Top bar

The document, the tools, and everything you do to the whole scene.

What it does

The bar has three stretches. On the left: the File menu, quick Open and Save icons, the tools, and the name of the document you are in. In the middle: undo, redo and preview. On the right: what you are looking at — view aids and zoom, preflight, the licence chip when the licence needs you, the mode switch, and the assistant. Export is in the File menu: File › Export .riv… or Ctrl+E.

3D preview quality. When the document has a 3D layer, a 3D: as file ▾ choice sits beside zoom. As the file shows every 3D layer at its own quality; Preview at Fast, Balanced, High or Maximum draws the stage lighter or heavier for comfortable editing. Only the stage changes: the file, exports, template cards and playout keep each layer's own quality. While you preview, the choice reads in orange, for example 3D: Fast, and a banner at the bottom of the stage says "3D previewed at Fast, not as the file plays", with a Show as the file button. The choice goes back to As the file each time the editor starts.

Its tooltip sums it up: "Fast and Balanced are lighter to work with. High and Maximum can be heavier than the file plays." On a scene with ray tracing, Fast and Balanced preview at about half the cost, High costs a little more and Maximum about double. On a light scene, Fast saves little over Balanced.

On a narrow window the left stretch scrolls sideways rather than pushing the right-hand controls away, so Export and the mode switch are always where you left them. The document name is last in that stretch, so it is the first thing to scroll out of sight — never a tool.

Colours mean the same thing everywhere in the bar. Blue is on or active, grey is available, dark grey is unavailable. An unavailable icon does nothing when clicked and says nothing.

Tooltips show the keys you have set. Rebind a shortcut in File › Keyboard shortcuts… and the tooltips follow it.

The document, and whether it is saved

What you see	What it means
Open icon	The same as File › Open… (Ctrl+O)
Save icon	Saves (Ctrl+S). A small pale dot on its corner means the document has changes that are not on disk; it goes when the save succeeds
The name beside the tools	The file name, for example election.airz. A document you have never saved reads New Scene (not saved yet). Hover it for the full path, or for "unsaved changes"

The unsaved dot is on the Save icon rather than on the name because the name can scroll out of view on a narrow window; the dot never does.

An ordinary save says nothing at all. The first save of a document, or a Save As, says Saved <file name> to <folder>. with a Show in folder button.

Undo, redo and preview

Control	What it does
Undo (Ctrl+Z)	Steps back. Dark grey when there is nothing to undo
Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z)	Steps forward. Ctrl+Y does the same
Preview (F5)	Plays the artboard's default Animation States. If it has none, the first Animation States; if it has no Animation States, the open timeline. While it plays, the icon turns blue and becomes Stop preview — pressing it again stops and goes back to the start

Preview does the same thing in Design and in Animate. It is the quickest way to see the graphic as a player will.

Monitor out

A chip appears here only while monitor out is running: a green dot, the words Monitor out, then the size and rate it is sending, for example 1920×1080 · 50.

If frames arrived at the card too late to play on time, the chip adds <N> late in amber. That is the one thing about a monitor feed worth interrupting you for, which is why it is on the bar and not buried in a dialog. Click the chip to change the output or stop it — see Monitor out.

The licence chip

Shown only when the licence needs you. On a machine without a valid licence it says Unlicensed, with a lock; in the last two weeks of a licence it says how many days are left, in amber. Its tooltip says why, and a click opens the Licence window. See Licensing.

Design and Animate

Two segments; the lit one is where you are. Tab switches.

Mode	What changes
Design	You build the artwork. Edits change how the scene is set up. Playback stops and every object goes back to its setup pose
Animate	The timeline appears along the bottom of the stage, and edits write keyframes on the open timeline, at the playhead. If the artboard has no timeline, one is made

Drag the divider above the timeline to resize it; double-click the divider to put it back.

The rest of the right side

Build information — the version and when it was built, for example v1.0.0+1 · built 24/09 14:32. Hover for the full detail. It is worth quoting when you report a problem.

Assistant (Ctrl+J) — opens or closes the assistant. Blue while the window is open, with a dot on its corner while it is working.

Shortcuts

Keys	What it does
Ctrl+O, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Shift+S	Open, Save, Save As
Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo, redo
F5	Preview, and stop
Ctrl+E	Export .riv
Tab	Design ⇄ Animate
Ctrl+\	Hide or show the side panels
' (Apostrophe)	Safe areas on or off
Shift+1, Shift+2, Shift+0	Fit, zoom to selection, 100%
Ctrl+J	Assistant

See also

• File menu · Tools · View aids and zoom · Preflight
• Keyboard shortcuts, the full list