Components & Libraries
The browser is the top section of the left panel, and it is what you open a component from. Two tabs share it: Components, the definitions this design owns, and Libraries, everything it can place but not edit. Clicking a name opens that component — the viewport shows it on its own, and the inspector fills with it.
The tab strip
A tab carries a count when there is something behind it, and Libraries counts libraries, not
their components: a catalog of three libraries holding forty components reads Libraries 3.
The + adds to the tab you are looking at, and only Components has one — a library is a file beside the design rather than something you make here. Each tab keeps its own scroll position, and the tab you pick stays picked as you move between components.
Components
The tab lists one row per definition this design owns; a design with none reads (none).
A small dim star follows the root, and clicking it does nothing. The star that sets the root is in the Inspector header, which is also where a definition is renamed and deleted.
The + creates an empty component named component (component2, and so on, when that name
is taken) and opens it. The new component is not made the root.
Opening a component reframes the viewport on it, clears the selection inside it, returns the active layer to the stack’s base layer, and shows every layer again. Editing does none of that: the Layers visibility you set survives everything but a change of component and making a hidden layer active.
Libraries
The tab lists one collapsible group per library, Built-ins first and the rest by name.
Built-ins ships with the app, and every other group is a library file in the folder beside the
design you opened. The group header carries that library’s @version, and the tooltip gives
the full identity. Two versions of one library are
two groups, which keeps components that share a name apart.
A dimmed header is a library loaded from the folder that this design does not use, and its tooltip says so. The dimming tells you which files have to travel with the design when you share the folder. Placing a component from a library undims it; opening one to look at it does not.
A library component is read-only. Opening one shows its parameters, computed values and pins with no edit controls, and the tools do nothing in the viewport while it is open. You use one by placing it, from the toolbar’s Add component picker (Toolbar & tools), which lists the dimmed libraries too.
When the last file you opened had something to report about its libraries, the status bar shows
a ⚠ N library warnings readout. Two things raise one: a library file that changed since this
design was last saved, which re-saving clears, and a file beside the design that could not be
read and that this design does not need.
See also
- Components, parameters & pins — definitions, the root, and what each built-in component is.
- Inspector — where the open component is renamed, re-rooted and deleted.
- Toolbar & tools — the Add component picker that places what this browser lists.
- Window & panels — the section’s place in the frame, and the status-bar readouts.