# Spaces

**Spaces** are ways of handling paths ***with or without transformations***. Let's say you have a rounded, rectangular path, but it's layer has been rotated. If you want to make the shape taller, it's easier to do so without that rotation. Normally, you'd have to use a precomp to do this, and go into the un-rotated precomp. But Penpal can sort of *see inside* layers, and show you the path as it is, without the rotation.

![](/files/-MYOs4JWT__znOgZk7xb)

The **Spaces button** shows the active space. When you hover over it, a dropdown allows you to activate a different space.

<img src="/files/-M5N4GPBMVLhl6Z-5gtr" alt="" data-size="line"> **Comp space** shows your paths as they appear in the composition panel in After Effects, with all the positioning, scaling, rotating, skewing, and other transformations that are affecting them.

<img src="/files/-M5N4NghDbhzlhztHjj4" alt="" data-size="line"> **Layer space** shows paths as if you were ‘inside’ the layer they are a part of. So if that layer is rotated, your paths will be shown without this rotation.

<img src="/files/-M5N4Pqcy1lUHikuKCtY" alt="" data-size="line"> **Local space** shows paths as they 'really are', without any of the transformations applied to both the layer **and** any shape groups they are in.

![](/files/-MYPeJfdrtIYYdw5RTZ3)

![A star inside a square - but the group has been skewed to 35, and the layer has been rotated 30º](/files/-MYPZwysOfLY4vHAshP6)

Many of Penpal's buttons behave differently depending on which Space you are in. If you [move points up](/penpal-user-guide/points-tab.md#move-up) in Comp space, they will move in the direction that is up in the composition. If your layer was rotated, and you moved them up *in Layer space*, they would move upwards *within the layer*, along it's angle of rotation.  [Flipping](/penpal-user-guide/path-tab.md#flip-vertically) and [centering](/penpal-user-guide/path-tab.md#center) Paths, [Aligning](/penpal-user-guide/points-tab.md#align-horizontal) and [distributing](/penpal-user-guide/points-tab.md#distribute-horizontally) points, [flattening](/penpal-user-guide/tangents-tab.md#flatten-vertically) and [flipping](/penpal-user-guide/tangents-tab.md#flip-horizontally) tangents, and even [snapping points to pixels](/penpal-user-guide/points-tab.md#snap)… all can behave differently if your path is inside a shape group or a layer that has been transformed.<br>


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