Anatomy of the screen
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TitleBar window chrome: minimize / maximize / close │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TopNav menu bar + tool rail + New Layer/Animate menus│
│ ToolOptionsBar contextual options for the active tool │
├───────────┬──────────────────────────────┬───────────────────┤
│ │ │ │
│ Left │ Workspace (viewport) │ Right Inspector │
│ Sidebar │ • ViewportHeader │ (5 panels) │
│ (4 panels)│ • Canvas + overlays │ │
│ │ • corner overlays │ │
├───────────┴──────────────────────────────┴───────────────────┤
│ BottomTimeline Timeline / Graph Editor + transport │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ StatusBar save state · info readout · jobs · VU · timecode │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Menu barToolbar & toolsThe viewportLeft sidebar panelsThe inspectorTimeline & graph editorCommand paletteStatus bar
Docking
Every region is a dock. Panels register themselves into a region rather than being hard-coded into it, which means:
- Tabs reorder by dragging.
- Panels move between the left and right sidebars.
- Panels close and reopen from Window ▸ Panels, or from the + at the foot of each rail, which lists that side’s closed panels.
- Any panel can be popped out into its own window. The pop-out stays live-synced with the editor, so a second monitor is genuinely useful. A popped-out viewport renders live from the engine in its own window, alongside the main one — see The viewport.
The layout is JSON-serialisable and persisted between sessions. Window ▸ Workspace lists the saved layouts with the active one checked, and holds Save Layout as… and Reset Layout.
Region toggles
| Menu item | Region |
|---|---|
| View → Toggle Scene Panel | Left sidebar |
| View → Toggle Inspector | Right sidebar |
| View → Toggle Timeline | Bottom timeline |
Global overlay hosts
Four things are mounted once at the root of the app rather than inside any panel:
| Host | What it does |
|---|---|
| ModalHost | The modal stack — export dialog, composition settings, Customize |
| ContextMenuHost | Right-click menus, clamped to the viewport, closing on Esc or an outside click |
| NotificationHost | The toast stack, with auto-dismiss |
| OnboardingOverlay | The first-run tour |
Plus the command palette, which owns its own key listener so it opens even while a text field has focus.
Where every panel lives by default
| Panel | Default home |
|---|---|
| Project (assets) · Effect Controls · Layers | Left sidebar |
| Library · Transcript | Left sidebar, on demand |
| Properties · Info · Audio · Preview · Effects & Presets · Align · Character · Paragraph | Right inspector |
| Animation Presets · Plugins · Assistant · Swatches · Scopes · Tracker · Content-Aware Fill · Rigging · Graph · History · Paint · Brushes · Export | Right inspector, on demand |
| Timeline / Graph Editor | Bottom |
A panel that is registered but not docked is not missing — open it from Window ▸ Panels or the rail’s +, and it will dock wherever you drop it and stay there.
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