The workspace
Use this page as a map of the editor when you can't find a control. The editor is built around the canvas. Everything else sits on one of five edges, and each edge has a job, so once you know which edge does what, you know where to look.
| Where | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Header (top) | The document: its name and save status, machine, hoop, and fabric; Save, Undo, Redo, Export, Analysis, Ask Bobby, Bug report, Tutorial, Publish, and your account |
| Tool rail (left) | Every drawing and selection tool |
| Essentials bar (above the canvas) | The settings for whatever you have selected |
| Canvas HUD (top-right of the canvas) | Render mode, and the stitch overlays |
| Bottom bar (under the canvas) | Zoom, thread colors and the stitch count, Animate, and video export |
| Side panels (right) | Layers, Scene, Properties, and Chat |
Before then the tools ran across the header in a second row, colors had their own dockable panel, and the render-mode switch lived in the header. If you are following an older tutorial or video, that is why things are not where it says.
The tool rail
The tools sit in a vertical rail down the left edge, in four groups: Utilities, Editor, Lettering, and Automation.
Hover any tool to read what it does. A tool with a "+" has variants you reach by right-click or long-press. Every tool's badge shows its current key, so it tracks your shortcut preset.
The full catalog is in Tools.
The essentials bar
A strip across the top of the canvas that always shows the settings for what you have selected. It is the surface you reach for constantly; the Properties panel keeps the complete set.
It stays in place even with nothing selected, so the canvas doesn't shift under your cursor as you click between objects. With no selection it reads "Select an object to edit its stitch settings."
What appears depends on what you picked:
- A single shape or path: the stitch type (Running, Satin, Tatami), then that type's own Stitch or Fill choice (new in v1.3.2; see Stitch styles), and the one or two knobs you reach for most in it: length for running, width and spacing for satin, angle and spacing for tatami, loop spacing for a stipple, and so on. Then a row of popovers: Shape, Gradient (tatami only, new in v1.3.1; see Add a gradient to a fill), Underlay, Advanced, Compensation, Ties, Entry / Exit, and Transform.
- Text: size, letter spacing, line spacing, and alignment, with the stitch parameters one click away under Stitching. See Add text.
- A pixel sprite: the stitch method and cell size, plus a Satin popover when it is stitched as mini-satin. See Create pixel art.
- A line drawing (new in v1.3.3): Edit line art, which opens the line art editor.
- A reference image: its name, placement, and opacity.
- Several objects: Align and Combine. With shapes and a line drawing selected together, a Divide by drawing button appears instead of the path operations: see Divide by drawing.
- Node editing: the curve, node, and segment operations, or a Selection view when several nodes are selected. See Edit nodes.
For example, to make a tatami fill denser, select it and lower its spacing right on the bar; to change what is sewn underneath it, open Underlay. You only need the Properties panel for the less common settings.
The bar is icon-only, and every knob and popover button has a hover label. Each popover has its own Reset, which clears just that popover's settings rather than everything.
A popover opens just under its button, lined up with its right edge. When it covers what you want to watch on the canvas, drag it aside by the grip along its top: from then on every popover opens where you left that one, so you only move them once. Double-click the grip to put them all back under their buttons. The position lasts until you close the app or reload the page. New in v1.3.1.
The canvas HUD
Pinned to the top-right of the drawing area: the Vector / Stitch / Realistic switch, and under it the three stitch overlays.
See Render modes.
The bottom bar
Under the canvas (not under the side panels), in three parts (rearranged in v1.3.2):
- On the left, zoom: fit, actual size, presets, and a percentage you can type into, plus Center on hoop.
- In the middle, colors: Edit colors, a strip of your design's thread swatches, and a + to add a color. Click a swatch to make it the drawing color, which also recolors anything selected. Edit colors opens the full palette editor in a popover just above it: add, rename, edit a color, match to a thread chart, and reduce the palette. See Threads and palettes. The stitch count for the whole design sits to its right.
- On the right: Getting started, if you have not finished the walkthrough (see Create your first design), then Animate, which opens the stitch-out timeline in a drawer above the bar, and a camera button to export it as a video.
The side panels
Four panels start in one right-hand column: Layers and Scene tabbed together on top, Properties below with Chat as a tab beside it. Properties is the open tab.
Drag a panel's tab to move it, to another group or to any edge of the editor. Close one with the × on its tab and get it back from the Window menu or the + button in any tab bar. Window → Reset panel layout puts everything back. See Objects and layers.
A docked panel can't be dragged narrower than its controls need, so labels and number fields never end up clipped or pushed out of sight. The canvas gives way instead. New in v1.3.3.
Colors moved to the strip on the bottom bar, which is why the Window menu lists only three panels: Layers, Scene, and Properties. Chat comes back from the + button or from Ask Bobby in the header.
Properties
For a shape, Properties opens on Stitch options, the stitch type and its settings, since those are what the panel is for. Underlay (for satin), Entry / Exit, and Transform follow, folded. Each of these sections remembers whether you left it open or folded, from one selection to the next and after a restart. New in v1.3.3.
Transform (position, size, and rotation) is the last section. Its controls are also on the canvas, with the selection's handles, and in the essentials bar's Transform popover. See Move, resize, and rotate.
Chat
Chat is where you talk to Bobby, the experimental design assistant: ask for a design, a fix, or a walkthrough, and it works in the open design. New in v1.4.0. See Design with Bobby.
- Ask Bobby, in the header, opens it from anywhere and puts the cursor in its message box. If you closed Chat, it comes back: under the right-hand column when that column holds a single group of panels, or as a tab in its lowest group when it holds more.
- On a layout you saved before v1.4.0, Chat is added once, in view. If you close it, it stays closed until you ask for it.
- Chat needs you to be signed in.
The header
One row, about the document:
- The design name (click to rename), the save chip that says where your edits are ("Saved to cloud", "Unsaved changes"), and the Machine, Hoop, and Fabric dropdowns.
- Save, Undo, Redo, and Export, in the same place on desktop and web.
- Analysis, which opens the density report (Pro).
- On the right, in this order: Ask Bobby (it opens the Chat panel; new in v1.4.0), Bug report (a bug icon; the same report as Help → Report a bug… and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+B), Tutorial (it opens the in-app tutorial, and reads "Tutorial mode · 4/19" while you are in it), Publish, and your account. The account menu names your plan and your credit balance. In a narrow window, Bug report shrinks to its icon.
- On a design in a team library: an In team chip, plus Save version… and History. New in v1.3.0.
Above everything, when there is something to answer, a full-width row can appear: a pending team invitation, with Accept and Decline. It shows on every screen, not only in the editor.