Main pad
| Control or state | Behavior | Initial value |
|---|---|---|
| Mode icons or mode name | Choose Line, Grid, Ring, Burst, Arc, Spiral, Wave or Slingshot. | Slingshot |
| Pad | Press, drag to preview, release to place a layout. A very short drag is ignored. | Idle |
| Keyframe options | Diamond button opens keyframe power, easing and Stagger. | Keyframes off |
| Grid options | Magnet button opens grid power, Cols and Rows. | Grid off |
| Edit Mode | Sliders button opens the separate editor. Its tooltip becomes Editing… while open. | Closed |
| Footer | Shows mode, composition dimensions, selected unlocked layer count or drag modifiers. | Composition dimensions until selection is read |
| Hover crosshair | Shows the pointer’s composition position, snapped when the grid is active. | Visible while hovering the pad |
| Preview dots and guides | Show target positions and the layout’s shape during a drag or Edit Mode. | No placement preview at rest |
| No layers selected | Footer warning or brief flash when there are no unlocked selected layers. | Hidden |
| Edit Mode badge | Editor controls the preview and pad dragging is paused. | Hidden |
Selection is read when you enter or refocus the pad and before placement. Edit Mode also refreshes selection while open. Fling works in the active composition, skips locked layers, supports separated Position and preserves 3D Z depth during placement. Its optional rotation changes 3D Z Rotation.
Pad modifiers
Hold the modifier through release. These act on pad drags, not the editor’s Apply button.
| Modifier | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Shift | Duplicate. Place copies and keep the originals where they are. |
| Option / Alt | Uniform for Slingshot and Burst only. Remove their quick scatter variation. |
| Cmd / Ctrl | Temporarily invert the grid state. Snap if the grid is off, Free if it is on. Also previews the changed grid state while hovering. |
Modifiers can be combined. Cmd means macOS; Ctrl means Windows.
Slot sizes
At widths below 367 pixels, the layout icons collapse into a mode-name picker. Open it to choose any of the eight modes.
The pad still fits the composition's aspect ratio. Below 168 pixels tall, the footer is hidden. In a keyframe popover narrower than 240 pixels, easing choices show curves without their text labels.
The default slot is 16 grid units wide by 5 tall. The minimum is 8 by 3. A wider slot exposes all mode icons directly; more height gives the pad more room.
Grid options
The magnet opens this popover. Its power button switches the grid itself on or off.
Values define divisions of the composition, rather than pixel spacing. They snap only the drag's start and end points.
| Control | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Grid / Disable Grid | Off or on | Off |
| Cols | 1 to 256 horizontal divisions | 8 |
| Rows | 1 to 256 vertical divisions | 8 |
Keyframe options
| Control | Options or range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Keyframes / Disable Keyframes | Off or on. Disabling can ask to clear the selection’s Position keys. | Off |
| Easing | Linear, Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In Out, Smooth, Quart, Quint, Expo | Ease In Out |
| Stagger | 0 to 30 frames between layers in placement order | 0 |
Linear uses linear interpolation. The other presets use temporal Bezier easing. Ease In accelerates; Ease Out slows down. Ease In Out eases both ends. Smooth, Quart, Quint and Expo use progressively stronger curves. The popover draws each curve.
The animation guide covers timing, first keys and exactly what disabling clears.
Shared Edit Mode controls
Shape-specific controls have their own layout reference. Edit Mode has no separate module settings window.
| Control | Behavior | Initial value |
|---|---|---|
| Mode strip | Switch shape without closing the editor. | Current pad mode |
| Shuffle randomness | Choose another seed for random placement, Scale variance and Random Rotation. | Random seed |
| Reset [mode] settings | Restore the active shape’s controls only. Grid Columns returns to Auto. | Shape defaults |
| Transform | Expand or collapse position and size controls. | Open |
| Properties | Expand or collapse Scale, Rotation and global Jitter. | Closed |
| Apply | Apply to the current selection. Uses main-pad keyframe settings. Keeps the window open and refreshes the seed afterward. | Available while editor is open |
| Close | Close without applying the current placement preview. | Also Esc |
Transform
| Control | Meaning and range | Value when opening the editor |
|---|---|---|
| X, Y | Shape center, except Slingshot uses the launch point. X spans 0 to comp width; Y spans 0 to comp height. | Composition center |
| Distance | Slingshot’s reach control, in composition pixels. Actual landings also depend on Reach and Density. | 60% of the shorter comp dimension, rounded |
| Length | End-to-end span for Line and Wave, in pixels. | Same initial size |
| Width | Full horizontal extent for Grid, Ring, Burst, Arc and Spiral. | Same initial size |
| Height | Full vertical extent for those five shapes. Disabled while linked to Width. | Matches Width |
| Link button | Unlink from width allows a separate Height. Match width restores equal dimensions. Dragging the Height slider also unlinks it. | Linked |
| Angle | Direction for Slingshot, Line, Arc, Spiral and Wave. From -180° to 180°. | 0° |
Distance, Length, Width and Height range from 1 pixel to the larger composition dimension. Ring uses Start Angle instead of Transform Angle. Grid stays aligned to the composition axes, and Burst has no Transform Angle control.
Properties
| Control | Meaning and range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | Absolute uniform Scale, 10% to 400%. A computed 100% is left unchanged on the layer. | 100% |
| Variance | 0 to 100. Random variation up to this percentage above or below the base Scale, with a minimum resulting scale of 1%. | 0 |
| Rotation | Off leaves rotation alone. Fixed sets one angle. Random chooses within Min and Max. Follow aligns to the layout’s heading. Follow is hidden for Slingshot. | Off |
| Angle under Fixed | -180° to 180° | 0° |
| Min, Max under Random | Each -180° to 180°. Reversed bounds are accepted. | -45°, 45° |
| Jitter | 0 to 100. Global random position offset, up to 4% of the average composition dimension per axis at maximum. | 0 |
Numeric input and editor keys
| Gesture | Result |
|---|---|
| Click or drag a slider | Set its value. Click a notch for that marked value. |
| Cmd / Ctrl with a slider | Fine steps, one tenth of the usual step. |
| Shift with a slider | Snap to coarse notches. Fine takes priority if both are held. |
| Arrow keys on a focused slider | Increase or decrease its value, with the same fine and coarse modifiers. |
| Double-click a slider or click its displayed value | Type an exact value. Enter commits; Esc cancels the edit. Typed values are clamped to the range. |
| Drag a boxed number vertically | Increase upward or decrease downward. Shift uses steps of ten. |
| Double-click a boxed number | Type a value. Enter commits; Esc cancels. Values are rounded to the control’s step and clamped to its range. |
| Click a boxed number’s arrow buttons | Increase or decrease by one step. The arrows hide when the control is too short. |
| Right-click a slider | Type a value…, Copy value, and Paste value or Paste [number]. Reset to default is disabled on these sliders; use the shape reset button. |
| Enter outside text entry | Apply the layout. |
| Esc outside text entry | Close the editor. |
Remembered choices
Fling saves its pad mode, grid state and divisions, keyframe state, easing, Stagger and Rotation choice with its angle or random bounds. Rotation changes are saved from editor previews, so Close does not revert them.
The other Edit Mode controls are not saved as pad-drag settings. Pad drags use their quick layout defaults and do not inherit Scale. Repeated non-keyframed pad drags on the same selection re-fling from the initially remembered positions; with Keyframe Mode enabled, a new move continues from the existing keys.