Fix #693: a click activates its artboard; in-place pastes go onto it

- A press with a selection tool inside an artboard makes it the active one, as
  the Artboard tool's does; before, only the navigator and the Artboards panel
  changed it.
- Paste in Place, in Front and in Back take `artboard` (the UI passes the active
  one): the objects go where they were on the artboard they were copied from,
  on that artboard. Without it, they paste where they were, as before.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

ROADMAP.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ VectorCraft is a clean-room, open-source, pure-Rust reimplementation of the Adob
 
 This file tracks **how far we are and what's left**. Time estimates are wall-clock hours of continuous Claude Opus 5.5 agent work (including builds and the CI gate), given both for **one agent** and for **4–6 parallel agents** on disjoint crates. They are counted from the remaining work (see [Parity estimate](#parity-estimate)), calibrated against measured throughput, and updated as work lands.
 
-_Last updated: 2026-10-09 (after placed documents (File › Place of a `.vectorcraft` file, linked), M4.14–M4.98, M8.1–M8.20, M14.4–M14.7, the MCP prompts, resource templates, completions and logging, the 2026-10-07 issue fixes, the Layers panel rework and the 2026-10-08 community contributions: Pen and shape-tool modifiers, path editing, Layers, Artboards, Swatches/Brushes and dialogs, Japanese composition and PDF text, Hebrew/Arabic type, interface languages (Spanish among them), the font menu, saved selections, MCP and EPS, the missing-font export warning (#319), open paths in the Shape Builder (#374), PDF/`.ai` import keeping strokes live and hidden and nested layers (#372), per-corner Live Corners (#381), SVG type opening at the size it draws at (#396), the Wayland clipboard with copied-file paste (#398), ruler guides that can be selected, moved and deleted (#414), two batches of Preferences options that were stored but unused (#394), skeleton reads with `document.find` for large documents over MCP (#416) and anchors dragged with Direct Selection snapping to points, segments and smart guides, clipped SVG layers opening as clipping layers (#420), PDF/`.ai` layers read on pages of tens of millions of operators (#419), Document Color Mode putting RGB greys on the black plate on request and converting pattern tiles (#421) and movable dialogs with Offset Path's Joins dropdown (#423) and numeric fields scrubbed by dragging their label (#400), stroke weight presets in the stroke unit (#426), the Appearance panel's Opacity popup (#430), type on a path brackets, flip and Type on a Path Options that keep the type in place (#429), Layers rows dragged with a ghost and dropped on the trash or New Layer (#435), tool flyouts opening on a right or corner press (#436), tool flyouts torn off into floating toolbars (#437), the Shape Builder's erase mode deleting edges too (#439), installed fonts registered outside the font folders and fonts installed while the app runs listed in the font menus (#443), alike circular corners on rectangles that aren't square (#442), tool cursors as OS cursors so the pointer no longer trails over the canvas (#444), artboards copied and pasted with their art (#446), guides dragged out of the rulers snapping to the art's side midpoints and the artboards, artboard guides (#451), the toolbar's double arrow and Window › Toolbars › Double Column switching between one and two columns in any window height (#455), the Smart Guides display options and Snapping Tolerance (#394), Font Size and Leading combo boxes with preset lists in the Character and Properties panels and the Control bar (#458), screenshots pasted from the clipboard on macOS, Windows and the web (#457), the Properties panel's Fill and Stroke matching the Control bar's, Illustrator's Window menu panel keys (Shift+F7 for Align…) and Alt-wheel zoom whatever the wheel preference (Discord feedback), the point/area type widget (Discord feedback), groups in legacy Illustrator .ai files (Discord feedback), a rotating desktop log file (#465), image controls in the Control bar and Properties panel: Image Trace with its presets, Mask, Crop Image, Embed/Unembed, and an Image Trace object's preset, Expand and Release (Discord feedback), the Pen working as the Anchor Point tool with Alt held over a selected path's handles and anchors, and anchor buttons that convert, connect and cut paths at the selected anchors (Discord feedback), Japanese hanging punctuation (burasagari, #463), Escape leaving Presentation Mode with no screen mode saved across restarts, documents dropped on the desktop app opening as tabs of their own and a note that an `.ai` file's art off its artboards isn't in the part read (#472), Add/Delete Anchor Point tool icons drawn from the Pen tool's (#479), EPS import running more of PostScript Level 3 (patterns, Type 3 fonts, mesh shadings, masked images, VM and resource probes), and a preview that stands in saying why (Discord feedback, #466, #469, #474), chords with modifiers recorded in Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts (#487), Type Object Selection by Path Only (#394), Anti-aliased Artwork (#394), Show Pixel Grid (#394), pen and touch taps pressed and lifted within one frame clicking where they tapped and the Linux/Wayland pen-tablet workaround (#491), bounding-box resizes landing on the other objects' anchors and centres with labels, and the Rotate, Scale, Shear and Reflect tools snapping their drags (#482), Shift-drag marquees that toggle the objects or anchors they reach and a Lasso whose Alt subtraction keeps the rest of the selection (#483), the mouse wheel stepping the focused numeric field, the dialogs' and preferences' drag values made such fields (#485), Show The Home Screen When No Documents Are Open (#394), Numbers Without Units Are Points (#394), Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels (#394), the Contextual Task Bar moved by its handle and its More Options menu pinning and resetting its position, a designed macOS DMG windoLine truncated
+_Last updated: 2026-10-09 (after placed documents (File › Place of a `.vectorcraft` file, linked), M4.14–M4.98, M8.1–M8.20, M14.4–M14.7, the MCP prompts, resource templates, completions and logging, the 2026-10-07 issue fixes, the Layers panel rework and the 2026-10-08 community contributions: Pen and shape-tool modifiers, path editing, Layers, Artboards, Swatches/Brushes and dialogs, Japanese composition and PDF text, Hebrew/Arabic type, interface languages (Spanish among them), the font menu, saved selections, MCP and EPS, the missing-font export warning (#319), open paths in the Shape Builder (#374), PDF/`.ai` import keeping strokes live and hidden and nested layers (#372), per-corner Live Corners (#381), SVG type opening at the size it draws at (#396), the Wayland clipboard with copied-file paste (#398), ruler guides that can be selected, moved and deleted (#414), two batches of Preferences options that were stored but unused (#394), skeleton reads with `document.find` for large documents over MCP (#416) and anchors dragged with Direct Selection snapping to points, segments and smart guides, clipped SVG layers opening as clipping layers (#420), PDF/`.ai` layers read on pages of tens of millions of operators (#419), Document Color Mode putting RGB greys on the black plate on request and converting pattern tiles (#421) and movable dialogs with Offset Path's Joins dropdown (#423) and numeric fields scrubbed by dragging their label (#400), stroke weight presets in the stroke unit (#426), the Appearance panel's Opacity popup (#430), type on a path brackets, flip and Type on a Path Options that keep the type in place (#429), Layers rows dragged with a ghost and dropped on the trash or New Layer (#435), tool flyouts opening on a right or corner press (#436), tool flyouts torn off into floating toolbars (#437), the Shape Builder's erase mode deleting edges too (#439), installed fonts registered outside the font folders and fonts installed while the app runs listed in the font menus (#443), alike circular corners on rectangles that aren't square (#442), tool cursors as OS cursors so the pointer no longer trails over the canvas (#444), artboards copied and pasted with their art (#446), guides dragged out of the rulers snapping to the art's side midpoints and the artboards, artboard guides (#451), the toolbar's double arrow and Window › Toolbars › Double Column switching between one and two columns in any window height (#455), the Smart Guides display options and Snapping Tolerance (#394), Font Size and Leading combo boxes with preset lists in the Character and Properties panels and the Control bar (#458), screenshots pasted from the clipboard on macOS, Windows and the web (#457), the Properties panel's Fill and Stroke matching the Control bar's, Illustrator's Window menu panel keys (Shift+F7 for Align…) and Alt-wheel zoom whatever the wheel preference (Discord feedback), the point/area type widget (Discord feedback), groups in legacy Illustrator .ai files (Discord feedback), a rotating desktop log file (#465), image controls in the Control bar and Properties panel: Image Trace with its presets, Mask, Crop Image, Embed/Unembed, and an Image Trace object's preset, Expand and Release (Discord feedback), the Pen working as the Anchor Point tool with Alt held over a selected path's handles and anchors, and anchor buttons that convert, connect and cut paths at the selected anchors (Discord feedback), Japanese hanging punctuation (burasagari, #463), Escape leaving Presentation Mode with no screen mode saved across restarts, documents dropped on the desktop app opening as tabs of their own and a note that an `.ai` file's art off its artboards isn't in the part read (#472), Add/Delete Anchor Point tool icons drawn from the Pen tool's (#479), EPS import running more of PostScript Level 3 (patterns, Type 3 fonts, mesh shadings, masked images, VM and resource probes), and a preview that stands in saying why (Discord feedback, #466, #469, #474), chords with modifiers recorded in Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts (#487), Type Object Selection by Path Only (#394), Anti-aliased Artwork (#394), Show Pixel Grid (#394), pen and touch taps pressed and lifted within one frame clicking where they tapped and the Linux/Wayland pen-tablet workaround (#491), bounding-box resizes landing on the other objects' anchors and centres with labels, and the Rotate, Scale, Shear and Reflect tools snapping their drags (#482), Shift-drag marquees that toggle the objects or anchors they reach and a Lasso whose Alt subtraction keeps the rest of the selection (#483), the mouse wheel stepping the focused numeric field, the dialogs' and preferences' drag values made such fields (#485), Show The Home Screen When No Documents Are Open (#394), Numbers Without Units Are Points (#394), Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels (#394), the Contextual Task Bar moved by its handle and its More Options menu pinning and resetting its position, a designed macOS DMG windoLine truncated
 
 ## Where we are
 

crates/engine/src/cmd/edit.rs

@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ pub fn specs() -> Vec<CommandSpec> {
             "Paste in Front",
             ["Edit"],
             Some("Cmd+F"),
-            "{swatchConflict?} paste in place just above the top selected object, or on top of the current layer when nothing is selected (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
+            "{swatchConflict?, artboard?: index (the active artboard: the objects go where they were on the artboard they were copied from, on this one)} paste in place just above the top selected object, or on top of the current layer when nothing is selected (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
             has_clipboard,
             |s, p| paste(s, p, PasteMode::Front)
         ),
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ pub fn specs() -> Vec<CommandSpec> {
             "Paste in Back",
             ["Edit"],
             Some("Cmd+B"),
-            "{swatchConflict?} paste in place just below the bottom selected object, or at the bottom of the current layer when nothing is selected (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
+            "{swatchConflict?, artboard?: index (as edit.pasteInFront)} paste in place just below the bottom selected object, or at the bottom of the current layer when nothing is selected (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
             has_clipboard,
             |s, p| paste(s, p, PasteMode::Back)
         ),
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ pub fn specs() -> Vec<CommandSpec> {
             "Paste in Place",
             ["Edit"],
             Some("Cmd+Shift+V"),
-            "{swatchConflict?} paste where the objects were copied (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
+            "{swatchConflict?, artboard?: index (as edit.pasteInFront)} paste where the objects were copied (resources and layers as edit.paste) → {ids, added, merged, renamed}",
             has_clipboard,
             |s, p| paste(s, p, PasteMode::InPlace)
         ),
@@ -310,6 +310,17 @@ fn paste(s: &mut Session, p: &Value, mode: PasteMode) -> Result<Value> {
     r
 }
 
+/// Paste in Place, in Front or in Back onto artboard `artboard` (the active one, #693): where the
+/// objects were on the artboard they were copied from, on that one; without it (or a copy from no
+/// artboard), where they were.
+fn onto_artboard(doc: &Document, p: &Value, clip: &Clipboard) -> Affine {
+    let target = p.get("artboard").and_then(Value::as_u64).and_then(|i| usize::try_from(i).ok()).and_then(|i| doc.artboards.get(i));
+    match (target, clip.source_artboard) {
+        (Some(t), Some(src)) => Affine::translate(t.rect.origin() - src.origin()),
+        _ => Affine::IDENTITY,
+    }
+}
+
 fn paste_clip(s: &mut Session, p: &Value, mode: PasteMode, clip: &Clipboard, choices: &SwatchChoices) -> Result<Value> {
     let off = s.prefs.paste_offset;
     let st = s.doc()?;
@@ -345,7 +356,8 @@ fn paste_clip(s: &mut Session, p: &Value, mode: PasteMode, clip: &Clipboard, cho
             let src = clip.source_artboard.or_else(|| st.doc.artboards.first().map(|a| a.rect)).map(|r| r.origin()).unwrap_or_default();
             st.doc.artboards.iter().map(|a| Affine::translate(a.rect.origin() - src)).collect()
         }
-        _ => vec![Affine::IDENTITY],
+        // In place, in front, in back: onto the active artboard when the UI names it.
+        _ => vec![onto_artboard(&st.doc, p, clip)],
     };
     let (ids, imported, artboard) = s.edit(mode.label(), |d, sel| {
         let imported = clip.import_into(d, choices, same_doc);

crates/engine/src/tests_clipboard.rs

@@ -551,6 +551,26 @@ fn paste_on_all_artboards_keeps_the_offset_to_the_source_artboard() {
     }
 }
 
+/// Paste in Place, in Front and in Back onto the active artboard (#693): where the objects were on
+/// the artboard they were copied from, on the one named; without it, where they were.
+#[test]
+fn in_place_pastes_go_onto_the_artboard_named() {
+    let mut s = Session::new();
+    s.execute("file.new", &json!({"width": 200, "height": 100, "artboards": 3})).unwrap();
+    let boards: Vec<Rect> = doc(&s).artboards.iter().map(|a| a.rect).collect();
+    let r = rect(&mut s, boards[0].x0 + 10.0, boards[0].y0 + 15.0, 20.0, 20.0);
+    copy(&mut s, &[r]);
+    for cmd in ["edit.pasteInPlace", "edit.pasteInFront", "edit.pasteInBack"] {
+        let ids = ids_of(&s.execute(cmd, &json!({"artboard": 2})).unwrap());
+        assert_eq!(doc(&s).bounds_of(&ids, false).unwrap().origin(), Point::new(boards[2].x0 + 10.0, boards[2].y0 + 15.0), "{cmd}");
+        let ids = ids_of(&s.execute(cmd, &json!({})).unwrap());
+        assert_eq!(doc(&s).bounds_of(&ids, false).unwrap().origin(), Point::new(boards[0].x0 + 10.0, boards[0].y0 + 15.0), "{cmd} without one");
+        // An artboard that isn't there: where they were.
+        let ids = ids_of(&s.execute(cmd, &json!({"artboard": 9})).unwrap());
+        assert_eq!(doc(&s).bounds_of(&ids, false).unwrap().origin(), Point::new(boards[0].x0 + 10.0, boards[0].y0 + 15.0), "{cmd} on no artboard");
+    }
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn paste_remembers_layers_restores_the_source_layers() {
     let mut s = session();

crates/ui-egui/src/canvas.rs

@@ -864,6 +864,15 @@ pub fn dispatch(app: &mut VectorcraftApp, ev: &PointerEvent, view: vectorcraft_e
     {
         v.artboard = i;
     }
+    // A press with a selection tool inside an artboard makes it the active one (#693), as the
+    // Artboard tool's does: Paste in Place and in Front or Back then paste onto it.
+    if ev.kind == PointerKind::Down
+        && vectorcraft_tools::catalog::is_selection_tool(app.session.tool_id())
+        && let Some(i) = app.session.active().and_then(|d| d.doc.artboard_at(ev.pos))
+        && let Some(v) = app.view_mut()
+    {
+        v.artboard = i;
+    }
     apply_requests(app, r);
 }
 
@@ -2051,6 +2060,34 @@ mod tests {
         out.textures_delta.clear();
     }
 
+    /// A click with the Selection tool inside an artboard makes it the active one, and Paste in
+    /// Place then pastes onto it, where the objects were on their own artboard (#693).
+    #[test]
+    fn a_click_activates_its_artboard_and_paste_in_place_goes_onto_it() {
+        let mut app = VectorcraftApp::new(Session::new(), Default::default());
+        app.session.execute("file.new", &json!({"width": 200, "height": 100, "artboards": 3})).unwrap();
+        let boards: Vec<_> = app.session.active().unwrap().doc.artboards.iter().map(|a| a.rect).collect();
+        app.session.execute("shape.rectangle", &json!({"x": boards[0].x0 + 10.0, "y": boards[0].y0 + 15.0, "width": 20, "height": 20})).unwrap();
+        app.run("edit.copy", json!({})).unwrap();
+        let ctx = egui::Context::default();
+        frame(&mut app, &ctx, vec![]);
+        app.select_tool("selection");
+        let view = app.view_info();
+        let at = boards[2].center();
+        for kind in [PointerKind::Down, PointerKind::Up] {
+            dispatch(&mut app, &PointerEvent { kind, pos: at, mods: Default::default(), pressure: 1.0 }, view);
+        }
+        assert_eq!(app.view().unwrap().artboard, 2, "the clicked artboard is the active one");
+        let ids: Vec<vectorcraft_doc::NodeId> = app.run("edit.pasteInPlace", json!({})).unwrap()["ids"]
+            .as_array()
+            .unwrap()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|v| vectorcraft_doc::NodeId(v.as_u64().unwrap()))
+            .collect();
+        let b = app.session.active().unwrap().doc.bounds_of(&ids, false).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!((b.x0, b.y0), (boards[2].x0 + 10.0, boards[2].y0 + 15.0));
+    }
+
     /// Enable Touch Gestures (#585): a two-finger tap undoes and a three-finger one redoes, and the
     /// first finger's press (the pointer egui makes of it) draws nothing. Off, a tap does nothing.
     #[test]

crates/ui-egui/src/lib.rs

@@ -534,6 +534,14 @@ impl VectorcraftApp {
             {
                 p.insert("center".into(), serde_json::json!([c.x, c.y]));
             }
+            // In place, in front, in back: onto the active artboard (#693).
+            if matches!(id, "edit.pasteInPlace" | "edit.pasteInFront" | "edit.pasteInBack")
+                && params.get("artboard").is_none()
+                && let Some(i) = self.view().map(|v| v.artboard)
+                && let Some(p) = params.as_object_mut()
+            {
+                p.insert("artboard".into(), serde_json::json!(i));
+            }
             if let Some(r) = dialogs::swatch_conflict::ask(self, id, &params) {
                 return r;
             }