| I want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Grab a block, border or anything with straight sides | Rectangle (Selection) |
| Grab an odd shape like a flower or an animal | Freehand Lasso or Polygon (Selection) |
| Grab a background or every touching stitch of one color | Color Wand (Selection) |
| Grab a whole motif sitting on empty fabric | Shape Wand (Selection) |
| Take exact rows or columns by number | More → Select rows… (Selection) |
| Move, copy, fill or erase what I selected | The Selection tool itself (Selection) |
| Resize, rotate, mirror or warp it | T for Transform (Selection Transform) |
| Paint or fill in one area without touching the rest | Limit edits to selection (below) |
| Swap one color for another only in one area | Select the area, then right-click the color (Editing Colors) |
| Clean up stray stitches in one section | Select it, turn on the limit, run Confetti Cleanup |
Selection & Tools
Which selection tool fits the job, and how to make the Brush, Fill and other tools change only the area you selected.
- Where to find it
- Selection tool → More → Limit edits to selection
Keyboard & modifiers
- V
- Switch to the Selection tool
- T
- Transform the selection (from the Selection tool)
- Cmd+ACtrl+A
- Select all
- Esc
- Deselect
Basics
There are two ways a selection helps you. You can act on the selected stitches directly: move them, copy them, fill them, flip them. Or you can use the selection as a fence, so the Brush and Fill can't touch anything outside it.
This page helps you pick the right tool for the job and covers the fence, Limit edits to selection. The tools themselves have their own pages: Selection and Selection Transform.
Which selection tool when
Painting only inside a selection
Say you're shading a face and don't want a stray brush stroke to land on the hair, or you want to fill the sky without the fill leaking through a gap into the sea. Select the area you're working on, then turn on the fence:
- With the Selection tool active, open More in the tool options.
- Switch on Limit edits to selection. A checkmark shows it's on. On a tablet it's a button in the Selection tool's options panel.
- Switch to the Brush, Fill or any other drawing tool and work as usual.
Stitches outside the selection can't change. Paint right over the edge and the stroke simply stops at the dashed outline.
The limit is off by default. A selection left over from a paste or a move won't quietly clip your next stroke; it only acts as a fence when you've asked it to.
To stop, switch Limit edits to selection off, or press Esc to deselect.
Which tools it affects
With Limit edits to selection on:
| Tool | What changes |
|---|---|
| Brush | Paint only lands inside the selection |
| Fill | The fill spreads only through selected stitches, even if the color carries on outside |
| Shape | Only the part of the rectangle or ellipse inside the selection is drawn |
| Line | Only the part of the line inside the selection is drawn |
| Text | Letters are cut off at the selection edge |
| Gradient | The gradient fills only the selected area |
| Confetti Cleanup | Cleans only the selected area |
Backstitches, French knots, beads and motifs aren't clipped: they sit on top of the stitches rather than replacing them.
How to tell it's on
While the limit is on and you're using a drawing tool, the left toolbar shows Working in selection with a Clear link. If you don't see that note, nothing is being clipped. The dashed outline also stays on the chart when you switch tools, so you can see where the fence is.
Tips & gotchas
- Some edits don't need the limit. To fill or clear the whole selection, stay in the Selection tool and press F or Delete. The limit is for when you want to paint freely inside the area.
- Fill a shape inside a shape. Select a petal with the Color Wand, turn on the limit, then use Fill or the Gradient inside it.
- Symmetry gets clipped too. With the limit on, the mirrored half of a symmetric stroke is cut off if it lands outside the selection.
- Edits stopping short for no reason? Check More for a checkmark next to Limit edits to selection, or look for Working in selection in the left toolbar.
- Whole stitches only. A stitch is either inside the selection or outside it; there are no half-selected stitches.