Warp Options

What It Does

The Warp menu provides operations for manipulating the threading — the pattern of which shaft each warp thread passes through. These operations let you clear, invert, reverse, mirror, shift, and randomize your threading. Most operations work on a selected region of the warp, letting you transform part of the threading while leaving the rest unchanged.

Warp Options on the Design Menu

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Location

• Ribbon: Design tab > Warp dropdown menu

• Right-click: The warp header area also offers these operations in a context menu

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Operations

Clear

Removes all shaft assignments in the selected warp region. Every thread in the selection becomes unthreaded — no shaft assigned.

Requires an active warp selection. If no selection exists, a notification reminds you to select a region first.

Invert

Flips the shaft assignments vertically within the selection. The highest shaft swaps with the lowest, the second-highest with the second-lowest, and so on. On a 4-shaft draft, shaft 1 becomes shaft 4, shaft 2 becomes shaft 3, and vice versa.

This is useful for creating mirror-image threading patterns across the shaft axis — for example, turning a rising diagonal into a falling one.

Requires an active warp selection.

Reverse

Reverses the order of threads in the selection from left to right. The leftmost thread moves to the rightmost position and vice versa. Both the shaft assignments and the thread colors are reversed together, keeping each thread's color paired with its shaft.

This creates a mirror image of the threading sequence — useful for point threading patterns or creating symmetrical designs.

Requires an active warp selection.

Mirror Selection

Appends a reversed copy of the selected threads immediately after the selection. If your selection contains threads A-B-C, the result is A-B-C-C-B-A. Both threading and colors are mirrored.

This is the quickest way to create a symmetrical threading — select the first half of your pattern and mirror it. The warp automatically extends to accommodate the new threads.

Requires an active warp selection.

Mirror All

Mirrors the entire threaded warp, regardless of any selection. Takes all threads from the first to the last threaded position and appends a reversed copy. The warp extends to hold the mirrored threads.

Use this when you want to mirror your complete threading without having to select everything first. Requires at least some threaded warp data.

Shift Right

Moves all thread positions in the selection one column to the right. By default, the thread at the rightmost edge wraps around to the leftmost position. Hold Shift when clicking to prevent wrapping — the rightmost thread is lost instead.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Right Arrow (Cmd+Right Arrow on Mac) for wrap mode, Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow (Cmd+Shift+Right Arrow on Mac) for no-wrap mode.

Requires an active warp selection.

Shift Left

Moves all thread positions in the selection one column to the left. By default, the leftmost thread wraps around to the rightmost position. Hold Shift for no-wrap mode.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Left Arrow (Cmd+Left Arrow on Mac) for wrap mode, Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow (Cmd+Shift+Left Arrow on Mac) for no-wrap mode.

Requires an active warp selection.

Shift Up

Shifts shaft assignments upward within the selection — each thread moves to the next higher shaft. By default, threads on the highest shaft wrap around to the lowest shaft. Hold Shift to prevent wrapping — threads at the top shaft are cleared instead.

Only threads within the selected shaft range are affected. Colors stay in place — only the shaft numbers change.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Up Arrow (Cmd+Up Arrow on Mac) for wrap mode, Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow (Cmd+Shift+Up Arrow on Mac) for no-wrap mode.

Requires an active warp selection.

Shift Down

Shifts shaft assignments downward within the selection — each thread moves to the next lower shaft. By default, threads on the lowest shaft wrap around to the highest. Hold Shift for no-wrap mode.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Down Arrow (Cmd+Down Arrow on Mac) for wrap mode, Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow (Cmd+Shift+Down Arrow on Mac) for no-wrap mode.

Requires an active warp selection.

Randomize Colors

Shuffles the warp thread colors randomly within the selection. The threading (shaft assignments) is unchanged — only the color order is rearranged.

If no selection exists, this operation randomizes colors across the entire warp. This is the only warp operation that works without a selection.

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How to Use It

1. Select a region of the warp header by clicking and dragging

2. Open the Warp dropdown on the Design tab (or right-click the warp header)

3. Choose the operation you want

4. The threading updates immediately

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Step-by-Step Example: Creating a Point Threading

You have a straight draw threading (1-2-3-4) and want to turn it into a point draw (1-2-3-4-3-2):

1. Thread your first half: 1-2-3-4

2. Select those four threads in the warp header

3. Choose Mirror Selection from the Warp menu

4. The threading extends to 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1

5. If you want 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 (without the repeated peak and valley), manually delete the duplicate thread 4 and thread 1

Step-by-Step Example: Exploring Threading Variations

You have a threading you like but want to see what it looks like shifted:

1. Select the threading region you want to experiment with

2. Choose Shift Up from the Warp menu

3. Each thread moves one shaft higher — the pattern is the same but starts from a different shaft

4. Repeat to continue shifting

5. Try Shift Right or Shift Left to slide the pattern sideways

6. Use Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) to undo any changes you don't like

Step-by-Step Example: Randomizing Colors for Inspiration

You want to explore different color arrangements on your warp:

1. Set up your warp with the colors you plan to use

2. Choose Randomize Colors from the Warp menu (no selection needed)

3. The colors shuffle randomly while your threading stays intact

4. If you like the result, keep it. If not, try again or Ctrl+Z to undo

5. Each click produces a different random arrangement

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Tips

• Undo works — Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) reverts any warp operation.

• Selection required — Most operations need a warp selection first. If you see "No warp selection," click and drag on the warp header to select a region.

• Shift key controls wrapping — For all shift operations, the default wraps content around. Hold Shift when clicking to prevent wrapping.

• Colors follow threads — Reverse and Mirror move colors together with their shaft assignments, keeping each thread's identity intact.

• Shift Up/Down moves shafts, not colors — When shifting shaft assignments up or down, colors stay in place. Only the shaft numbers change.

• Randomize Colors is the exception — It's the only warp operation that works on all data when no selection exists.

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Quick Reference

Operation	What It Does	Shortcut	Requires Selection?
Clear	Remove all shaft assignments		Yes
Invert	Flip shafts vertically (high ↔ low)		Yes
Reverse	Reverse thread order (left ↔ right)		Yes
Mirror Selection	Append reversed copy of selection		Yes
Mirror All	Mirror entire threaded warp		No (uses all data)
Shift Right	Move threads one column right	Ctrl+Right (Cmd+Right)	Yes
Shift Left	Move threads one column left	Ctrl+Left (Cmd+Left)	Yes
Shift Up	Move shafts up one position	Ctrl+Up (Cmd+Up)	Yes
Shift Down	Move shafts down one position	Ctrl+Down (Cmd+Down)	Yes
Randomize Colors	Shuffle thread colors randomly		No (works on all if none)

Add Shift to the shortcut for no-wrap mode (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+Right).