Workspace

The workspace mode is where you create dataflows to generate drafts. You create dataflows by adding drafts and operations to the workspace and chaining them together into draft generating workflows.

a. Add Drafts or Notes to Workspace

The buttons in this window let you add new kinds of nodes to your dataflow workspace. Specifically, you can add drafts or notes.

• + add draft, will open a window to ask for you to the number of warps and wefts and then will add a blank draft of those dimensions to workspace.
• + add note, it will automatically add a note onto the workspace. You can use this note to jot down any additional text information about your workspace.

You can collapse this whole sidebar to give the canvas more room by clicking the Collapse sidebar button at its edge. When collapsed, the sidebar shrinks to three icons, Add Draft, Add Note, and Search Operations, the last of which opens the operation search in a pop-up window instead. Click Expand sidebar to bring it back.

b. Add Operations to Workspace

This side panel allows you to search through and add operations to your workspace. By default, it only shows basic operations. To see all operations, you must enable the Show Advanced toggle.

• type in the name of the operation you are looking for into this search box. As you type, the operations below will only include those that match your search. Pressing enter adds the first matching operation straight to the workspace and clears the search.
• the Show Advanced toggle is used to show or hide operations that we consider to be advanced. We use it to reduce clutter for new users but once you get a hang of things, flip this toggle to show and explore all the operations AdaCAD has to offer. Advanced operations are marked with a star so you can tell them apart. This is the same setting as Show Advanced Operations in the workspace settings.
• The rest of the window is devoted to showing one button for each operation that AdaCAD supports. Clicking on any of the operations in this list adds it to your workspace. Operations are grouped and color-coded based on how they tend to be used in the drafting process. Hovering over an operation shows a short description of what it does. You can explore these groupings and all the operations we currently offer by clicking Reference->Operations(A-Z) in the left sidebar of this page.

c. Dataflow Workspace

This area is used to create your dataflows. You can do this by adding drafts and operations using the interface buttons listed above and then "connecting" them together by connecting the outlet of one operation or draft node to the inlet of an operation.

To create a connection, start by clicking the outlet of one node (node a - twill in the example below) to the inlet of another (node b - tile in the example below). This action tells AdaCAD to take the draft created node a and use it as an input to the operation at node b. Node b then runs the operation, and manipulates the draft in accordance with that operations specific code and user-defined parameters.

Video

We also offer this video overview of the process of making dataflows:

Key Commands

Mac users should read command below; Windows and Linux users should read control.

Action	How
Select a draft and show it in the viewer	click it
Add to a multi-selection	hold shift and click each node
Select everything in a region	hold shift and drag across empty canvas
Clear the selection	click empty canvas
Move nodes	drag them. Multi-selected nodes move together
Open a node's menu	double click it
Copy the selection	command + c
Paste the selection	command + v
Undo	command + z
Save to your AdaCAD account	command + s
Zoom in / out	command + + / command + -
Zoom at the cursor	hold command and use the track pad or mouse-wheel
Scroll the workspace	track pad or mouse-wheel
Pan the workspace	hold space and drag, or drag with the middle mouse button
Pan in steps	the arrow keys
Bump the dataflow back into view	command + b
Spread the dataflow out	command + e

The bump command is worth remembering. If a draft ends up scrolled somewhere you cannot reach, command + b moves the whole workflow down and to the right until it is back in view.

Draft Nodes

Each draft on the workspace shows its rendering, its name, and its dimensions written as ends by picks. Along its edges you will find:

• a zoom slider that scales just this one draft's rendering, which is handy for shrinking a large draft without zooming the whole workspace.
• hide, which collapses the rendering down to a small bar. Once hidden, an button brings it back.
• rename, which opens a dialog to change the draft's name and notes.
• the outlet, at the bottom of the draft. Click it to start a connection into an operation.
• a pin indicator, shown only if this draft is currently pinned in the viewer. Clicking it unpins the draft.

Clicking the View Options button, or double-clicking the draft, opens a menu with:

• pin for view / unpin from view: keeps this draft in the viewer even as you click around elsewhere.
• open in editor: opens the draft in the draft editor.
• duplicate: makes a copy of the draft on the workspace.
• download as bitmap, download as image, and download as .WIF file.
• delete.

Drafts that were produced by an operation show a reduced set of these controls, because the operation, not you, decides what they contain.

Operation Nodes

An operation node shows its name, its inlets along the top, its parameters in the middle, and the drafts it produces at the bottom. If the operation cannot run with the inputs it has been given, a red banner appears across the top explaining what went wrong; click it to dismiss the message.

Operations offer the same View Options menu as drafts, with one addition: help, which opens this documentation site at the reference page for that specific operation.

Parameters appear as different kinds of controls depending on what they accept:

Parameter type	What you see
number	a number field, with the allowed minimum and maximum enforced
boolean	a dropdown with two named choices
select	a dropdown listing the available options
string	a button showing the current value, which opens a larger text editor. These fields also accept pasted .csv data, which is useful for long lists such as sensor or climate data
file	an upload control for .jpg, .png, and .bmp images, plus buttons to Replace Image or View/Edit Image
canvas	a small drawing canvas embedded in the operation

Inlets accept different kinds of input too. Most take a draft, but some take a number, a system, a color, or layer notation. Connected inlets show what has been attached to them, and hovering a connection line reveals a button to disconnect it.

d. Resize Window

You can press this button and drag to the left or right to expand/contract the amount of the screen that is devoted to the workspace.

e. Adjust View, Save and Share

The footer along the bottom of the screen is shared with every other mode, and is described in full on the topbar page. It holds the zoom controls, the undo button, the filename field, and the download and share buttons.

The center of the footer is used by the workspace alone. When nothing is selected, it reminds you that you can hold shift and click to select multiple drafts and operators. Once you have a selection, it turns into a set of buttons for acting on it:

• Deselect: clears the current selection.
• copy: copies the selected nodes, along with any connections between them.
• paste: drops that copy back onto the workspace.
• delete: removes the selected nodes.