The workspace
Canvas, panels, toolbars, rulers. Where everything is.
Now that the machine is connected, get oriented. The workspace is where you will spend almost all your time.
What is where
- Canvas (center): the rectangle representing your machine bed. The grid is in millimeters by default. The origin (0,0) corner depends on your machine; the page Job origin vs workspace origin explains the difference.
- Creation Toolbar (left, upper): Select, Draw, Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star, Text, Node Edit, Trim, Tabs, Measure. See Creation Toolbar.
- Modifiers Toolbar (left, lower, stacked under Creation): Boolean operations, Offset, Arrays, and other modifiers that operate on a selection. See Modifiers Toolbar.
- Properties Toolbar (top): numeric inspectors for the active selection: position, size, rotation. Switches contents when a tool with options is active. See Properties Toolbar.
- Panels (right): by default, Cuts/Layers, Move, Console, Macros, and Shape Properties are in the upper-right dock. Laser Control and Material Library are in the lower-right dock. Measurement, Camera, Art Library, and Connection Diagnostics are opened from the Window menu when needed.
- Color Palette (bottom): click a swatch to assign the selection to that layer's color.
- Rulers: top and left edges of the canvas, in mm or inches per Settings, Units & Grid.
Move around the canvas
- Pan: middle-mouse drag, or hold spacebar and left-click drag.
- Zoom: scroll wheel. (Or Ctrl+scroll if you have Scroll wheel: Pan in Settings, Display.)
- Zoom to fit:
Ctrl+0zooms to the project page. - Frame selection:
Ctrl+Shift+Azooms to the current selection.
Rearranging panels
Every panel has a header. Drag the header to:
- Move it to a different dock zone (upper-right, lower-right, bottom).
- Float it as a free window.
- Close it (via the X). Re-open from the Window menu.
The layout is saved between sessions.