Your projects

Projects lists everything you work on in one place: in the desktop app the project files you opened or saved on this computer and those of the folders you index, in the web app the drafts kept in this browser, and, once you are signed in, the projects kept with your account in the cloud. Open it from File › Projects, from Projects on the start screen, or from the command palette (Ctrl+K, "Projects").

Each project shows a picture of it (its own assembly once it has been saved with this version, else a picture of what it is mainly about), where it is kept (This computer, Indexed folder, This browser or Cloud), when it last changed, whether its checks Pass, are Close to limit or Fail, and the designations of its parts. The project open now is marked Open now.

What is kept with each project

Every save keeps a short summary of the project beside it: its name and description, the modules it uses, its parts' designations (bearings such as "6207" or "NU 210", gear pairs as "m3 z20/60", bolts as "M12 8.8", fits as "Ø50 H7/s6"), its materials, the verdict of its checks with how many pass, are close to their limits (above 85 %) or fail and the check that governs, and key results where it has them: the mass of its shafts, the overall ratio, the bearings' system life and the power loss. A small thumbnail goes with it.

The summary of a cloud project is kept with the project in your account, so the list and the search never download the projects. The desktop app keeps the summaries of your files on this computer. A file or cloud project saved before (or by another program) is summed up the first time the list shows it, in the background, one at a time. A summary is only ever shown for the version of the project it was made from: a file changed since (by axm, an editor or another computer) or a cloud project saved again elsewhere shows Summing up… until it is summed up again, never the verdict of before. The preview shows the checks of the version it opened. axm summary <file> prints the same summary.

Finding a project

• Search keeps the projects that have every word you type in their name, folder, description, part designations, materials, customer or part number, or module names: try 6207, M12, 42CrMo4 or planetary.
• Module, Status (Pass, Close to limit, Fail, Not solved), Where and Changed (today, the last 7 or 30 days, the last 12 months) narrow the list down; Clear filters shows everything again. The count beside them says how many are shown.
• Sort by orders the list by Last changed (newest first), Name, Closest to limit (failing projects first, then those nearest their limits) or Where (this computer or this browser first, then the cloud). The app remembers your choice.

With more than 200 projects shown, the list becomes a compact list of rows, drawn as you scroll.

Indexed folders (desktop)

Folders lists the folders the app indexes. Add a folder… picks one: its project files (*.axm.json, and those saved before Axomek 0.2) are listed at any depth, leaving out hidden folders. Each file is summed up once and the summary kept on this computer; a file is summed up again only when it changes. The folders are searched again whenever you come back to the app's window, so files saved by axm or copied in meanwhile appear, moved files keep their summaries and deleted ones leave the list. Remove stops indexing a folder; the files stay where they are.

Previewing a project

Select a project (its name or its picture) to preview it beside the list: a live 3D view of its assembly (or its shaft), which you can turn and zoom but not change, its checks with the governing one, what is in it, and for a cloud project its latest saves. Open opens it; Compare with the open project shows what differs between it and the project open now: the inputs that differ, the checks that flipped between pass and fail, and the results that moved, with their change. Compare with… asks for another project of the list (with a search) and compares the two the same way, the first as the old side and the second as the new one, as axm diff does; neither needs to be open (see Comparing two designs). On a phone the preview fills the screen.

Project details shows the project's customer, part number and project number, as its calculation report prints them in its document control. Edit details changes them where the project is kept: the open project as an edit you can undo, a file in place, a cloud project as a new save. A project saved by a newer Axomek is not changed.

With the keyboard, the arrow keys move between the projects, Enter previews one (the focus moves into the preview) and Escape closes the preview, the focus back on the project.

What you can do with a project

Open opens the project in place of the one open now. If that one has changes that are not saved, the app first asks Save changes?, as it does everywhere else. On the project open now the button reads Back to it and closes the screen.

More shows the other actions:

The open project can be saved to the cloud from the top of the screen (Save this project to the cloud as …). Without an account, the web app asks you to sign in first; until then your work stays in this browser.

Escape closes a comparison, More, a rename or a question first, then a history, then the preview, then the screen.

Drafts in the browser (web)

The web app keeps the project open in each browser tab as that tab's own draft, as you work: reloading the tab, or closing it and coming back, does not lose your changes. Two tabs never write over each other's draft, so you can work on two projects side by side. A tab you duplicate goes on with a copy of the draft of the tab it came from.

When you open the app in a new tab, it opens the draft a closed tab left with unsaved changes. If several closed tabs left one, it opens none of them and lists them all on the start screen and the Projects screen (This browser), to open the one you want; opening one moves it to that tab. The draft of a tab that is still open is not listed in the others. A draft with nothing unsaved in it (saved to a file or the cloud since) is forgotten once there is unsaved work to recover in its place. A draft the app cannot be sure about, such as one an earlier version kept, counts as unsaved and is never forgotten on its own.

A draft stays only in this browser, on this computer: clearing the browser's data deletes it, and another browser or computer does not have it. Save your work to a file or the cloud to keep it.

If the browser cannot keep the draft (its storage is full, or the browser blocks it, as some private windows do), a notice says at once: Your work could not be kept in this browser: save it to a file or the cloud, with Save to file and Save to cloud. Until you save, or the browser can keep the draft again, reloading or closing the tab asks first, and Save changes? no longer says that a draft keeps your changes.

Switching projects (Ctrl+P)

Ctrl+P, or Switch project… in the command palette, lists the same projects without leaving your work: your recent files, the browser's drafts, the projects kept with your account and the files of the folders you index, newest first. Type to find one by its name, folder, parts, materials, customer, or part or project number, as the search here does, and press Enter to open it. If the project open now has changes that are not saved, Save changes? asks first. In the desktop app, Shift+Enter opens a file in a new window instead.

Several windows (desktop)

File › New window, Open in new window under More, or Shift+Enter in Switch project open another window, each with a project of its own and its own undo history. The windows share your settings, your templates and your account: a change made in one shows in the others.

A file is edited in one window at a time. Opened in a second window, it is shown there read-only, with a bar that says so, and follows what the first window saves; Save as (Ctrl+Shift+S) keeps a copy of your own. Close it in the first window to edit it in another. To install an update, close the other windows first, so that each can ask about its unsaved work.

Starting a new project

File › New project…, New project… on the start screen and Ctrl+N open New project:

• Name: the project's name. It follows what you start from until you type one.
• Start from: Blank (an empty shaft with your default limits), An example, or One of my templates.
• Keep it: in the desktop app In a file on this computer (you choose where next; the app then saves as you work), in the web app In this browser (a draft until you save it), or In the cloud when you are signed in.
• Units shown: metric or US customary. Projects are always kept in millimetres and newtons; this changes what you see, as the units switch in the top bar does.
• Project details for the report: the customer, part number and project number, kept in the project for its calculation report.

If the project open now has changes that are not saved, Save changes? asks first; Cancel keeps the dialog. In the web app some browsers keep Ctrl+N for a new browser window: use File › New project… there.

Your templates

File › Save as template… keeps the open project as one of your templates, to start new projects from. Give it a name and, if you like, a description, and choose what it takes:

• Shafts and parts: the shafts and every part on them. Leave it out for a blank project with your materials, limits and report.
• Materials: the shafts' materials.
• Limits: the shafts' deflection, tilt and stress limits and the bearings' life and safety.
• Report contents and look: the report's parts and look, the customer and the sign-off names (never the report number or revisions).

A template of a name you have already is replaced only after you confirm. New project › One of my templates starts a project from one, and deletes one you no longer need. Signed in, your templates are kept with your account, so the web app, the desktop app and axm share them (axm templates --own lists them, axm new pump.axm.json --template "Pump shaft" starts from one); signed out, they stay on this computer or in this browser. Deleting your account deletes them.

Earlier saves of a cloud project

Each save to the cloud, from the web app, the desktop app or axm cloud push, keeps the project as it was before. History lists those earlier saves, newest first: when each was made and with what (the web app, the desktop app, axm, and whether the assistant made changes in it). Restore brings one back as the newest save; the save it replaces stays in the history, so a restore can be undone the same way. If the project is open, Open it now opens the restored save.

The 20 most recent earlier saves are kept, each for 90 days after a later save replaced it. Renaming a project takes its history along; a duplicate starts with none. axm cloud versions <name> lists them, axm cloud restore <name> --version <id> restores one.

The Trash

Deleting a cloud project moves it, with its earlier saves, to the Trash (switch from Projects to Trash at the top). It stays there 30 days, then it is deleted for good. Restore brings it back; if a project of its name exists by then, it comes back as "… (restored)". Delete forever deletes it at once, after asking.

From the command line: axm cloud rm <name> moves to the trash, axm cloud trash lists it, axm cloud restore <name or id> brings a project back and axm cloud trash --delete <id> --yes deletes one for good.

Deleting your account deletes your cloud projects, their earlier saves and the Trash at once.