Geometry operations

Trim, extend, mirror, rotate, offset, and more on the current selection.

Beyond drawing, Vellum offers CAD-style geometry operations. Use the right-click menu, command palette (TR, EX, MI), and typed commands where available.

Operation	What it does
Offset	Create parallel copies — see the dedicated Offset page
Trim	Cut an open polyline back to where it crosses another edge
Extend	Lengthen an open polyline endpoint to meet a boundary
Mirror	Reflect the selection across a custom axis you pick on canvas
Rotate	Rotate the selection by an angle
Radius	Apply a radius/fillet between segments
Close	Close an open path
Reverse	Reverse the direction of a path

Trim

Trim cuts an open polyline back to the nearest intersection with another edge. Hover over the part you want to remove — Vellum ghosts that portion at 50% opacity (red, dashed) and marks the cut point. Click or press Enter to commit the trim.

Open Trim from the right-click menu or type trim (or TR) in the command palette.
Move the cursor over the portion of the polyline you want to remove — it ghosts at 50% opacity.
Click that portion, or press Enter, to trim it away (the rest is kept).
Press Esc to exit trim mode.

Trim the ghosted (50%) portion under the cursorEnter

Trim the portion you clickClick

Exit trim modeEsc

Extend

Extend lengthens an open polyline by projecting from a start or end point until it meets another edge on the page. A sage-green preview shows the extended path and target intersection before you commit.

Open Extend from the right-click menu or type extend (or EX) in the command palette.
Press Tab to cycle through every available extension preview on the page — each eligible endpoint paired with each boundary it can reach.
Optionally click an endpoint to focus that line’s nearest extension, then Tab again to cycle alternate boundaries along the same ray.
Press Enter, double-click, or click the preview to commit.
Press Esc to cancel without changing geometry.

Cycle extension previews (all endpoints and targets, or alternates on the focused ray)Tab

Commit the current previewEnter

Commit the current previewDouble-click

Cancel extend modeEsc

Mirror vs flip

Flip horizontal / vertical (context menu on a selection) reflects about the selection bbox center. Mirror requires a selection first, then two clicks to define a mirror axis. Hold Shift on the second click (or press Enter) to copy — mirrored duplicates are created and originals stay in place.

Tip

Select geometry first for mirror and offset. Trim and extend pick any eligible open polyline on the page — including vectors imported from PDF — not only the current selection. Imported PDF vectors are materialized as editable copies when you commit (same pattern as Object Extractor). Offset also has a dedicated workflow — see Offset.

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