Redline

The interface

The workspace layout, the activity-bar panels, the markups list, layout presets, themes, workspace profiles and the two-level settings surface.

The layout#

The workspace is a docked shell. The default arrangement is a header ribbon, two side drawers, the canvas, and a bottom sheet:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                          Header ribbon toolbar                          |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------+
|                     |                             |                     |
|  Left drawer panel  |    Center canvas viewport   | Right drawer panel  |
|                     |                             |                     |
|  Pages, Bookmarks,  |   - Document raster         |  Properties,        |
|  Layers, Folder,    |   - Markup layer            |  Measurements,      |
|  Search             |   - Interaction layer       |  Stamps, Takeoff    |
|                     |                             |                     |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------+
|                          Markups list (bottom sheet)                    |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Everything in it is a dockable panel: drag a tab to any edge, tab it with its neighbours, float it, or close it. The bottom sheet resizes by dragging and minimizes to a thin status strip on double-click.

The canvas is three stacked layers — the document raster, the markup vector layer, and an interaction layer for ghosts, grips and snap indicators. You do not interact with them separately; the split is what keeps drawing fast and the interaction crisp.

Layout presets#

Multi-document viewing has named arrangements: single, side-by-side, stacked, three, quad and 3×3. Several PDFs can be open at once, and two panes can show the same document with shared markups — useful for keeping a detail and its plan location on screen together.

The activity bar#

The activity bar lists the panel inventory and opens the one you click.

Panel	What it is
Pages	Page thumbnails; reorder, rotate, insert, extract, delete
Bookmarks	The document's bookmark tree, for navigation
Layers	Markup layers — visibility, lock, print/no-print
Folder	Recent Files, an Explorer for local folders, and File Exchange (disabled, with its reason)
Properties	The selection editor — General, Appearance, Geometry
Measurements	Scale calibration, presets, precision, and per-measurement properties
History	The undo stack, as a list you can read
Takeoff Hanger	My Tools, Recent Tools, Default Tools, and the takeoff catalog
Stamp Collection	The symbol and stamp library, plus My Stamps
Markups List	The bottom sheet — every markup as a row
AI	The AI command centre

Panels that are not built yet are listed and disabled with a reason, so the roadmap is visible rather than absent.

Takeoff Hanger and Stamp Collection both work the same way: "Add to My Tools" captures a markup's style so applying it re-activates the base tool with that style, and the rail's Takeoff and Stamp buttons re-fire the last one you used. Each has its own settings sub-panel for view and size, category show/hide, and reordering.

The markups list#

The markups list is the spreadsheet view of the document, and for takeoff work it is the primary surface rather than a secondary one. Every markup is a row. Columns cover identity (subject, author, date, page, layer, status), content (comments and replies) and takeoff (Measurement, Length, Area, Count, Unit, Depth, Volume, Wall Area, Rise-Drop, Slope).

Rows sort, group and subtotal. Selecting a row selects the markup on the page and vice versa.

The hyperlink tool draws a rectangle whose action is a page jump, a URL, or opening another file. Every file row in the Folder panel carries a link button that arms the hyperlink tool with that file, so a drag creates a link titled with the file name rather than with coordinates. Batch Link generates links across a whole set from page labels or text matches.

Right-click#

Right-click is contextual throughout. On a selection it offers z-order (bring to front, send to back, forward, backward), cut/copy/paste, properties, and the actions specific to that markup type. On empty canvas it offers paste-at-cursor and view actions.

Themes#

The theme engine ships dark, light, OLED and custom. UI scaling is independent of the theme, so a high-DPI display can be made comfortable without changing colours.

Workspace profiles#

A workspace profile is a saved arrangement: which panels are open, where they are docked, which layout preset is active, and the tool defaults that go with it. A takeoff estimator and a reviewer want different windows, and a profile is how one machine serves both.

Settings#

Settings are two-level: a compact surface for the things people change often, and a full surface underneath it for everything else. Tools, units, appearance, export behaviour, AI and the MCP bridge each have their own group, and the sub-tabs under Tools are drag-reorderable.

Settings persist to disk in the OS configuration directory, alongside the custom tool definitions that "Add to My Tools" writes.