Workspace Layout

The editor has four main areas: the menu bar at the very top, the activity bar on the left edge, the side panel (project tree + library), and the central editor area with a console docked to its bottom.

The editor open on a project, showing the menu bar at the top, the activity bar on the left, the side panel with the project tree and library, the central editor with a Ladder Diagram body and the variables table above it, and the console at the bottom

Across the top: File, Edit, Display, Help, Recent.

Menu	What's in it
File	Save File, Save Project, Close Tab, Close Project, Page Setup, Preview, Print, Check for Updates
Edit	Refresh, Clear Errors, Zoom In/Out, Switch Perspective, Reset Perspective, Full Screen, Sort Alpha, Change Theme
Display	(currently a single entry, kept for future view options)
Help	Community support
Recent	Last few projects you've opened (empty until you've opened more than one)

Most actions are also reachable from the activity bar or with keyboard shortcuts, see the inline Ctrl + … hints in the menus.

Activity bar

The narrow vertical strip on the left edge. From top to bottom:

Icon	What it does
Files (Explorer)	Show/hide the side panel with the project tree and library
Git branch (Source Control)	Open the source control panel (changes, history, branches). A small badge shows how many files have pending edits
Magnifier (Search)	Open the project-wide search panel
Zoom	Toggle the toolbox (only meaningful when a graphical editor is open)
Download (Build options)	Build / build + deploy / clean build menu
Play	Start the PLC on the connected runtime (requires a connected vPLC)
Bug (Debugger)	Open the live-variable debugger
AI	Open the AI Engineer chat panel
(divider)
Block, Coil, Contact, Delete	LD-only toolbox (shown when a Ladder Diagram body is open)
Block, Input/Output Variable, Connector, Continuation, Comment	FBD-only toolbox (shown when a Function Block Diagram body is open)
(divider)
X	Close the project
← (bottom)	Exit the editor and return to the Autonomy Edge project page

The activity bar is always visible. The middle of the bar changes based on what kind of editor you have open, only LD and FBD bodies trigger context toolboxes.

Side panel

To the right of the activity bar. Shown when Explorer is enabled.

Project tree (top)

Project tree showing the EDF Demo project expanded: PLC root with Functions, Function Blocks, Programs/main, Data Types, Resource, Device/Orchestrators, and Servers branches

The branches:

Functions: function POUs.
Function Blocks: function-block POUs (including Python and C++ blocks).
Programs: program POUs. The one bound to a task as an instance is what actually runs.
Data Types: user-defined arrays, enumerations, and structures.
Resource: the project's global variables, tasks, and instances. Open it to edit any of the three.
Device: connected orchestrators and remote devices (Modbus master, EtherCAT).
Servers: communication servers (Modbus TCP slave, OPC-UA, S7Comm).

Click any leaf to open it as a tab in the central editor. The + button at the top of the tree opens the Create Element popover (function, function-block, program, data-type, server, remote-device).

For more, see Project Tree.

Library catalogue (bottom)

Below the project tree, the Library section lists every library that's enabled in this project. The bundled libraries are iec-std-functions, iec-standard-fb, additional-function-blocks, and oscat-basic. Click + Manage libraries… to add or remove libraries from the system pool, or to enable a library for this project.

Expanding a library reveals each function and function block it contains, drag them into a graphical body to use them.

For more, see the Library Manager page.

Central editor area

Where you write, draw, and configure things. The tabs at the top show what's open.

The editor's contents change with what you've selected in the tree:

POU bodies open the appropriate language editor: Structured Text, Ladder, Function Block Diagram, Instruction List, Python, or C++.
Data Types opens a form editor (array dimensions, enum values, or structure fields).
Resource opens a combined view with three sub-editors: Globals, Tasks, Instances.
Servers open per-protocol configuration editors.
Device entries open per-device configuration editors (e.g., Modbus master groups, EtherCAT slave channels).

When a POU body is open, the variables table appears between the breadcrumb and the body. It lists every variable declared for that POU. Toggle between table mode and raw VAR ... END_VAR code mode with the icons on the table's right edge.

Tabs

Multiple files can be open simultaneously. Click a tab to switch, or click its × to close it. The breadcrumb above the active tab traces the path from the project root to whatever you're editing.

Console

The strip at the bottom of the editor. It has tabs:

Console: build, compile, runtime connection, debugger, and library messages. Filter by level (info / warning / error) and free-text search.
PLC Logs: appears once you're connected to a Runtime v4 vPLC. Streams the live log feed from the runtime.
Search results: populated by the activity-bar Search action.

The console has a Filters button for level toggles + search, a Download button to export logs, and a Clear console button to wipe the current view.

Resizing

Most boundaries are draggable:

The split between the side panel and the central editor.
The split between the editor and the console.
The split inside a POU between the variables table and the body.
The split between the project tree and the library catalogue.

The side panel and console can both be collapsed entirely to maximise the editing space, click the Explorer icon to toggle the side panel; resize the console divider down to zero to hide the console.

What's next

Inspect the project structure in detail: Project Tree.
Learn the console and live-debugging surface: Console & PLC Logs.
Jump to a programming language: Structured Text · Ladder Diagram · Function Block Diagram · Instruction List.