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Explore ideas in the Scratch Pad

The Scratch Pad is a shared canvas for rough ideas. Use it to map a turn, collect art direction, compare cards, or sketch a rule before turning it into a finished design.

A populated Scratch Pad with notes, artwork, connectors, and reference cards

Put an idea on the board​

Choose a tool, then click or drag on the canvas:

  • Text adds a free label or heading.
  • Note adds a coloured card for longer thoughts.
  • Card adds a rectangular planning block. Circle and Polygon add simple shapes.
  • Arrow and Line show relationships or sequence.
  • Image places artwork from the game's Assets library.
  • Design, Dataset, and Variable add live game references.
  • Hand pans around the board, and Draw opens freehand drawing.

The right-click menu adds content at the pointer. It also provides Paste and Connect selected when at least two suitable items are selected.

Arrange and connect ideas​

  1. Use Select to choose one item, or drag a marquee around several.
  2. Move or resize the selection.
  3. Use the selection toolbar to edit text size, colours, arrowheads, opacity, and other properties supported by that item.
  4. Press Delete or Backspace to remove selected items, or right-click to duplicate, delete, Bring forward, or Send backward.
  5. Select two items and choose Connect selected to create a connector between them.

On a touch screen, turn on Select multiple beside Select (or press M) so taps and a one-finger selection box add to the selection.

The board also works without a mouse. The canvas is one Tab stop: Tab and Shift + Tab select items in reading order, Enter edits the selection or adds the chosen tool's item in the middle of the view, and the arrow keys move the selection or pan when nothing is selected. Shift + F10 opens the board menu, Alt + F10 moves to the selection's quick actions, and Escape clears the selection.

Connectors remain attached to referenced shapes and can target dataset rows, columns, cells, or a variable value. This is useful for a flow that needs to point to one exact part of the game's data.

Reuse game content​

Add a live design, dataset or dataset row, variable, or image when the board should follow the source as it changes. Use the reference's open action to edit the source. Removing the board item does not delete the source.

For advanced references, simultaneous editing, navigation, limits, and large-board behaviour, see References and collaboration.

Sketch with freehand marks​

Press B to open the same compact Draw shelf used by Designer. Hover or focus a pen tip to see its name. Choose Pencil, Pen, Marker, Highlighter, Brush, or Eraser directly. Open the stroke sample for the full Stroke library, including Charcoal, Fountain, Felt tip, Dry brush, Watercolor, Spray, Stipple, Hatch, and Ribbon.

Set colour, opacity, and a document-pixel size from 1 to 128. The number field, slider, quick-size menu, and [ or ] shortcuts all change the active size. Hold Shift for 10-pixel steps. You can resize while holding the mouse or stylus down: the next part of the stroke uses the new size and earlier marks retain their width. Switching brush styles keeps the current size.

Advanced brush settings contains smoothing, stylus-pressure input, hardness, and flow. On a touch screen, fingers draw until Studio sees a stylus; after that the stylus draws and fingers pan and zoom. Use Draw with finger in the same panel to choose for that device. Press E to toggle the eraser and B to return to drawing. The eraser offers sampled-segment and whole-stroke modes. A completed gesture is one undo step; Redo restores it. Size and eraser shortcuts can be changed in Keyboard shortcuts for both the Scratch Pad and the Designer, and typing in a field keeps its normal behaviour.

Starting a canvas gesture or scrolling over the canvas closes brush popovers. Escape closes an open popover first, then leaves Draw on the next press. The shelf uses a solid theme surface and scrolls on short canvases.

Drawing strokes have their own 500-stroke allowance and do not count towards your plan's Scratch Pad item limit. Other items do; see Compare Free, Lite, and Pro plans. Counter icons at the end of the toolbar show each count when you hover over or focus them; plans without an item limit show only the drawing count. Splitting a stroke with the segment eraser creates additional strokes, so the complete erase must fit the drawing allowance. Whole-stroke erasing frees slots.

Know when to move on​

Scratch Pad is for exploration, not final output. When the idea is stable, build reusable artwork in Designer, content in Datasets, and final playtest or print files in QA and exporting.