Hey everyone! I’m pretty new to Flutter development and I’m stuck on something. I want to build a canvas-like interface where users can scroll in all directions - up, down, left, right, and even diagonally.
Think about how design applications like Sketch or Canva work. You have this infinite workspace where you can pan around freely in any direction to see different parts of your design.
I’m not looking for complete code solutions right now. What I really need is some direction on:
Which Flutter widgets would be best for this kind of functionality
What approach or methodology should I follow
Any specific packages that might help
I haven’t started coding yet because I want to make sure I’m heading down the right path from the beginning. Any advice would be really appreciated!
Building a bidirectional scrolling canvas in Flutter can be effectively achieved using the InteractiveViewer widget. This widget provides a straightforward way to handle both pan and zoom gestures, allowing you to wrap your canvas content easily. For optimal functionality, consider using CustomPainter within the InteractiveViewer, designed to accommodate a larger area that gives the illusion of an infinite workspace. Additionally, it’s important to set minScale and maxScale values to prevent excessive zooming that might disrupt the user experience. As you scale up the complexity of your canvas, be aware of potential performance issues; implement viewport-based rendering to only display what is visible to the user. Don’t overlook the importance of Matrix4 transformations when dealing with screen and canvas coordinates, as planning ahead can prevent future complications. Starting with InteractiveViewer is a sound strategy, and from there, you can build additional features as needed.