Layouts and Docking¶

A layout is a saved arrangement of panels. The editor comes with four built-in layouts, one for each common task, and you can make as many of your own as you like. Within any layout you can open, move, split and close panels, tear tabs out into separate windows, and hide the side zones when you want more room for the viewport.

In short

Click a layout in the side bar to switch to it. Drag tabs to move, reorder or split them, and drag a tab out of the editor to give it a window of its own. Use + in the side bar and Make New Layout to create a custom layout, then right-click its button to name it and pick an icon. Every change to a layout is saved automatically with the project.

Layouts at a glance¶

The side bar lists the built-in layouts first, then your custom layouts, then the + (Add Layout) button. The button of the current layout is highlighted.

Layout	Opens with	Use it for
Scene	Scene viewport in Main, Scene Hierarchy on the left, Log and Content Browser at the bottom	Building and running scenes.
Files	File Tree on the left; Main starts empty	Browsing and editing the project's files.
Server	gRPC Server on the left, Scene in Main, Log at the bottom	Driving the simulation from an external client.
Observe	Observer on the left, Scene in Main, Log at the bottom	Recording datasets and reviewing sessions.

Some panels are part of a layout and can't be closed while you are in it: all four panels of the Scene layout, the File Tree in Files, the gRPC Server and Scene in Server, and the Scene in Observe. Their tabs have no close button. The same panels close normally in other layouts.

Switching layouts¶

Click a layout button in the side bar. Each layout remembers its own arrangement, including any separate windows, so you can switch back and forth without losing your setup.

Click Home at the top of the side bar to return to the Welcome screen. Continue on the Welcome screen takes you back to the layout you were using.

Opening panels¶

There are four ways to open a panel:

Choose it from the View menu. A check mark shows which panels are open in the current layout, and choosing an open panel closes it, unless the layout requires it.
Click one of the five panel buttons in the title bar: File Tree, Scene Hierarchy, gRPC Server, Content Browser or Logs, which opens the Log.
Click the chevron at the start of any tab strip. The menu lists the panels that can dock in that zone and aren't open yet, or No panels to add. The panel you choose opens as a tab in that strip.
In an empty Main zone, click Add panel for the same menu.

A panel opened from the View menu or a title-bar button goes to its default zone. If that zone is hidden, it is shown again.

The Scene viewport is the one panel you can open more than once: choose Scene from the Main zone's chevron menu to add another viewport. See The Viewport for working with several viewports.

Where panels can dock¶

Each panel has a default zone and a set of zones it may be docked in. A tab can't be dropped anywhere else, and the chevron menu of a zone only offers the panels allowed there. "Separate window" means the panel can be moved into a window of its own.

Panel	Default zone	Can dock in
Scene, Settings, Material Editor, Policies, file tabs	Main	Main, separate window
Content Vault, Audio Events, Lidar Replay	Main	Any zone, separate window
Scene Hierarchy, File Tree, Observer, gRPC Server	Left	Left, Right
Content Creator, MuJoCo Stats, Statistics	Right	Left, Right
Scene Renderer, Robots	Right	Any zone, separate window
Content Browser	Bottom	Any zone, separate window
Log	Bottom	Left, Right, Bottom

Moving and splitting tabs¶

Reorder a tab by dragging it along its tab strip.
Add a tab to another group by dropping it in the middle of that group.
Split a group by dropping a tab near its left, right, top or bottom edge. The group divides in that direction, with the dropped tab in the new part.
Move a whole group by dragging the chevron at the start of its tab strip.
Resize zones and split groups by dragging the dividers between them.
Close a tab with its close button, or middle-click it.

A highlighted area shows where the tab will land while you drag.

Separate windows¶

Panels that can dock in Main can also live in a window of their own, for example on a second monitor.

Drag the panel's tab past the edge of the editor window. An Open in new window overlay appears.
Release the mouse button. The panel opens in a new window under the cursor.

You can also right-click a tab and choose Move to new window. The item is greyed out for panels that can't leave their zones, such as the Scene Hierarchy and the Log.

A separate window has no title bar of its own: its tab strip takes that role and has the window buttons at its end. Inside the window, tabs move, split and close as they do in the main window, and you can drag tabs between the window and the editor. If a separate window is open but empty, it shows Add panels by dragging a tab here from the main window., and the next tab you move out goes into it.

Moving or closing the last tab of a window closes the window.
Closing a window with its close button closes the panels in it. To get it back, choose View → Reopen Last Closed Window.
Windows are part of the layout you made them in and are saved with it. When you switch to a layout that doesn't use a window, the window stays open but empty until you switch back. A window that isn't open comes back at its last size and position when you return to its layout.

Hiding zones and Fullscreen¶

The three zone buttons in the title bar show and hide the left, bottom and right zones. A dimmed button means its zone is hidden. Opening a panel into a hidden zone shows the zone again.

To hide all three at once, click Fullscreen at the right end of the Main zone's tab strip, or press Tab while a Scene viewport has focus. Do the same again to bring back the zones that were showing before.

Custom layouts¶

Making a layout¶

Click + (Add Layout) in the side bar.
Choose Make New Layout.

The new layout starts as a copy of the left, right and bottom zones of the layout you were in. Its Main zone starts empty, and every panel in it can be closed. The layout is named Layout 1 (or the next free number), gets an icon that isn't in use yet, appears in the side bar, and opens its edit popup so you can name it straight away. Arrange the panels as you like: the layout saves itself as you go.

Naming, icons and order¶

Right-click a custom layout's button to open its edit popup. Right-click the button again, or click outside the popup, to close it.

Control	What it does
Name field	Renames the layout.
Icon strip	Picks the layout's icon. Scroll the strip sideways with the mouse wheel.
Remove Layout	Takes the layout off this project's side bar.
Save to Project	Saves the layout into the project's `Layouts` folder. See Sharing layouts.

To change the order of your layouts, drag their buttons up or down the side bar.

The + button opens a menu with:

the custom layouts that aren't on this project's side bar yet. Choose one to add it and switch to it.
From This Project, a submenu of the layouts saved in the project's Layouts folder. Choose one to add it as a new custom layout. If you already have a layout with that name, the copy gets a number, for example Review (2).
Make New Layout.
Manage Layouts, which opens Settings → Application → Custom Layouts.

Removing and deleting¶

Remove Layout only takes a layout off the side bar of the current project. It stays in the + menu, so you can add it back later.

To delete a layout for good, open Settings → Application → Custom Layouts, click Delete in its row, and confirm. This removes it from every project.

Layouts can be saved to and loaded from .hlayout files:

Save to Project, in a layout's edit popup, saves it into the Layouts folder of the project folder. The layouts in that folder are listed under + → From This Project.
Settings → Application → Custom Layouts has a save button in each row (Save to File...) to save a layout anywhere, and Load from File... to add a layout from a .hlayout file. A file that isn't a layout is refused with an error.

A layout file keeps the size of any separate windows, but not their position on screen, since that depends on the monitors of whoever saved it.

How layouts are saved¶

The arrangement of every layout, built-in and custom, including separate windows, is saved automatically with the project. There is nothing to save by hand.

A custom layout's name and icon belong to you and are shared by all your projects, but each project chooses which custom layouts appear in its side bar, and keeps its own arrangement for each of them. When you add a custom layout that you made in another project, it therefore starts with an empty arrangement in this one. To reuse an arrangement in another project, save it with Save to File... and add it there with Load from File....

Where to go next¶

Editor Interface lists every panel and what it is for.
Settings covers the Custom Layouts page and the other settings.
The Viewport covers working with one or more Scene viewports.