Panels and layouts

StykAnimate’s panels aren’t stuck where they start. You can move Properties, VFX and Library to either side, stack them, let one float over the stage or fold them to a thin strip, and save the arrangements you like. This guide shows every way to do it, with the mouse and with the keyboard.

The parts you can move

A panel is one of the white boxes around the stage. Three of them can go anywhere: Properties (the settings of what you selected), VFX (effects) and Library (saved figures). Each has a tab with its name at the top. Panels that share a box show one tab each; click a tab to switch between them.

The timeline stays along the bottom, but it can fold to just its header or sit under the stage only. The tool bar can sit on the left or the right of the stage.

Move a panel by dragging its tab

1. Press on a panel’s tab, like Library, and start dragging. A small pill with its name follows the pointer, and the tab goes pale.
2. Move over the stage. One blue box appears where the panel would go, with a label: near the left or right edge of the stage it says Dock left or Dock right; over another panel’s tabs it says Add as a tab; over the top or bottom part of another panel, Stack above or Stack below; anywhere else on the stage, Float here.
3. Let go. The panel moves there. Changed your mind while dragging? Press Esc before you let go, and nothing moves.

Try it

This is the whole window. Everything in the task list works here, including the keys (point at the window first).

Try itMove the panels

Untitled animationSaved

AnimateDrawBuild

SaveExport

Joints

Paths

Grid

Effects

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Drag a tab: Properties, VFX or Library

Add frame

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1. Drag the Library tab to the left edge of the stage (Dock left).
2. Drag the VFX tab to the middle of the stage (Float here).
3. Right-click a tab → Fold to strip, then click its icon on the strip.
4. Open View → Layout… and pick the Timing preset.
5. Press Ctrl+\ for Focus mode, and again to leave it.
6. Reset in the Layout popover puts everything back.

Tabs, stacks or floating: which to choose

• Add as a tab: panels share one box and you switch with the tabs. Saves the most room; you see one panel at a time.
• Stack above / below: two boxes on the same side, one over the other, both visible. A side holds at most two stacked boxes.
• Dock left / right: a panel on each side of the stage. Handy to keep Library on the left while Properties stays on the right.
• Float here: a free box over the stage. Drag its tab to move it or dock it again. Up to two panels float at once; floating a third docks the one that floated first.

Fold to a strip, or hide

Right-click a tab (or focus it and press Shift+F10) for its menu: Dock left or Dock right, Float, Fold to strip and Hide.

• Fold to strip: the panel shrinks to an icon on a thin 40px strip at the edge. Click the icon and it opens as a sheet over the stage; click anywhere else and it folds again. The stage never changes size.
• Hide: the panel disappears completely. Bring it back with View → Layout… (set it to Right, Left or With Properties) or Reset.

Layout presets

1. Open View → Layout… in the menu bar, or press Ctrl+Alt+L. The Layout popover opens under the top bar.
2. The top row shows the presets as little maps of the window: the stage in the middle, the panels and the timeline around it. The one you are using is outlined.
3. Click a preset. The window changes at once.

The Draw workspace has its own presets (Draw and Focus), and so does Build (Build, Build + timeline and Focus). Each workspace remembers its own layout.

Place each panel without dragging

Under the presets, the Layout popover has one row per part:

• Properties: Right, Left or Hidden.
• VFX and Library: With Properties (a tab next to it), the other side, Floating or Hidden.
• Timeline: Full width, or Under stage so the side panels keep their full height. This only changes where it sits, not how long your animation is.
• Tools: the tool bar on the Left or the Right of the stage.

Reset at the bottom puts the workspace back to its starting layout. Reset panel layout in Settings → Interface does the same.

Save your own layout

1. Arrange the panels the way you like.
2. Open View → Layout… and click Save as preset… at the bottom.
3. Type a name (up to 48 characters), like Fight setup, and click Save preset. A new card with your name appears after the built-in presets.
4. Right-click your card (or Shift+F10) to Rename…, Update it to the layout you have now, or Delete it.

You can keep up to eight saved layouts; after that the popover says 8 presets saved. Delete one first. Moving a panel never changes a saved preset by itself: only Update does.

Focus mode

Press Ctrl+\ (or View → Focus mode). Every panel folds to a strip and the timeline folds to its header, so the stage gets almost the whole window. Your panels stay one click away on the strips. Press Ctrl+\ again and everything goes back exactly where it was.

With the keyboard

When the window is small

In a small window StykAnimate fits your layout to the space: a side may fold to a strip so the stage keeps enough room. That doesn’t change your layout: make the window bigger and the panel comes back. On phones and tablets the panels open as sheets instead; see Pens, tablets and touch screens.

Common questions

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