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Window & panels

The window is one fixed frame. The menu bar runs across the top; under it the left panel, the viewport and the inspector sit side by side; the toolbar spans the viewport above and the status bar below. The one row that ever appears on its own is the update banner (→ The update banner).

The menu bar

The menu bar spans the full width of the window, above everything else: File, Design, Edit, View and Help. The first three act on the document, View switches between the 2D and 3D views, and Help opens this guide, checks for updates and shows the About box. See Menus & files.

The left panel

The left panel is a strip of quick settings over three sections, each scrolling its own content.

The strip holds Grid, Snap, and the gear that opens the Settings window; the rest of the preferences live behind the gear (Settings).

Under it, in order, are the three sections:

  • Components and Libraries — the browser’s two tabs, listing the components you can open and place (Components & Libraries);
  • Layers — the stack picker, the base layer, the explode slider and one row per layer (Layers);
  • Problems — the live design-rule report (Problems).

The viewport

The viewport fills the middle of the window and shows the design in 2D top-down or 3D orbit view (Viewport & navigation). The toolbar above it holds the tools and the options for whichever tool is active (Toolbar & tools).

The inspector

The inspector is the right-hand panel, and it is where you edit. A header names the open component, over a tabbed section for the component and a section for the selection inside it. See Inspector.

The status bar

The status bar is a single line under the viewport.

At the left is the legend: the current view mode, what the next click and drag do with the active tool, and the navigation keys. It updates as you work. Beside it, a finished action leaves a short note (3 files written to …) that clears itself after a few seconds. At the right end sit three readouts. The outermost is the pointer’s position, described below. Inside it, ⚠ N library warnings appears when the last file you opened had something to report about its libraries, and ✕ N ⚠ M counts the outstanding design-rule errors and warnings whenever the report is not clean. Hover either count for the details. Clicking one does nothing; the Problems section is the list you click.

The position reads x 1 234.5 · y -678.9 µm: where the pointer is on the active layer’s plane, in microns like every other length in the app, with long numbers grouped in threes. It is unsnapped: it says where the pointer is, not where a click would land.

It shows fewer decimals the further you zoom out. In the 3D orbit view it names the layer as well, Layer 0 · x … · y …. It reads — when an edge-on view leaves the pointer on no plane at all, and is blank while the pointer is outside the viewport.

Boundaries and sizes

Both side panels resize from their inner edge, and the boundary between two sections is a drag handle. The pointer becomes a vertical resize arrow over it, and the line lights as you hover and again as you drag.

Both widths and every section height are stored with your other preferences, so the next launch opens on the layout you left (Settings).

Windows and dialogs

The Settings window and the two fabrication editors — Fab processes and Stack — float over the layout, are dragged by their title bar, and close from their own ✕. The design stays editable underneath while one is open.

All three resize: drag an edge or the bottom-right corner. Each stops at a floor that keeps its top row readable, and a form longer than the window scrolls inside it rather than running off the bottom. What you drag to lasts as long as the session; unlike the panel widths, it is not stored with your preferences, so the next launch opens them at their usual size.

The export dialog, the unsaved-changes question, the file-error report and the About box each dim the window behind them and take every click until you answer them.

The update banner

When the update check finds a newer release, a row appears under the menu bar naming the version, carrying a Download link and a ✕.

The ✕ dismisses that release and only that one — the release after it announces itself again. The check that raises the banner, and its off switch, are Settings → Updates.

See also