Tabs, Search and the Status Bar

The tabs along the top of the window hold the Store, the Library, Help and every design you have open. At the right end of the tab bar are the help search button and your account. The status bar along the bottom of the window shows hints, running tasks and your connection.

On a Mac, press ⌘ (Command) wherever this page says Ctrl.

The Tabs

From the left, after the ☰ MatterCAD menu:

  • Store - Featured products and articles from MatterHackers.
  • Library - Your designs, the built-in shapes and sample parts, and your Cloud Library. See Library.
  • Help - These help pages. It opens when you press F1, choose Help in the ☰ MatterCAD menu, or open help from anywhere else in the app. Close it with its X when you are done.
  • Design tabs - One for each design you have open, with a small cube icon and the design’s name. Hover over a design tab to see where its file is.
  • + (Create New Design) - Opens a new design on an empty bed, in a tab named New Design.

The Store and Library tabs are always there. When there are more tabs than fit, the design tabs (and the Store and Library tabs) get narrower and their names are shortened, so every tab stays in reach.

Unsaved changes

While a design has changes you have not saved, the cube icon on its tab is tinted and underlined in the highlight color. The Save button in its toolbar reads Save • at the same time.

Opening, closing and reordering

  • Open a new design - Click +, or press Ctrl+T while a design is showing.
  • Close a design - Click the X on its tab. If it has unsaved changes, MatterCAD asks “Would you like to save changes before closing?” Click Save Changes, Discard Changes, or Cancel to keep it open.
  • Reopen the design you closed last - Press Ctrl+Shift+T. This works for designs that were saved to a file.
  • Reorder - Drag a design tab left or right. Design tabs stay to the right of the Store, Library and Help tabs.
  • Open files - Drag files from your computer onto the tab bar. While you hover there, the status bar says “You can drag and drop .mcx files here to open them”. An MCX design opens in its own tab, and any other model or picture opens on the bed of a new design, the same as Open System File.

When you quit MatterCAD with unsaved designs, it asks once for all of them, for example “You have 2 unsaved designs. Would you like to save changes before closing?”

The next time you start MatterCAD, the tabs you had open come back, with the tab you were looking at in front. See Updates and Recovery.

The design tab’s menu

Right-click a design tab for:

Item What it does
Rename Opens Rename Item. Type the new name and click Rename. For a saved design, the file is renamed too, in the same folder. See When a rename doesn’t work
Reload Throws away your changes and opens the design again as you last saved it, after asking. See Menus and Toolbar
Show in Explorer (Windows), Show in Finder (Mac), Show in Files (Linux) Opens the folder the design’s file is in, with the file selected. Only for designs saved as files on your computer

When a rename doesn’t work

When a design saved on your computer can’t be renamed, it keeps its old name and a message in the status bar says why:

  • A file name can’t hold the character /, and on Windows it can’t hold \ : * ? " < > or | either. A new name with one of them gets a message naming it, for example “A file name can’t contain ‘/’. Choose a name without it, then rename again.”
  • Any other problem gets “Could not rename ‘…’. Make sure the file is not open in another program and that its folder can be changed, then try again.”, with the design’s name in place of ‘…’.

The Search button (the magnifying glass) at the right end of the tab bar searches these help pages.

  1. Click Search. A search box opens under it, ready for you to type.
  2. Type what you are looking for and press Enter. MatterCAD shows Searching…, then the help pages that match, or No results found.
  3. Click a result to open that page in the Help tab, with your search words highlighted.

Click Search again, or click somewhere else, to close the box. The Clear button in the box empties it. The first time you search after starting MatterCAD, the button may show Preparing help… for a moment while it gets the help pages ready.

Search finds help pages, not parts. To find a part in the library, use the search box in the Library.

Your Account

(sign in), at the far right of the tab bar, signs you in to your account. Once you are signed in, it shows your name and opens a menu. See Signing In.

The Status Bar

The bar along the bottom of the window shows, from left to right:

  • Running tasks - Anything MatterCAD is working on, such as saving a design, with a small progress bar under its name.
  • Hints - What the button or control under the mouse does, or the keys that do the same thing. For example, hover over Reset View to see “W Key”.
  • The theme button - Opens the Theme settings in a small panel, so you can change the colors without opening Settings. See Settings.
  • The AI item - Shows AI Ready, AI Connected or AI Editing while AI assistant access is on, and is hidden while it is off. Click it to open AI Assistant Access. See Using AI Assistants.
  • The globe - Your connection to MatterCAD’s online services. It reads Connected while you are signed in and online, Disconnected while you are signed out or offline, and Retry Login when your sign-in has run out and you need to sign in again. Hover over it to see, for example, “Services: Connected”. In the desktop app, click it and choose AI Assistant Access… to open the AI assistant panel, whether or not you are signed in. In the browser, clicking the globe opens no menu.