Canvas & Viewports

Master the design canvas and responsive viewports. Learn how to create layouts that work perfectly across all devices and screen sizes.

Design Canvas

The canvas is your workspace where you design and arrange components. It provides visual feedback, alignment guides, and responsive preview capabilities.

Canvas Features

  • • Visual component placement
  • • Real-time preview
  • • Grid alignment system
  • • Component selection and editing
  • • Drag and drop functionality

Canvas Controls

  • • Zoom in/out controls
  • • Fit to screen option
  • • Grid toggle
  • • Snap to grid
  • • Component layers

Responsive Viewports

ForgeZap provides three viewport modes to help you design for different screen sizes. Each viewport shows how your application will look on different devices.

Desktop

1200px and above

  • • Full desktop layout
  • • Sidebar navigation
  • • Multi-column layouts
  • • Hover interactions

Tablet

768px - 1024px

  • • Optimized for touch
  • • Collapsible navigation
  • • Responsive grids
  • • Touch-friendly buttons

Mobile

Below 768px

  • • Single column layout
  • • Bottom navigation
  • • Swipe gestures
  • • Thumb-friendly design

Grid System

The grid system helps you create consistent, aligned layouts. It provides visual guides and automatic snapping for precise component placement.

Grid Features

Visual Grid

  • • 20px default spacing
  • • Toggle visibility on/off
  • • Customizable grid size
  • • Color-coded guides

Snap to Grid

  • • Automatic alignment
  • • Precise positioning
  • • Consistent spacing
  • • Professional layouts

Grid Best Practices

Enable snap-to-grid for most layouts to ensure consistent spacing and alignment. You can always disable it for fine-tuning specific components.

Zoom Controls

Zoom controls help you work with detailed layouts and see the big picture of your application.

Zoom In

Get closer to details

Zoom Out

See the full layout

Fit to Screen

Auto-adjust zoom

Component Positioning

Position Properties

Absolute Positioning

  • • X/Y coordinates
  • • Precise placement
  • • Overlapping components
  • • Z-index layering

Size Properties

  • • Width and height
  • • Minimum/maximum sizes
  • • Responsive sizing
  • • Aspect ratio

Alignment Tools

Visual alignment guides
Component selection indicators
Active component highlighting

Keyboard Shortcuts

Viewport Controls

  • Ctrl + 1 Desktop view
  • Ctrl + 2 Tablet view
  • Ctrl + 3 Mobile view

Canvas Controls

  • Ctrl + + Zoom in
  • Ctrl + - Zoom out
  • Ctrl + 0 Reset zoom
  • Ctrl + G Toggle grid

Best Practices

Start with Desktop

Design for desktop first, then adapt for tablet and mobile. This ensures your application works well on larger screens before optimizing for smaller ones.

Use the Grid

Enable snap-to-grid for consistent spacing. This creates professional-looking layouts and makes it easier to maintain alignment across components.

Test All Viewports

Regularly switch between viewport modes to ensure your application looks good and functions properly on all device sizes.