The Workspace

The Workspace #

The board #

The breadboard has 17 rows, top to bottom:

  • GND and VCC power rails (top pair)
  • Signal rows J, I, H, G, F
  • The center divide — the channel chips straddle
  • Signal rows E, D, C, B, A
  • GND and VCC power rails (bottom pair)

As on a physical board, each vertical 5-hole strip (J–F above the divide, E–A below) is one electrical node; the rails run horizontally, with the usual break in the rail every six columns. Tie points are labeled letter + column (“A5”, “J12”); rail holes are labeled GND/V with the column.

The board sizes itself: it always keeps at least 30 empty columns to the right of your rightmost part, growing as you build. You never need to configure its width.

Zoom and navigation #

  • Pinch to zoom (10%–250%), two-finger drag (or scroll) to pan. On a Mac, scroll and pinch on the trackpad.
  • The zoom button in the toolbar offers fixed steps from 25% to 250%, plus Fit to Screen, which scales the whole board to your window — below 25% if needed.
  • Keyboard: ⌘+ zoom in, ⌘− zoom out, ⌘0 actual size, ⌘9 fit to screen.

All zooming is anchored: pinches zoom around your fingers, keyboard and menu zoom around the center of the view, so the board never jumps.

Select mode #

Select (shortcut V) is the default state — no tool armed. In Select mode:

  • Tap a part to select it. On iPad and Mac the editor opens in the inspector panel; on iPhone and Apple Vision Pro the part shows selection handles first, and a second tap opens the editor sheet.
  • Tap an empty hole to deselect.
  • Selected parts show grab handles — drag one to move the part (see Building Circuits).

Cancelling #

Esc (or the Cancel button in the status chip, or the B/Circle button on a gamepad) backs out one step at a time: an in-progress drag first, then a half-placed two-terminal part, then the cursor, then the selection.

Input methods #

Breadpad supports touch, Apple Pencil, mouse/trackpad with hover tooltips, hardware keyboards (see Keyboard Shortcuts), and game controllers with a D-pad-driven cursor (see Gamepad Support). On Apple Vision Pro, a toolbar button opens the circuit as a to-scale 3D volume you can walk around.