Electronics Designer layout · SoftForge Electronics Designer

The editor tab holds the canvas, the tool bars, the status strip and the timeline. The panels around it are VS Code views (setting softforge.edsnx.layout.panels, default vscode), so they dock, resize, collapse and move like Explorer or Source Control.

Containers. Two containers hold the views:

SoftForge (activity bar, primary side bar): the structure of the document. Layers, Items, Nets, Sheets, Libraries, Tools, Document, Objects, and the library and Gerber lists of the library and Gerber editors.
SoftForge Inspector (secondary side bar, on the right): what you act on. Design, Properties, Inspect, Checks, Layer stack, BOM, Routing, Length, Overlays, Probes, 3D, Simulation, Documentation, Review, Agent, DFM, MCAD, SI/PI, Comments, System, Reuse, Requirements, Symbol, Footprint, Panel and Gerber.

Open the secondary side bar with View: Toggle Secondary Side Bar (Ctrl+Alt+B) if it is closed.

The views per document kind. The views follow the editor that had the focus last. Each view lists the documents it serves and appears only for them:

Document	Views shown at first (expanded)	Other views (collapsed)
Board (`.kicad_pcb`)	Layers, Items, Design, Properties, Checks	Nets, Objects, Libraries, Tools, Inspect, Layer stack, Routing, Test, 3D, Length, Overlays, Probes, Requirements, Review, DFM, Reuse, MCAD, SI/PI, System, Harness, Agent, Comments
Schematic (`.kicad_sch`)	Items, Sheets, Design, Properties, Checks	Nets, Document, Libraries, Inspect, BOM, Documentation, Simulation, Review, System, Harness, Agent, Comments
Symbol library (`.kicad_sym`)	Items, Library, Design, Properties, Symbol, Checks	Libraries, Inspect, Review, System, Harness, Agent, Comments
Footprint library (`.pretty`)	Layers, Items, Library, Design, Properties, Footprint	Objects, Inspect, 3D, Agent
Panel (`.kicad_panel`)	Layers, Items, Design, Properties, Panel, Checks	Objects, Libraries, Tools, Inspect, 3D, Overlays, Probes, DFM, MCAD, SI/PI, Requirements, Review, System, Harness, Agent, Comments
Gerber set	Layers, Items, Gerber, Design, Properties, Gerber tools	Objects, Inspect, 3D, Agent

Without an editor a view says which documents it serves; a view keeps its scroll and choices when it is hidden and shown again. The status strip’s counters and buttons in the editor (selection, DRC count, unrouted) reveal the matching view. After a click in a view that acts on the canvas (a layer eye, a layer row, a net, an item row) the keyboard focus goes back to the canvas, so hotkeys keep working; keyboard use inside a view keeps the focus there. Dialogs a view opens (Board Setup, Gloss, Teardrops, the pin table) open over the canvas.

Dragging views. Drag a view by its title to the other side bar, to another position in its container, or into the panel area (beside Terminal and Problems) to give it the full width. VS Code remembers the place per workspace; View: Reset View Locations puts every moved view back.

The layout setting. softforge.edsnx.layout.panels:

vscode (default): the panels are views, as above.
editor: the panels are inside the editor tab, left and right of the canvas (the layout of 1.5 and earlier).

The switch applies at once, without reopening the editor. The first time a KiCad document opens with the views, Layers (Sheets on a schematic) and Properties are shown once, the focus staying in the editor; turn this off with softforge.edsnx.layout.introduce.

Commands. In the Command Palette (category KiCad):

Show Layers View, Show Properties View, … (softforge.edsnx.panels.show<Panel>, for example softforge.edsnx.panels.showLayerStack): one per view, listed when the view serves the active document.
Show All Views (softforge.edsnx.panels.showAll): every view of the active document, then the focus back to the editor.
Reset Views (show the default set) (softforge.edsnx.panels.reset): the expanded views of the table above.
Show View… (softforge.edsnx.panels.reveal): pick a view from a list.

Agents and scripts show a view with the registry command session.panels.reveal (UI-only: it needs the open editor, edsnx … --attach or the MCP server of the running extension), for example { "panel": "checks" }, { "panel": "default" } or { "panel": "all", "path": "blinky.kicad_pcb" }. It returns the views shown and the ones that do not serve the document.