2D vs 3D whiteboard: when to use which

Control-by-control comparison

• Primary input — 2D: press-drag with the pointer creates a stroke directly. 3D: drag a shape (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, torus, pyramid) from the left palette onto the floor plane; it appears already selected and ready to move.
• Shaping content — 2D: freehand strokes, or hold still mid-drag for QuickShape to snap a line, circle, ellipse, rectangle, or triangle. 3D: press W to move, E to rotate, R to scale the selected shape with an on-screen gizmo.
• Multiplying content — 2D: select one or more strokes and use Cmd/Ctrl+C then Cmd/Ctrl+V. 3D: hold Space while dragging a shape in move mode to drop a duplicate mid-drag.
• Selecting many at once — 2D: right-drag draws a rectangle; any stroke it touches is added to the selection (erase-tool marks are excluded). 3D: click one shape at a time — there is no marquee select in the 3D board.
• Moving your viewpoint — 2D: the canvas is a single fixed plane; there is no camera to move. 3D: WASD pans horizontally and Q/E raises or lowers the camera when nothing is selected; right-drag orbits the view at any time.
• Color — 2D: pick a color before drawing a stroke. 3D: select a placed shape, then change the color picker to recolor it immediately.
• Deleting — both: select, then Delete or Backspace removes the selection. 3D also clears the current gizmo selection on Escape.

Scenario 1: a dashboard screen for a web app

You need to communicate a layout with a sidebar, a header, and a grid of stat cards. Everything here is flat — no object has meaningful depth, and what matters is position and size on a single plane. This is squarely a 2D job: draw the frame, snap rectangles with QuickShape, label the regions, and export. Doing this in 3D would mean building flat planes in space for no benefit — more clicks, same result. Start with sketching a UI for AI.

Scenario 2: a game enemy's silhouette and proportions

You want an AI art or game tool to generate an enemy character matching a specific build — short legs, oversized head, one arm longer than the other holding a weapon. A text description like "stumpy goblin with a big head" is genuinely ambiguous about proportion. Placing a sphere for the head, a squashed cube for the torso, and cylinders for limbs in 3D, then orbiting to check the silhouette from a three-quarter angle, settles the proportions in a way text cannot. See block out a 3D character for the full walkthrough.

Scenario 3: a mixed brief — a product page with a 3D hero render

Some briefs need both. A landing page has a flat layout (2D) but also a hero area meant to show a 3D-rendered product on a pedestal. The efficient path is not to force one mode to do both jobs:

1. Sketch the page layout in 2D, leaving one rectangle blank and labeled "hero render goes here".
2. Switch to 3D and block out the product's basic shape — a cylinder body, a cone top, whatever primitives approximate it — from an angle that reads well.
3. Download both PNGs and attach both in the same message, with a one-line note assigning each image its role: "image 1 is the page layout, image 2 is the product silhouette for the hero area."

Switching the toolbar toggle remounts the board for that mode in the current version, so 2D and 3D content is not preserved across a switch. Export the PNG you need before you toggle, not after.

A one-question decision rule

Ask: "does depth or viewing angle change what I'm trying to show?" If no — it's a screen, a diagram, a flow, a note — use 2D. If yes — it's a body, an object, or how things sit relative to each other in space — use 3D. When you genuinely cannot tell, sketch the same idea in both for two minutes each; the one that gets to a clear export first is usually the right mode for the job.

Learning curve in practice

2D is faster to pick up because press-drag-release maps directly to what you already expect from any drawing tool. 3D asks you to learn three keys (W/E/R) and two camera schemes (WASD/Q-E when nothing is selected, right-drag orbit at any time) before it feels natural — usually a few minutes with a placed shape in front of you. The user guide lists every control if you want the reference open while you practice.