Design studio

Understanding the design workspace

A tour of the studio — the left rail, the canvas, the properties panel, the top bar and the status bar — and what each part is for.

Updated 2026-10-24 1 min read

The studio has five areas. On a phone, the Tools, Canvas and Properties tabs at the top switch between them.

Left rail

The narrow column of icons opens the side panels:

  • Create — drawing tools, quick shapes, parametric components, templates as components, snapping and grid.
  • Layers — the operations in your design (cut, inner cut, score, engrave, reference) and their visibility.
  • Objects — every object in a list, for selecting, renaming, hiding and locking.
  • Import — SVG / DXF files, image tracing and calibrated photos where enabled.
  • Check & output — the manufacturing check, compatibility with your process, sheet previews and price.
  • AI assistant — describe changes in plain language and review them before they are applied.
  • Help — guides, tutorials, the guided tour and keyboard shortcuts without leaving your design.

Canvas

The grey area with the white sheet is your work area in millimetres. Drag to draw with the active tool, click to select, drag the square handles to resize and the round handle to rotate. Scroll to pan, hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) while scrolling to zoom, or use the zoom buttons; Fit to view brings everything back.

Properties panel

On the right. With an object selected it shows its name, layer, position, size, rotation and type-specific settings. With nothing selected it shows the Canvas, Fabrication and Material settings for the whole design.

Top bar

The design name (click to rename), save status, Undo and Redo, Save checkpoint, Revision history, zoom, the Basic / Advanced switch and Generate files.

Status bar

Along the bottom: number of issues, process, material, canvas size, part count and sheets. Click the issue count to open the check.

Ready to try it?

Open the studio
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