Menus
The complete menu bar — File, Edit, Layer, Animation, View, Window and Help — and where the in-app menu button differs from it.
Reference
- Menu
- Alekhya ▸ File ▸ Edit ▸ Layer ▸ Animation ▸ View ▸ Window ▸ Help
Alekhya's menus are the system menu bar. On macOS, and on iPadOS when the app runs in a window, the operating system draws the bar and Alekhya inserts its menus into it.
A full-screen iPad draws no system bar. There, the same menus are reached from the ☰ button at the head of the command bar, above the canvas. The two are built from the same items and behave the same way, with the handful of documented exceptions at the end of this page.
Alekhya | File | Edit | Layer | Animation | View | Window | Help
The canvas menus exist only while a shot is open. On the Home screen and the project list, File, Edit, Layer, Animation, View and Window carry nothing of Alekhya's, rather than offering items that would act on nothing.
Alekhya also removes three of the system's stock menus, which assume a document-based app: New Scene, Open Recent, and the system's own Undo/Redo pair. The canvas has its own undo — the stroke stack — and a second Undo sitting above it doing something subtly different would be worse than none.
File
Reference
- Menu
- File
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Import ▸ | The four import destinations, below. |
| Export ▸ | The three export formats, below. |
| Save Shot | Writes the open shot to disk immediately. Appears only while a shot is open. Work is autosaved anyway, so this is a way to be certain rather than a requirement. |
| Close Shot | Closes the open shot. Anything unwritten is flushed first, so there is no prompt. Appears only while a shot is open. |
| Settings… | Opens the Settings sheet, which has two pages: Theme and Pencil. |
| Close | The system's own window item. Alekhya neither adds nor removes it. |
File ▸ Import
Each item chooses the kind of layer the imported media lands on. See Layer types for the difference.
| Item | Lands on |
|---|---|
| Picture (2D)… | A 2D camera layer. |
| Picture in 3D… | A 3D plane layer. |
| Video (2D)… | A 2D camera layer. |
| Video in 3D… | A 3D plane layer. |
Pictures are chosen from the photo library. Videos are chosen from Files, and are copied into the project — the audio track comes along.
In a 2D shot there is only one kind of layer to land on, so the menu is not asked to choose: it reads Picture… and Video….
File ▸ Export
| Item | Opens the export panel at |
|---|---|
| Image (PNG/JPEG)… | A single still. |
| Video (MP4/MOV)… | A movie. |
| Image Sequence… | A folder of PNG frames. |
These three seed the export panel's Format picker; the panel itself offers all five formats. See Rendering and File formats.
Edit
Reference
- Menu
- Edit
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Undo | Steps the canvas's undo stack back one. |
| Redo | Steps it forward one. |
| Clear Layer | Empties the active layer. Destructive. |
| Cut · Copy · Paste · Paste and Match Style · Delete · Select All | The system's standard editing items. |
Undo and Redo are also the two- and three-finger taps, and the two arrows on the command bar.
Layer
Reference
- Menu
- Layer
The menu has four groups, separated by rules: new layers, combining and deforming, conversions, and revealing panels.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| New Plane Layer (3D) | Adds a plane layer — a drawing surface placed in the scene. |
| New Camera Layer (2D) | Adds a camera layer — a flat layer locked to the frame. |
| New Vector Layer | Adds a vector layer on a plane. |
| Merge Layer Down | Merges the active layer into the one below it. |
| Add Warp Lattice | Adds a warp lattice to the active layer, fitted to its content. |
| Flatten Vectors to Raster | Converts the layer's vector paths into painted strokes. |
| Trace Raster to Vectors | Traces the layer's painted artwork into editable vector paths, added alongside it. |
| Trace Raster to Vectors (Replace) | The same, but removes the raster artwork afterwards. Destructive. |
| Show Layers | Reveals the Layers panel, opening it if it is closed. |
| Show Effect Controls | Reveals the Effect Controls panel. |
In a 2D shot, the plane/camera distinction is a choice about depth that the shot does not have, so the first two items become a single New Layer.
Merging and tracing are not undoable as layer operations
The canvas undo stack records what happens inside a layer. Removing a layer — which is what Merge Layer Down does to the merged layer — is not on it, so undo will not bring the layer back. Merge deliberately refuses rather than losing work when the layer carries a blend mode, an effect stack or a mask, and states the reason.
About the two conversions
Flatten Vectors to Raster reproduces each path's widths exactly: the pressure curve is inverted on the way out, so the painted stroke comes out the width the vector was drawn at.
Trace Raster to Vectors is lossy, and is non-destructive by default for that reason. A traced outline is a skeleton simplified from pixels; it is not the drawing you made, and it is usually less editable than the raster it came from. Use the plain item first and compare before reaching for (Replace).
Animation
Reference
- Menu
- Animation
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Timeline / Hide Timeline | Toggles the Timeline dock. The item's own title flips: it reads Hide Timeline while the timeline is open. |
| Animate Workspace | Applies the Animate workspace. |
View
Reference
- Menu
- View
View ▸ Camera
Six fixed viewpoints and a reset. The axis each one looks down is named in the item.
| Item |
|---|
| Front (Z) |
| Back |
| Right (X) |
| Left |
| Top (Y) |
| Bottom |
| Reset View |
The same six axes and Reset View are on the command bar's cube button.
A 2D shot has one view, so the whole group collapses to a single Reset Zoom & Rotation — and the Grid and Shot Camera toggles below are absent, since it has neither.
View toggles
Each carries a checkmark reflecting its current state.
Shows or hides the active layer's drawing grid. Also a button on the command bar.
Views the scene through the shot camera rather than the free viewport. While it is on, finger gestures reposition the frame rather than the camera, and the Camera panel becomes available.
Clears every dock column, the tool palette and the QuickStrip, leaving the canvas full-bleed. The toolbar stays visible until your first mark, then collapses to a single button; a rail of the current tool's sliders sits at the left edge.
Window
Reference
- Menu
- Window
| Submenu | Contents |
|---|---|
| Workspace ▸ | One item per workspace, checkmarked when active, then Reset This Workspace. See Workspaces. |
| Panels ▸ | One item per panel, checkmarked when open. Tapping toggles it. See Panels. |
| Tool Strip ▸ | Left · Right · Hidden — where the tool palette is pinned. |
Help
Help exists only in the ☰ menu, not in the system menu bar.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Settings… | Opens the Settings sheet — Theme and Pencil. |
| Alekhya Help | Disabled. |
Where the ☰ menu differs
The ☰ button carries the same seven menus in the same order, and the File menu behind it is literally the same view. Four differences are worth knowing.
| Menu | Difference |
|---|---|
| File | No Settings… — in the ☰ menu that lives under Help instead. Adds Send Feedback… at the bottom. |
| Layer | Carries only the three New … items plus Show Layers Panel and Show Effect Controls. Merge Layer Down, Add Warp Lattice and the two conversions are on the system menu bar only. |
| Window | Adds Save Workspace… and Delete “<name>”. Neither is in the system Window menu. |
| Help | Exists only here. |
The ⋯ button
Left of the undo arrows on the command bar sits a separate ⋯ button. It predates the menu bar and overlaps with it, but two things are reachable only from here.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Import ▸ | The same four destinations as File ▸ Import, plus Audio… and Alekhya File…, both disabled. |
| Export ▸ | The same three formats as File ▸ Export, plus Alekhya File…, disabled. |
| Composition Settings… · Playback & Timeline… · Settings… | Placeholders. They do nothing yet. |
| Help ▸ Send Feedback… | Opens the feedback sheet. Reporting from inside the app rather than from the website is what attaches the build number, the iPad, and a snapshot of the canvas you were looking at, without your having to type any of them. |
| Help ▸ Manual | Opens this manual at alekhya.net/docs in the browser. |
| Help ▸ About the Beta | Opens alekhya.net/beta in the browser. |
Send Feedback… is also at the bottom of the ☰ ▸ File menu.