We really need this feature eagerly waiting.

A native canvas/whiteboard would let users arrange objects, add text and connectors, and see relationships visually. This would improve studying, research, and project planning. Even a simple integrated version would make Capacities far more powerful and versatile.

if Capacities added basic canvas functionality.

the minimum that would work:

Core features:

Canvas as a new object type (so it's searchable, taggable, etc.)

Drag existing Capacities objects onto canvas

Objects maintain their properties and links when placed on canvas

Add free-floating text and simple connectors/arrows

Pan, zoom, and freely arrange items in 2D space

What I don't need initially:

Collaboration features

AI assistance or auto-layout

Complex export options

The reason tools like Heptabase pull users away isn't sophisticated features—it's simply that they recognize knowledge work needs both structured and spatial modes. Capacities has the better foundation with its object model. You just need a spatial layer on top of it.

I see from community feedback that many users want this. Even a basic implementation would likely drive adoption and retention significantly.

Happy to discuss use cases in more detail or test beta versions. I think this could be a game-changer for Capacities.

Just incase anyone needs: you can embed an excalidraw/tldraw link in a page and use it as an 'integrated board'. While not ideal it does let me stay within capacities and not switch apps.

I'm really struggling without the whiteboard. Just sketching something quickly is okay in another app. But making sense of many scraps of information that I gathered in capacities using the daily note is impossible unless I bring these small pieces on the board and arrange them to make connections and find the structure. I can't consolidate the information into one concise and structured note without this. I have to pay for heptabase and manually copy paragraphs from capacities. I could instead just do it all in capacities and pay for it if there was a whiteboard. Until then I can't keep 2 subscriptions

For anyone reading, I know it isn’t ideal, but as a temporary solution it’s fairly simple to, on iPad for instance, draw what you mean to draw in another app (I tried it with Freeform) then copy/paste any selection as an image into Capacities. It adds a little slop into your workflow but it isn’t too bad for the time being. This also works in Bear or Apple Notes.

I really like using Heptabase because I can create 'ideas' or 'thoughts' aka cards as I go and that the cards exist outside of the whiteboard so they can be developed and reused in other whiteboards. For me this is a much more natural way of capturing and developing my thoughts than giving birth to 'ideas' or 'thoughts' cards on a linear, 1-dimensional document in some kind of "document writing" process. If Capacities gains a whiteboarding feature like Heptabase, I'll become a believer in a heartbeat, but without it, I am a Heptabase customer instead - simply because trying to capture emergent, non-linear interrelated ideas in a linear document is painful and neigh-on impossible.

The lack of a tool for visual thinking and free association / arrangement is by far the biggest shortcoming of Capacities from the point of view of creative types. The lack of task management can be circumvented by a customized object type, the lack of canvas is just a big black gaping hole right in the middle of the app.

Objects and logical relations might be good enough for knowledge management.

But they are not good enough for knowledge creation.

You could start with just a simple canvas view where any objects could be added and freely arranged. Just start with that. That alone would be a huge step forward. You would immediately pull a ton of users from Heptabase.