Select, move, and copy strokes in 2D

The core rule: edge, not fill

Closed shapes — rectangles, circles, triangles — select from the stroke line itself, not from the space inside them. Double-click directly on the outline to select a shape. Clicking or double-clicking inside the shape's interior does nothing to selection, on purpose: it lets you draw new strokes or write labels inside a box without ever risking an accidental selection of the box underneath.

A selected shape shows a blue shadow and jumps to the front of the stacking order, so it's never hidden behind the strokes drawn after it. Once selected, drag anywhere on it to move it — the drag no longer needs to stay on the edge.

Selecting more than one stroke: the right-drag marquee

Hold the right mouse button and drag to draw a temporary selection rectangle. Any stroke it touches — including ones only partially inside it — joins the selection. This works for freehand lines, QuickShape-snapped shapes, and mixed groups of both. Erase-tool marks are excluded from marquee selection, since they represent removal, not content.

Right-drag selection intentionally does nothing else while active — it will not start a new stroke, trigger QuickShape, or open the browser's right-click menu. This keeps the gesture safe to use even mid-sketch.

Clipboard shortcuts

• Cmd/Ctrl + C — copy the current selection (one or many strokes).
• Cmd/Ctrl + V — paste the copied group, centered on your current pointer position, and the pasted group becomes the new selection.
• Cmd/Ctrl + X — cut the selection: copies it and removes the originals in one step.
• Delete / Backspace — remove every stroke currently selected.

Because paste re-centers on the pointer, you control exactly where the duplicate lands just by moving the mouse before pressing paste — there's no need to paste-then-drag for a rough placement.

Worked example 1: duplicating a row of cards

You have drawn one wireframe card (a rectangle with a label inside) and want three identical ones in a row.

1. Double-click the card rectangle's edge to select it.
2. If the label is a separate stroke, right-drag a small marquee around the whole card (rectangle plus label) to select both as a group instead.
3. Press Cmd/Ctrl + C to copy the group.
4. Move the pointer to where the second card's center should sit, then press Cmd/Ctrl + V.
5. The pasted group is already selected — move the pointer to the third position and paste again from the same clipboard.

This produces three visually identical cards in seconds, which reads far more clearly in an export than three separately freehand-drawn rectangles of slightly different size.

Worked example 2: fixing a stray shape without losing everything else

You notice one box in a wireframe is misplaced, surrounded by other content you don't want to disturb.

1. Double-click precisely on that box's edge — not a nearby overlapping stroke — to select only it.
2. Drag it into the correct position; only the selected shape moves.
3. If two shapes overlap and the wrong one gets selected, double-click again closer to the specific edge you meant — z-order keeps the previously selected shape on top, so retrying usually resolves it.
4. If the shape is simply wrong, press Delete with it still selected and redraw it.

If a right-drag marquee accidentally grabs more strokes than you wanted, click once on empty canvas space to clear the selection, then redraw a tighter marquee rectangle around just the strokes you need.

How this speeds up AI-ready sketches

Fast, precise editing means less time re-drawing and more time getting size contrast and labels right before you export — see wireframe mistakes that confuse AI coding agents for what actually matters once the sketch is complete. Snapped shapes from QuickShape are selected the same way as freehand ones, so you can mix both freely in one board.

Next: check the export

Once your edit pass is done, run through the PNG export checklist before attaching the image to an AI tool — see also how to attach a sketch to AI tools.