The window

The header

At the top, a slim top bar:

• Left: Open, Save, Undo and Redo.
• Middle: the project’s name on a tab. A dot on it means unsaved changes. Closing, opening or starting a project with unsaved changes asks first, in the middle of the window: Save (then go on), Don’t save or Cancel.
• Changed by another program: when the project’s file is saved by another program (an AI assistant, a script), the app loads the new version within a couple of seconds and says so in the report. Ctrl+Z goes back to what you had. If you have unsaved changes, it asks first: Load it (your changes stay one Ctrl+Z away) or Keep mine (your next Save overwrites the file).
• Right: the colour theme (a click goes System → Light → Dark), ? Help (user guide, keyboard shortcuts, about) and the version.

Under it, the ribbon groups the buttons:

Generate (F5) and Export sit at the right end.

Each group’s caption (FILE ▾ …) opens its whole menu. This guide writes those menus as File > …, Draw > … and View > …. Help > … is the question mark in the top bar.

The status bar at the bottom gives hints on the left. On the right it shows the cursor’s position, the number of copies, the cycle time once generated, the post-processor and the units.

The Browser

The Browser on the left holds your library and the whole project as a tree:

• This computer, at the top and folded at the start: what is kept on this computer for every project. It is there also with no project open.
  • Preferences: the setup sheet, updating the toolpath by itself, the units and the colour theme.
  • Tools and Machines: your tool library and machine profiles.
  • Post-processors: the built-in ones and yours; click one for what it writes, and Use in this project.
• The project, named after its file.
  • Job settings: stock, machine, post-processor and tools, shown on the right when clicked. A red dot means one of them has a problem.
  • Tools: the project’s tools, each with the library tool it came from at the right (“← 6 mm 2F”, “(changed)” when the values differ). See Tool library.
  • Drawing: what the shapes come from. Each DXF has its layers under it; then come each picture, and the shapes drawn in Chipload by kind (circles, rectangles, polylines). See Several drawings.
  • Parts, each with its operations under it, in cutting order. A line marks each tool change. See Parts.

Rows:

• Click a row to select it.
  • A DXF, picture or layer selects its shapes for a new operation, and Ctrl+click adds to the selection.
  • An operation, a part, a tool, Tools, Job settings, a DXF (or one of its layers) or a picture shows its settings on the right, in Properties.
• Double-click a picture for its trace settings, or a part to make it the active part.
• Right-click a row for the rest:
  • A DXF: Place… (its properties), Update from a DXF… and Remove.
  • A picture: Trace settings… and Remove.
  • An operation: Move up and Move down (also Alt+↑ and Alt+↓), Duplicate, for a pocket Add rest pass ▸ (a rest pass shows under it), and Delete.
  • A rest pass: Remove.
  • The Drawing folder: Add DXF… and Import image….
  • A part: Activate, New operation (for the selected shapes), Move up, Move down and Delete part (with its operations).
  • The Parts folder: New part.
  • A library tool: Add to project, Make default, Delete. A library machine: Use in this project, Make default, Delete. This computer > Tools or Machines: New, Import…, Export….
• The triangle opens and closes a folder, and so does a click on a plain folder like Tools.

The eye hides a DXF, layer, picture or kind of drawn shape on the canvas: it isn’t drawn and can’t be clicked. Hidden shapes are still cut.

The tick in front of an operation or a part turns it on or off. One that is off isn’t in the program, and its row is dimmed; a part that is off takes its operations with it.

The active part is in bold, marked active. New operations from the ribbon go into it, whatever is open. Its name is also in the status bar.

On an operation’s row:

• Right end: its tool, and how many hidden contours it cuts (“3 hidden · T1”).
• A red dot marks a problem.
• Hover the row for its kind, its geometry, its depths, its time once generated and its first problem.
• Drag the row onto another to move it there, or onto a part to move it to the end of that part.

Drag a library tool onto the project’s Tools to copy it into the project.

The canvas

The canvas shows the stock, the drawing and the toolpath on a soft gradient. It follows the colour theme: dark, or light grey.

• The grid lies on the stock top, in top view and in 3D.
  • Its fine lines are where clicks snap while drawing. A stronger line comes every ten.
  • It follows the zoom, and the status bar gives its step (“grid 5 mm”).
  • G or View > Show grid hides it, and Chipload remembers that.
• The axes: a red line along X and a green one along Y run through the program’s zero. Short thick strokes point the positive way, and in 3D a blue one points up Z.
• The navigation bar floats at the bottom, each button an icon over its name:
  • how you look: Fit (F), Top (T) and 3D;
  • what is shown: Stock (the simulation), Toolpath, Drawing, Images and Grid (G);
  • with two parts or more, All parts: the toolpath and simulation of every part, not only the active one.
  • When the canvas is too narrow for the names, the buttons show only their icons; hover over one to see its name.
• Drawing off hides the drawing’s contours, to see the simulated stock or the toolpath alone. While it’s off, clicks on the canvas don’t select anything. Selecting something in the Browser, or starting to draw a shape, shows the drawing again.
• The corner:
  • In 3D, the top right corner has a cube that turns with the view. Click a face (TOP, FRONT, RIGHT, BACK, LEFT) to look straight at it.
  • In top view, the corner has an X–Y sign instead.
• The legend (bottom left) explains the colours.

Properties

The Properties panel on the right shows what is open, under a title:

• Job settings: the stock, the machine and the post.
• Preferences: the settings folder, whether a setup sheet is written with the G-code, updating the toolpath automatically, the units (mm or inch) and the colour theme.
• A post-processor: its name, files, extension, decimals, arcs and tool changes.
• Tools: every tool, with Add from library… and New tool; a tool alone, with how it stands to the library tool it came from, Save to library and Remove tool.
• A library tool or machine: its values, with Save and Revert while it has changes.
• A DXF: its file, units and size, its position and scale, Update from a DXF… and Remove.
• A picture: its width, lower-left corner and layer. A change applies when you finish the edit, and traces the picture again. Trace settings… opens its window.
• A part: its name, on or off, and its copies.
• An operation: its settings, under its kind and number (“Pocket · Operation 1”).

While shapes are selected, a Selection section comes first. It holds:

• what is selected, by contour number;
• a drawn shape’s exact values, to edit;
• Copy as selector, which copies the selection as JSON for a project file (also under DRAW ▾, and Ctrl+Shift+C).

Its triangle folds it away. While an operation is open there is no Selection section, so selecting shapes never moves the operation’s settings: its Use selection button counts what is selected (“Use selection (3)”), and its tooltip lists the contours. To edit a drawn shape’s values, open the project (Job settings) and select the shape. Nor is there one when the open DXF, picture or text is itself what is selected.

Making room for the canvas

• Narrower panels: drag the edge between a panel and the canvas. The Properties panel goes down to about 250 pixels: its labels and fields get narrower, a button or a note beside a field moves under it, and a long section summary ends in “…”.
• Folding a panel: drag its edge past its narrowest, or double-click the edge. It folds to a thin strip at the window’s side; the arrow on the strip opens it again.
• Both at once: P folds the Browser and Properties together for the largest canvas, and opens them again. Also in View: Show Browser, Show Properties, Fold both panels.
• The Report at the bottom folds with its triangle.