Workspace and panels
Terminal’s panels can be docked, resized, grouped, and opened through the Panels menu or ⌘K command palette. The palette lists every action Terminal can perform, with its key where one is bound; unavailable actions stay listed with the reason. Shared layouts provide starting points; save your own after arranging the panels you use regularly (see Layouts).
The top bar
Section titled “The top bar”The menus come first. TERMINAL, behind the Terminal mark, holds the selection channels A–D and Clear Selection, Terminal Settings…, the Mainframe you are connected to (Connected to SAB) with Connect to Mainframe… and Mainframe Settings…, and who you are signed in as with Profile… and Sign Out. Panels opens any panel. Layout holds the shared layouts (one click applies one; the check marks the last one applied), Undo and Redo, the Timeline Bar, Hide Tabs and Lock Layout switches, Video Overlays, then Close All Panels, New Window, Save Layout As… and Manage Layouts…. Plan draws new markings and missions and opens Missions and Markings.
After the menus comes the selection: the channel chips when more than one channel is in use, then the selection menu, which shows the focused aircraft (hover it for battery, altitude, speed, link, satellites and heading), the focused object, or No selection. Click it to pick one of the aircraft online now, the quick way to select one before taking control; a role that arranges panels also finds Selection there, which opens the Selection panel. Then comes what this window holds: CTRL YOU · V03 for a control lease (CTRL <name> when someone else holds the selected aircraft), KEYS ▸ V03 while the flight keys are armed, VOICE · Team Alfa for the voice rooms you are in (see Voice).
On the right: PENDING n airframes waiting for approval (opens Assets), only when there are any; the unacknowledged alert count (opens Alerts); the UI frame rate, amber under 30, which opens the UI performance popover (with two or more videos playing, the browser paces the whole page to their frame rate — about 30 FPS with 30 fps cameras, 15 with 12 fps ones — and the popover says so instead of turning amber); and the clock. The page ends with the timeline bar.
On a narrow window (a top bar under 768 px) the bar keeps to one line: the Terminal mark without the word, the layouts as one dropdown named after the active layout, the selection as its dot and callsign, and no frame rate or live clock (a link warning still shows). In replay it shows only the transport and LIVE.
Layouts
Section titled “Layouts”A layout is shared with everyone on the Mainframe. Choosing one in the Layout menu replaces the panels on screen; the check mark stays on it while you move, add and close panels, and a reload keeps your arrangement as you left it.
A layout starts as one arrangement for any window size. Configurations add arrangements for narrower ranges of window size, each with a width bound (Width < 1400, Width > 2000 or any width) and a height bound. The configuration that fits the window best is used: the one that narrows more sides, then the one whose bounds lie closest to the window’s size. When a resize crosses into another configuration’s range, that configuration replaces the arrangement; resizing within one range never does. A window opened at a size that falls under another configuration than the one it closed with switches too.
Save Layout As… offers three choices:
| Choice | Does |
|---|---|
| New Layout | Saves the panels on screen under a new name; a name another layout has is refused |
| New Configuration | Pick a layout, name the configuration, and narrow the window size it is for |
| Update Existing | Pick a layout, then one of its configurations: the panels on screen replace its arrangement |
Manage Layouts… lists every layout with its configurations below it. Apply, Rename… and Delete Layout… act on a layout (a deletion asks first and cannot be undone); a configuration’s menu renames it and changes its sizes, or deletes it. The first configuration is for any size: it can be renamed but not resized or deleted. Each layout also sets three view options when you change to it: Timeline Bar, Hide Tabs and Lock Layout, each Preserve (leave it as it is), On or Off.
A browser with no arrangement of its own starts from the Mainframe’s default layout (Mainframe Settings → Configuration → Workspace). A role can name a layout (Mainframe Settings → Roles): it is applied when one of its members signs in, never on a reload. Saving, renaming and deleting layouts needs a role that writes layouts and customizes; a role applies the layouts it uses (layouts.use, see Access). Alt+1 to Alt+5 switch to the first five layouts of the menu.
Fixed Layouts
Section titled “Fixed Layouts”Everyone starts in Fixed Layouts. The top bar shows TERMINAL, then the layouts the role uses as a row of buttons (Alt+1 to Alt+5 switch to the first five), then the selection. There are no Panels, Layout or Plan menus. A role with layouts.customize leaves with the top bar’s Unlock Layouts button and returns with Layout → Enter Fixed Layouts; this browser remembers the choice. Roles without it (the starting operator and observer roles) stay fixed.
The layout’s panels stay where it put them: no + to add a panel, no close button, no dragging or floating, no Close or Duplicate on a tab (Maximize remains). The sashes still resize unless Lock Layout is on. Lock Layout on its own (while customizing) freezes the sashes and drags and also keeps every panel open: no close button on a tab, and Close is disabled (Layout locked). Nothing opens a new panel: whatever shows its result in a panel the layout lacks is left out of the palette, the menus and the toolbars — Show on Map without a Map, the Alerts chip without Alerts, PENDING without Assets, Open Chat and every Send to Chat without a Chat panel (with one, it switches that panel to the group). The same holds for the Open button on a notification (a capture, a clip, a chat message, a new pin), View capture in a timeline marker, a double-click on an Analyst result, Open Missions in Control, and Ask the Assistant in the palette. An aircraft’s Video, Telemetry, Control and Analyst buttons (its menus, the Selection panel, a mention, a double-click on the map) appear only for panels the layout holds, and switch that panel to the aircraft instead of opening another. Double-clicking a Video Wall tile turns the wall itself into that feed’s Video panel; Back to Wall, before the feed chip, returns to the grid. A view option the layout sets On or Off holds the switch there; one left at Preserve can be flipped as usual (t, the palette).
A browser in Fixed Layouts always shows one of the role’s layouts: the role’s layout at sign-in, the Mainframe’s default, or the first one.
Selection
Section titled “Selection”Selection channels A–D let separate groups of panels follow different aircraft or entity sets. Use the panel’s toolbar chip to follow a channel or pin a suitable panel to one aircraft. Assets, charts, map selection, and the video wall can work with more than one selected aircraft.
Click normally to replace a selection. Modifier-assisted selection and Assets range selection build a set. On the map, shift-drag selects a region. Use the visible selection controls when working on a device without a keyboard.
Everything drawn on the map is selectable: aircraft, radars, controllers, sites, detections, markings, routes and capture glyphs. A click selects, a double-click opens the object’s natural panel or editor, and a selected object shows a ring in its channel’s colour. The Selection panel describes whatever is selected — what it is, which module provides it, its key facts and the actions available on it. Notes on a capture or a marking are in the Captures and Markings panels.
The Panels menu, and the dock’s + menu, list the panels in five groups, the same as the tables below.
Map and assets
Section titled “Map and assets”| Panel | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Map | See aircraft, detections, sensors, markings, routes, and the ground each camera sees (the picture’s corners on the ground, capped at 3 km); draw and edit markings and routes in place; right-click anything, or the ground, to send it to a chat group |
| Assets | Browse bases, flights, aircraft, phones and sensors; compare state, battery and assignment in columns; select aircraft and issue available commands; + New adds a base, a flight or an aircraft source; a row’s menu sends the aircraft to a chat group |
| Missions | Create and edit missions, inspect assignments, and review coverage |
| Markings | List everything drawn on the map by kind, show or hide a kind, edit or restyle a marking, leave notes on it, and send it to a chat group from its row menu |
Map layers
Section titled “Map layers”The layers popover (the stack icon on the map) switches each layer and holds two controls:
- Paths draws every aircraft’s and phone’s path over the chosen window, 5 minutes to 6 hours (
map.trailWindow). Paths fade to half opacity towards the window’s edge; the selected aircraft’s path is wider on a dark halo. Each aircraft draws in its own colour: a fixed pick per airframe until you set Path color in Identify airframe (phones: Configure phone). - Coverage age darkens ground nobody has looked at (25 % brightness), tints ground in a camera now green, and fades seen ground from full brightness to half at the fade horizon (Mainframe Settings → Configuration → Coverage). The slider under the switch sets how strongly the fog applies (
map.coverageOpacity). In Replay the map shows the snapshot Mainframe stored nearest the playhead (one a minute, kept for the bulk horizon under Configuration → Retention) and follows the replay from there.
| Panel | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Voice | Join and leave one voice room per panel (pick it from the toolbar chip), mute and deafen it, see who is there and who is speaking, and set each person’s volume. See Voice |
| Chat | Read and write one chat group at a time (pick it from the toolbar chip); mention aircraft, markings, people, times and places; react, reply, edit and delete; attach files; a draft per group survives a reload. See Chat |
Video and control
Section titled “Video and control”| Panel | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Video Wall | Compare multiple feeds in a grid |
| Video | Watch one feed with switchable overlays (guides, telemetry, ground scale, markings, route, targets, traffic, home) and the name of the active camera, open the feed’s Actions from the toolbar (a Video Wall tile keeps its Actions button in the corner), capture the current frame, right-click the ground to pin or task there, and replay recorded segments |
| Telemetry | Inspect the selected aircraft’s available measurements |
| Control | Use available flight controls under a control lease, and switch the camera, tilt the gimbal and zoom |
Selection and analysis
Section titled “Selection and analysis”| Panel | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Selection | Read what is selected: identity, provider, facts, actions and notes for one object or many; follow a channel; send any selected object to a chat group |
| Captures | Annotate captured frames from pilots and the analyst; download stills; play, note and download video clips cut from recordings; send the selected still or clip to a chat group |
| Analyst | Work with supported analysis sessions |
| Assistant | Ask for actions in plain words; see Assistant |
| Charts | Compare historical numeric channels across aircraft |
Logs and health
Section titled “Logs and health”| Panel | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Alerts | Acknowledge or resolve alerts |
| Events | Follow operational events and command outcomes by time |
| Client Log | Read, copy and clear this browser’s own log (errors, toasts and diagnostics) to attach to a report |
| System | Check Mainframe and module health in the operational workspace |
Settings is not a panel: the Terminal menu opens Terminal Settings… (⌘,) for this browser’s preferences, Mainframe Settings… for the deployment’s rooms, people (users, invites, roles) and configuration, and for administrators its keys and audit log, and Profile… for your own account; see Settings and Access. A layout, local or shared, that names a panel this Terminal no longer has loads without it.
The timeline is not a panel: it is the bar under the workspace, with its controls on the left (see Replay). Drag or click it to review the past, double-click an event tick to jump to it, right-click it for the moment under the cursor (Scrub Here, Send Time to Chat, Copy Time), and toggle it with t or Layout → Timeline Bar. In replay the transport sits around the clock at the right end of the top bar.
Panels show capabilities supplied by the connected modules. Opening a panel does not create a missing sensor, grant a permission, start a paid analysis session, or take control of hardware.
Decommission and restore assets
Section titled “Decommission and restore assets”Right-click an asset in Assets and choose Decommission (last in the menu), or search the palette (⌘K) for Decommission V04. It asks first, naming what it drops (an aircraft’s live telemetry and alerts). An aircraft can be decommissioned only on the ground, with no unfinished mission run and no one holding its control; the menu item says what it is waiting for. To bring a decommissioned asset back, choose Restore in its menu or search for Restore V04. Assets → Manage → Decommission / Restore… lists every device you may manage — drones, phones, controllers, cameras and radars — searchable by name, provider or serial. Assets’ + New adds a base, a flight or an aircraft source (a generic drone, an Autel controller, a phone invite); it does not decommission. Removing a base or a flight asks first too.
Decommissioning hides the asset from live inventory and the map across provider reconnects and Mainframe restarts. It does not command, shut down or stop the physical device. Recordings remain accessible under the existing retention policy. Restore brings an asset back with the same identity. Previously provider-retired devices can also be restored. Restoration does not approve a pending device or start a disconnected provider. Changes require live mode.