Simple Mode and the Start Page

ParametrIQ CAD can show everything it does, or just what most people need. Simple mode hides the panels, tools, settings and commands most people rarely use; Advanced mode (Simple mode off) is the whole app. Nothing is taken away: everything Simple mode hides is still in the app, a click away, and switching Simple mode off shows it all again.

The start page

When ParametrIQ opens, it shows the start page in place of the drawings. It shows again whenever no drawing is open, and File › Home shows it at any time (in a window of its own over the drawings when some are open).

Industry: the industry you draw for. The first time, the page asks for it; your toolbar, the library and the help follow it. Change it here, or in Edit › Preferences (see Preferences).
Start from a library design: the designs you have run lately, with their pictures, and Browse the library…, which opens Run Parametric's picker with its pictures, search and Recent list.
Open a recent drawing: the drawings you have opened or saved lately, with their pictures, and Open another drawing….
New blank drawing: an empty drawing for your industry.
Recover unsaved work: drawings with changes that weren't saved when ParametrIQ last stopped without closing (their recovery copies), and Recent backups: the newest backups. Each has its picture where there is one, what it is of, when it was written and its size, with Open and Discard. The section shows only when there is something in it.
Learn: getting started and your industry's page (see Industries and tool sets), shown in the Help panel beside the page. Guided tour starts your industry's guided tour, and Open a sample project opens its sample project.
Simple mode switches Simple mode on or off, and Show the start page when ParametrIQ opens turns the page off when the app opens (it then opens with a new drawing, as before).

Every choice is a button: Tab moves between them and Enter or Space presses one. In a wide window the three choices sit side by side; in a narrow one, one under another.

After ParametrIQ stops without closing properly (it crashes, or the computer does), it opens on the start page with Recover unsaved work at the top, highlighted, so you can open each drawing and carry on.

Switching Simple mode on and off

Use View › Simple Mode, the Simple mode switch on the start page, or Simple mode in Edit › Preferences. All three are the same setting, and it is remembered for you.

What Simple mode hides

Panels: Interactive (typing PiQ Lang), Layers and Points close. View › Panels still opens any of them, and they open again when Simple mode is switched off.
The toolbar shows your industry's daily tools only, with More tools for the rest (see The toolbar).
Properties shows the common settings, with the others under All settings (see Properties).
Menu commands most people rarely use:
- File: Save to Library…; Import › Import Design Table…, Import Stone Template… and Import 3D for Unfolding…; Export › Export with Post-Processor…, Export Tiled Print…, Export 3D PDF… and Export for Pallet Software; the same exports and Report… in Send by Email; Reports…; and the extension developer's items in Extensions: Open Extensions Folder, Reload Extensions, Run Script…, Manage Extensions… and Make Thumbnails….
- Edit: Copy as Statement, Select Inverse, Select Same Kind, Constrain, Tidy Drawing, Check Parametric…, Links…; in Page, New Sheet…, Edit Sheet… and Insert Field…; in Tool, Tool Shortcuts….
- Production: Clear Bridges, Grade Sizes…, True-Shape Layout… and Tool Options….
- 3D: Build Mode, Display › Renderer and Section, Folding › Fold Order, Overlap, Set Fold Step… and Adjust in 3D, Models and Products › Subtract Model and Product Pocket in Foam…, and Bolts and Welds….
- View: Show Fixed Points and Layout › Manage Layouts.

The menus close up around what is hidden, so no menu starts or ends with a line. Keyboard shortcuts still work for hidden commands.

The toolbar can show every tool offered for your industry, or just its daily tools: about ten, the general drawing tools it uses most (Select, Line, Bulge, Rectangle, Offset …) and its own (for packaging, flaps, tuck flaps, dust flaps, lock tabs, bridges and window patches). The rest of your industry's tools, and the other general tools, are under More tools (•••) at the foot of the toolbar: choose one there to use it.

Pin a tool to the toolbar: right-click it and choose Pin to Toolbar, or choose it from More tools › Pin to Toolbar. Right-click a tool on the toolbar and choose Unpin from Toolbar to take it off. What you pin is remembered for each industry.
Simple mode always shows the daily tools. In Advanced mode, Edit › Tool › Show Every Tool on the Toolbar (also in Edit › Preferences) shows every tool offered (it is on unless you turn it off); turned off, Advanced mode's toolbar shows the daily tools and your pins too.

Properties

Properties shows the sections that apply to what is selected and to the drawing:

3D part only for closed outlines (and parts) when the drawing has a 3D page;
Machining only for elements that are cut, creased or drawn by a machine (not text, dimensions, fills, pictures or barcodes);
fill settings only for fills (hatch settings only for hatches), dimension text only for dimensions, barcode settings only for barcodes.

Within them, the common settings come first. The rest (a dimension's font type, width factor, decimals, arrow size, gap and extension; a gradient's spread; a QR code's error correction) and the expert sections (machining, bridges, 3D part, linked pictures, sheet, and what the selection depends on) are under All settings, which starts closed in Simple mode and open in Advanced mode.

Show all properties shows every section and setting, whether or not it applies; it is remembered.

Can't find something?

In Simple mode, Can't find something? Search all commands is at the foot of every menu, in More tools on the toolbar and under All settings in Properties. It opens the command palette (Ctrl+K), which finds every command, tool and setting, those Simple mode hides too. From a menu, the palette starts with the menu's name typed, so it lists that menu's commands; from More tools, every tool. Type over it to look for anything else. Advanced mode shows everything, so it doesn't show these links.