Editor basics

The editor is a single 3D scene with two camera modes. Most planning happens in 2D mode (top-down, orthographic), and you flip to 3D mode when you want to see grades and clearances from an angle.

Moving around the canvas

The 2D grid is infinite — pan as far as you like and it keeps going. Fit layout to view frames your whole layout (or the baseboard, when nothing's placed yet) — handy after you've panned or zoomed off into empty space. The minimap in the bottom-right shows where your layout sits relative to the camera.

Switching between 2D and 3D

The mode toggle lives on the top bar. 2D is the editor: cleaner lines, no perspective, snapping is most precise. 3D is for verification: you can see grades, clearances, and how the layout actually reads from a viewer's angle. Edits made in either mode write to the same scene — there's no "save the 3D version" step.

The inspector panel

The panel on the right is the inspector. It's split into three labelled zones so you always know which context you're looking at:

• Selected piece — the selection card (name, SKU, and the A / B endpoint status) and the Properties accordion with the focused piece's position, rotation, and geometry.
• Whole layout — facts about the entire plan: Validation (issues and the checks performed — with a piece selected, the issue list narrows to just that piece's problems), Bill of Materials (the live parts list and CSV export), Layout Stats (total track length, bounding box, tightest radius, steepest grade, and piece count), and any active modules such as Polarity & Wiring.
• Authoring — how the layout is organised: Decks (elevation / multi-level) and Layers (visibility and grouping).

For quick changes mid-build, the top bar also carries a deck switcher and a layer menu next to the view-mode toggle — switch the active deck, hide or show a layer, or add either without opening the Inspector. The Inspector panels remain the place to rename, recolour, or set elevations. (Decks are a Pro feature; the top-bar deck switcher shows an upgrade prompt on free layouts, while the layer menu is available to everyone.)

Each block inside a zone is an accordion — click its header to collapse or expand it. Drag the panel's left edge to make it wider when a long name or SKU doesn't fit; the width is remembered on your device. The chevron in the panel header collapses the whole inspector to a thin rail when you want the canvas space back — the rail's chevron expands it again, and whether it's collapsed is remembered on your device too. On a narrow screen the inspector opens as a bottom sheet instead of a side rail.

A typical first session

1. Click New layout on the planner home, pick a scale, and you land in the editor.
2. Press P (Place) or click a piece in the catalogue dock on the left.
3. Click the canvas to drop the first piece.
4. Click a free end of an existing piece — the next piece snaps onto it.
5. Press Esc when you want to stop placing and select instead.

See Placing track for the longer version.