# Guides & QuickShape

> Drawing guides in CrowDraw (2D grid, isometric, one-, two- and three-point perspective, and vertical, horizontal, quadrant and radial symmetry) with drawing assist for the layers you choose, QuickShape for perfect lines and shapes, and the reference window.

Source: https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/guides/

Grids and perspective lines to draw against, symmetry that mirrors every stroke on the layers you choose, and QuickShape, which turns a wobbly line or circle into a perfect one when you hold at the end of the stroke.

## Drawing guides

Open Actions › **Canvas** and turn on **Drawing guide**, then tap **Edit drawing guide** to choose one. The quick menu has **Drawing guide** and **Edit guide** too. In the editor, the bar at the top has the four guide types, **Reset**, **Cancel** and **Done**. On a grid, isometric or symmetry guide, drag the blue node to move it and the green node to rotate it.

| Guide | Settings |
|---|---|
| 2D grid | A square grid. Set the Grid size. |
| Isometric | An isometric grid for technical and game art. |
| Perspective | One-point, Two-point or Three-point. Tap the canvas to add vanishing points and drag them into place; Delete point removes one. Horizon shows the horizon line. Line spacing sets how dense the lines are. |
| Symmetry | Vertical, Horizontal, Quadrant or Radial (2 to 24 segments). Turn on Rotational to rotate the copies instead of mirroring them. |

Every guide has a colour (tap the colour bar, or the white and black swatches), **Opacity** and **Thickness**. **Reset** starts the guide again, **Cancel** leaves the editor without your changes, and **Done** keeps them and goes back to drawing. Guides are saved with each canvas, and they don't appear in exports.

![A radial symmetry guide over a mandala: one segment drawn, mirrored around the centre](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/screens/08-symmetry.webp "Radial symmetry: draw one segment, the rest follows")

## Drawing assist

With **Drawing assist** on, your strokes on that layer follow the guide: they snap along the grid lines, towards the vanishing points, or are mirrored across the symmetry lines. Drawing assist is a setting of each layer, so you can mirror the line art layer while you shade freely on another, with the same guide showing.

- Turn it on or off for a layer in its layer options (tap the active layer again in Layers) › **Drawing assist**.
- Or use the **Drawing assist** switch in the guide editor: it's for the active layer, and says which one.
- Choosing Symmetry turns it on for the active layer, because symmetry works by assisting the strokes.
- Layers with drawing assist on say **Assisted** in the Layers panel.

> [!NOTE]
> Drawing assist only works while the drawing guide is on: turn on **Drawing guide** in Actions › Canvas. Groups and text layers don't use it. Without drawing assist, the guide is only something to draw against: strokes don't snap and aren't mirrored.

## QuickShape

Draw a line, curve or shape and keep the Pencil (or your finger) on the screen at the end of the stroke. After a moment it snaps into a clean shape: a line, arc, ellipse, rectangle, triangle, polygon or polyline.

- Still holding, move the Pencil to resize and rotate the shape.
- Put a finger of your other hand on the screen to make it perfect: an ellipse becomes a circle, a rectangle a square, a polygon a regular one, and lines snap to 15° steps.
- After you lift, tap **Edit shape** to drag its points, or use **Make circle**, **Make square**, **Make regular** or **Snap angles**. Tap **Done** to finish.

Change how long you hold with **QuickShape delay** (0.2 to 1.5 seconds), or turn QuickShape off, in Actions › Prefs › **Gesture controls**.

## The reference window

Actions › Canvas › **Reference** opens a small floating window. Drag its title bar to move it and its corner to resize it. Show the whole **Canvas** in it, to see the full picture while you work zoomed in, or an **Image** from your photos to draw from.

Touch and hold the picture in the reference window to pick a colour from it.