Canvas mode

While working in Canvas mode, you can control your view of a semantic model and its elements by using layout modes, the cards legend, node expand and collapse controls, the canvas toolbar, and cube resizing.

Layout mode

Layout modes are applied to each cube, individually, so that you can use one layout mode for one cube and a different layout mode for another cube.

Layout mode	Description
Star Layout mode	Automatically arranges nodes in a star shape around the cube’s fact table and resizes the cube to fit all elements. You can enable Star Layout mode by clicking the Layout icon in the cube. The Star Layout mode is enabled by default in new cubes.
Free Layout Mode	Maintains the cube’s size and the position of other elements in the cube when a new element is added to the cube, or an element is moved around the cube. You can enable Free Layout mode by resizing a cube or moving an element in the cube.

Legend

The Legend shows the meaning of the outline color for cards on the canvas so that you can identify the card type without reading the text on the card. Open and close the Legend by taking the following actions:

• To show the Legend, next to the model's name, click the More Actions icon and select Legend.

• To hide the Legend, click the Close icon in the top, right corner of the Legend.

Canvas toolbar

Move around the canvas while working with a semantic model by using the following options in the canvas toolbar:

Option	Description
Zoom In	Enlarges the size of the semantic model on the canvas so that you can see more details of individual elements in the model.
Zoom Out	Decreases the size of the semantic model on the canvas so that you can see more elements in the model at the same time, with less detail for individual elements.
Fit View	Resizes the semantic model and centers it on the canvas so that you can see as many elements in the model at the same time as possible. Whether the entire model can fit in the view depends on the size of the model.
Interactive	Locks and unlocks the canvas to control whether elements can be moved on the canvas. Interactive mode is unlocked by default.
Arrange Layout	Rearranges the top-level elements of a model, like cubes and shared dimensions, so that those elements do not overlap on the canvas. The arrangement of elements inside a top-level element, such as dimensions and measures inside a cube, is not changed.
Hide All Edges or Show All Edges	Hides or shows the connections between different nodes inside cubes in the model. Hide cube edges to reduce visual noise when working with large semantic models that have a lot of cube edges.

Node expand and collapse

Collapse and expand nodes to control how much node information is displayed in a cube by taking the following actions:

• To collapse or expand a single node, next to the node’s name, click the Collapse icon or Expand button.

• To collapse or expand all nodes in a cube, in the cube toolbar, click the Collapse All Nodes icon or Expand All Nodes icon.

Cube resizing

To resize a cube, hover over the bottom, right corner of the cube until you see a double-sided arrow, and then click and drag to make the cube bigger or smaller.