Canvas Objects

Everything on a Designer canvas is an object, and every object answers to the same small set of actions: add, select, copy, duplicate, lock, restyle, resize and delete. This page lists each object kind, each action, every style option and the limits that apply. Edges - the lines that connect objects - have their own section at the end.

Designer mode only. In Operator mode you cannot add, edit, duplicate, delete or rename objects, and live nodes discovered from a cluster are read-only in every mode. See Designer for how the two modes differ.

Object kinds 🔗

Every object except a component is an annotation. Kanvas stores annotations in the design alongside components, but treats them differently:

The plan limit counts every entry in a design, drawn objects included, so a heavily annotated design can reach the limit sooner than its infrastructure alone suggests. See Feature Availability by Plan.

Adding objects 🔗

A newly added component opens its configurator beside the node. A textbox starts inline text editing on double-click. Shapes accept body text too, so double-click a shape to type in it.

Shapes 🔗

The Shapes picker lists the shape libraries registered in Meshery, with search across all of them. A default installation includes libraries for cloud providers (Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform), developer icons, arrows, flowchart symbols, general-purpose shapes and line icons. The libraries come from the registry, so the list can differ between installations. Pin a library to the dock to keep it one action away - see Pinning a Model to the Dock.

Sections 🔗

A section draws its label along its top edge instead of through its middle, so the region it encloses stays readable. Drop other objects inside it and they move with the section. Deleting the section does not delete them.

Textboxes 🔗

Files dropped or pasted on the canvas 🔗

Files over the size limit are rejected with an error message. The limit is fixed and is the same on every plan. A file with no browser-reported type is classified by its extension.

Selecting objects 🔗

Dragging selected objects moves them together. Locked objects do not move.

Actions on objects 🔗

Right-click an object, or press and hold on it, to open its menu. Each entry appears only when its condition holds.

Every change an action makes, restyling included, is a change to the shared design, so Ctrl/Cmd + Z reverses it. See Canvas Actions.

Copy and paste 🔗

Copy writes the object data to your system clipboard. Paste with Ctrl/Cmd + V into the same design, a different design or another browser tab running Kanvas.

• Pasted objects land at the pointer when it is over the canvas, otherwise at the canvas center, and keep their relative layout.
• Every pasted object receives a new identifier. Styling travels with the copy.
• The browser must allow clipboard access. If it refuses, nothing happens and no message appears.

Duplicate 🔗

Duplicate skips the clipboard. It places the copy 50 pixels right and 50 pixels down from the original, gives it a new identifier and copies the relationships between members of the duplicated set. Duplicating a section together with its children reproduces the whole arrangement. Names are unchanged.

Lock 🔗

A lock fixes position only. A locked object can still be selected, restyled, configured and deleted, but it cannot be dragged, directly or inside a selection. The lock is stored with the object, so it survives a reload and applies to collaborators. Locking a section does not lock the objects inside it.

Delete 🔗

Deleting an object also removes the relationships that touch it. Kanvas marks those relationships as deleted rather than discarding them, so the next policy evaluation can undo any configuration they had applied. Deleting a section leaves its children on the canvas. Deletion is immediate and has no confirmation, but it can be undone.

Style options 🔗

Selecting one object shows a style toolbar above it. The toolbar edits the selected object; it does not apply a change to a multi-selection. Each control appears only when the object’s definition declares that capability, so the controls you see vary by object. The toolbar appears only when the canvas is zoomed in past a detail threshold; zoomed out, the canvas shows a hint to zoom in.

The default text style is gray, 12 pixels, regular weight and centered. Sections carry their label on the top edge rather than body text.

Restyling changes only how an object is drawn. It never changes a component’s configuration or what gets deployed.

Reset styles 🔗

Reset styles re-applies the styling recorded in the object’s definition and discards every change made in the style toolbar. It restores the definition, not an earlier state, so it is not an undo. Position, lock state, configuration and relationships are untouched.

Resizing 🔗

Select a single object and Kanvas draws eight handles around it, one at each corner and one at the midpoint of each side.

• Drag a corner or side handle to resize.
• Hold Shift while dragging to keep the aspect ratio.
• Objects that contain other objects, such as a parent component or a section with children, show no handles.

Resizing needs the object’s definition to declare the resize capability. The new size is saved with the design.

Edges 🔗

An edge is a line between two objects. Each edge is a relationship in the design, and relationships come in two kinds.

Select an edge to open the edge toolbar.

Curve styles 🔗

Choosing a curve style applies its default geometry. Choosing Round taxi does not apply its default corner radius.

Arrowheads 🔗

Vee (the default), triangle, circle, square, diamond, triangle-cross, tee, triangle-tee, circle-triangle, triangle-backcurve and chevron. An arrowhead is drawn at the target end only.

Edge defaults 🔗

A new edge uses a dotted line, a vee arrowhead, a bezier curve, a width of 1.5 pixels and a light gray color. A selected edge draws at 4 pixels. Edges that carry TCP traffic draw as a solid gold line with a triangle-cross arrowhead.

Permissions 🔗

Kanvas gates canvas actions by mode and by object capability, not by role. The permission catalog in Layer5 Cloud lists a key for each shape, section, textbox and component-styling action (add, copy, clone, lock, delete, configure styles, reset styles and resize), and organization administrators can include them in roles and keychains. Kanvas does not check those keys on the canvas today, so withholding one does not hide a control.

The permissions Kanvas does enforce on the toolbar are Validate Design, Deploy Design, Undeploy Design and Share Design. See Permissions by Role.

Limits 🔗

Related reading 🔗

• Tool Modes - select, pan, pencil and pen.
• Whiteboarding - a task guide to drawing on a design.
• Keyboard Shortcuts - every shortcut.
• Layout and Layers - arranging and hiding objects.

Related Reading

• Whiteboard on the Canvas
• Work with Tags
• Add and Configure Components
• Build Designs
• Canvas Actions
• Clone a Design

Related Videos

Whiteboarding in Kanvas

Publishing Designs

Design Review Mechanics

Design Reviews in Kanvas

Kanvas Designer Overview

Pinning Models to Dock

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