How the studio works

A new project starts one of three ways: from a template, from a description in words, or from files you upload. The studio has 14 starter templates, each a board with its connectors placed and its case drawn around it.

Describing it in words drafts a design from your sentence. Read every number it chose before you rely on it; the draft is a start, not a measurement.

The board view is a live drawing beside a form. Every number is millimeters: the width and height of the board, its corner radius and thickness, each mounting hole, and each connector, placed on an edge at a distance along it.

The keys 1, 2 and 3 switch between the board, the 3D view and the circuit view.

The case follows the board. Standoffs sit under the mounting holes and an opening is cut at every connector, so moving a connector moves its opening. The case panel sets the wall, the gap to the wall, the lid and the space above the board.

When the board and the case both come from the studio, the fit check measures all four things it knows how to measure, connector openings included.

The 3D view draws the board and its case from the same numbers as the drawing, the moment they change. A part the fit check flags is marked by the worst finding that touches it, and the fit panel lists that finding in words.

The circuit view opens the tscircuit board editor, where this server has it installed.

Fit

The same check as a fit check order, run on the design as it stands, without storing a report.

Case

The wall, the gap to the wall, the lid and the space above the board.

Parts

What goes on the board, with catalog prices.

In plain words

The design read back to you in sentences, so a wrong number stands out.

Versions

Every saved version, and what changed between them.

The project's fab check runs a KiCad design rule check on the board against 5 fab rule profiles, on a server where the KiCad worker is installed.

• The studio saves on its own a moment after you stop typing, and Save design saves at once. When the server has your design, the bar says so: All changes saved.
• Each save that changes the design becomes a numbered version with a note. A save that changes nothing makes no version.
• If the project was saved somewhere else since you started, nothing is written over. The studio shows both, so you can compare the two and choose.
• If this browser goes offline or the server does not answer, your edits are kept in this browser and saved when it can.
• Only the owner of a project saves. The operator opens a project read only.