Constellations

Arrange your nodes the way that makes sense to you, then save that arrangement as a constellation. Load it again later and every node, and the camera, goes back to where you left it.

Where: Space Studio › top left of the canvas › the camera button · Keys: [Ctrl+0] to save, [Ctrl+1] to [Ctrl+9] to load

What it is

Dark Energy, Layers and Group arrange your structure for you. Constellations are for when you'd rather do it by hand. Each one remembers where every node sits, where the camera is and whether you were in 2D or 3D, under a name you choose.

You can keep several arrangements of the same structure, each bringing a different part of it forward: one by team, say, one by timeline, and one around the decision you're working on this week.

How to use it

Saving one

1. Put your nodes where you want them, and the camera where you want it.
2. Click the camera button at the top left of the canvas, or press [Ctrl+0].
3. Give it a name and click Add constellation.

Its name now sits beside the camera button, so you can see which constellation you're looking at.

Loading one

As soon as you move a node or the camera, the name gives way to a number, which is how many constellations the project holds. Click it to see them all, then click one to load it. The nodes and the camera glide back to where they were, and the view switches to 2D or 3D to match.

[Ctrl+1] to [Ctrl+9] load the first nine without opening the list. Loading one is a single step of undo, so [Ctrl+Z] takes you back to the arrangement you had before.

Updating or removing one

Each constellation in the list has two buttons beside it:

• Update to the current view saves what's on screen now, under the same name.
• Remove deletes it. It asks for a second click, since a removed constellation can't be brought back.

Tips

• A node you add after saving a constellation stays wherever it is when you load it, so you can place it and then update the constellation.
• A node you delete leaves a gap where it used to be.
• The camera button is lit while there's room for another. A project holds up to 20.
• Constellations are saved in the project's .filamental folder, beside the node positions, so they go wherever the folder goes. See How Your Files Are Stored.

How this helps you

• Keep one structure arranged several ways, each answering a different question, and switch between them with a keystroke.
• Arrange by hand without losing the work to an auto-arrange, since the arrangement you saved is always one click away.
• Come back to a project after a few weeks and find it laid out the way you were thinking about it then.

What it doesn't do

• It saves positions, the camera and 2D or 3D, and nothing else. Highlights, a lit route and what's selected stay as they are.
• Constellations aren't carried into shared links, HTML downloads or Present.
• The camera button and its keys work in Space Studio only.

Related

• Dark Energy and Layers: the arrangements Filamental makes for you.
• 2D and 3D: the two views a constellation remembers.
• Getting Around: moving the camera.
• Undo and Redo: stepping back from a load.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: every key in one list.