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Documentation

Window Menu

Add panels and workspaces, toggle overlays, and access the shortcuts dialog

Window Menu

The Window menu in the top menubar controls the workspace layout and the overlays that sit on top of it.

Add panel

Opens a submenu of every dockable panel. Clicking a name adds that panel to the focused tab set in the current workspace. Drag the new panel's header to move it, drop it on the edge of another panel to dock, or drop it on the center to add it to an existing tab set.

Panels available from this menu:

  • Preview
  • Color
  • Layer Settings
  • Beat Matcher
  • Timeline
  • Parameters
  • Fixtures
  • Address Space
  • Spectralite Controllers
  • Node Editor
  • Mappings
  • Position Map Editor
  • History
  • Audio Spectrum

Each panel has its own page in the Panels section.

Add workspace

Opens a submenu of workspace templates. Pick one and Spectralite opens a new workspace tab with that template's default layout.

  • Live View: build your show with Timeline, Preview, and layer controls.
  • Fixtures: add and configure lighting fixtures.
  • Position Maps: arrange fixtures in 2D or 3D space.
  • Effects: Node Editor and Preview for building effects.
  • Empty: start from nothing.

The + button next to the workspace tabs is a shortcut to this menu.

Reset workspaces

Restores every workspace tab to its template's default layout. Useful after you have dragged panels around and want to start over without losing the project.

Performance Monitor

Toggles a performance overlay that graphs GPU render time, network write time, and data rate sent to outputs. Turn it on when the preview or output feels laggy so you can see whether the GPU or the network is the bottleneck. See the Buffer Space Errors section of Hardware Troubleshooting if the data rate is near the link limit.

Connection Status

Toggles the small "Connected" indicator in the top-right corner. It shows whether the interface is in sync with Spectralite's engine. Turn it off for a cleaner screen during a show; turn it on while debugging. The setting is display-only.

Reload

Reloads the renderer (⌘R / Ctrl+R). Equivalent to closing and reopening the window. The project state is unaffected.

Shortcuts

Opens the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (⌘/ / Ctrl+/). Click any shortcut to record a new key combination. See Keyboard Shortcuts for the current list.

About Spectralite

Shows the About dialog with the build version.