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Open the Modeling and Nodes windows as separate windows that stay in sync.
By default the Modeling and Nodes panes share one window, split by a divider. You can also open them as two separate windows - useful on a small screen (a large model window plus a small node window for tweaking sliders) or across two monitors.
From the Nodes menu, choose Separate Window. The node editor opens in its own window and the main window switches to showing just the model - both kept in sync.
The classic single-window layout is unchanged; it is the Docked item in the same menu, and two-window mode is purely additive.
When you're done, choose Docked from the Nodes menu to bring the node editor back into the main window and return to the single split-pane layout. The two views merge back into one window with the divider between them, right where you left off - nothing in the graph or the construction is lost in the round trip. The separate window's own close button does the same thing, so closing it by hand docks it rather than shutting the graph down.
The third placement is Closed: the model window on its own, no node pane and no node window. The graph does not stop. It is still evaluated by this window's engine, so anything it realizes stays on the canvas and keeps updating as you draw; you simply cannot see or edit the graph until you choose Docked or Separate Window again.
Whichever of the three you leave it on is remembered, so Locus opens that way next time.
Each window runs the full app and computes its own geometry; only the compact inputs travel between them - the node graph and the hand-drawn construction. The generated geometry (like a halftone field) is regenerated locally in each window, not sent over the wire.
Ownership is split so edits never clobber each other: the node window owns the node graph, the model window owns the construction, and each only broadcasts its own side. Add a slider in the node window and watch the model react; draw a point in the model window and the node graph sees it.
- The File menu lives only on the model window: it owns the document, so there's one save owner.
- ⌘S still works from the node window. Even though only the model window carries the File menu, pressing Save in the node window routes through to that one save owner and writes the document - you don't have to click back to the model window first.
- The native menu bar follows whichever window is focused.
Caution
Desktop feature, still maturing Two-window mode is a desktop-app feature (a second browser tab is the dev-mode equivalent). A few refinements - undo across windows, cross-window drag-and-drop - are still in progress. Confirm current behavior against the build.
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