: Select the connection and keep it highlighted.
• Right-click a node: Open the node menu, where the node can be deleted.
• Right-click a connection: Open the connection menu, where the connection can be deleted.

Current copy behavior

• Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V copies only the currently selected node content and does not include existing connections.
• Alt + drag node also duplicates only the node itself and does not automatically duplicate the original connections.
• When a node is pasted, the new node appears slightly offset to the lower right of the original node to avoid complete overlap.

Current canvas behavior

• When a node is selected, all related connections are highlighted.
• When a connection is selected by itself, it stays highlighted until you click on an empty area or switch to another object.
• The canvas supports multi-tab switching, scene list switching, canvas deletion, and canvas renaming.
• Auto-save is enabled for projects by default, while snapshot recovery is currently disabled by default.