Panels & Layout

The editor is built from dockable panels: Viewer, Node Graph, Timeline, Properties, Assets, Assistant, and Node Preview. Every panel lives in a slot that can hold one panel or several as tabs.

Node Preview (second viewport)

Node Preview is a second viewport that shows the currently selected node's output, so you can compare a node against the full composition side by side — without rewiring anything. Open it from View → Panels → Node Preview and dock it next to the Viewer. See Node Preview for controls, locking, and when to reach for it.

Viewer quality and Lens Blur

The Viewer's Draft / Preview / Full selector changes working resolution. On a Retina display, Full also includes the display's pixel scale: a 1920×1080 comp can render at 3840×2160 for display. Preview reduces that workload without switching Lens Blur back to its old renderer.

Lens Blur no longer shows its own Quality or Denoise rows in Properties. Their saved values are retained but ignored. In their place is Full Detail, off by default: a large blur is computed on a reduced copy of the frame and scaled back up, so the node stays responsive while you dial in focus and bokeh. Turn it on to inspect the exact result in the viewport — rendering and exporting always use it regardless of the switch.

Rearranging

• Drag a tab within its tab bar to reorder tabs in that slot.
• Drag a tab out of the bar and drop it on another panel to move it: drop in the center to stack it as a tab there (an "Add as tab" chip confirms the drop), or on an edge (top/right/bottom/left) to split that slot and dock it alongside. Any panels can share a slot this way — e.g. Node Graph tabbed with Properties.
• Drag the dividers between panels to resize them. Each panel has a minimum size; splits stop there.

Closing and reopening

• Close a panel with the × that appears when hovering its tab. Closing the panel removes it from the layout and gives its space to its neighbor. The last remaining panel can't be closed.
• Reopen a panel from View → Panels. If the panel is only hidden behind another tab, this brings it forward; if it was closed, it returns to the slot it was closed from (or the first slot after a restart).
• View → Panels → Reset Layout restores the default arrangement.

Maximize

Press ` (backtick) with the cursor over a panel to maximize it to the full dock area; press again to restore.

Workspaces

A workspace is a saved, named panel arrangement. The workspace switcher in the top bar (right side) shows the active workspace and lets you:

• Switch — click a workspace in the list to load its layout.
• Save as New Workspace… — capture the current arrangement under a new name.
• Update "<name>" — write the current arrangement back into the active workspace. This appears (with a dot on the switcher) whenever the live layout has changed since you last saved it.
• Rename… / × — rename or delete a workspace (the built-in Default can't be deleted).
• Reset Default Layout — restore Default to the shipped arrangement.

There's always a Default workspace. Editing panels changes the live layout immediately; the change only becomes part of a workspace when you Update or Save it. Workspaces are stored per machine.

Persistence

The live layout — including closed panels — is remembered per machine and restored on launch, along with your workspaces and which one was active.