RFC: A modern editor shell — rail, layers panel & import flow

[matthewhardern]

Overview

I've been exploring what a visual refresh of the editor could look like, bringing it closer to the polish of tools like Shapr3D while keeping our code-first workflow completely intact. This is a concept/prototype to react to, not a finished spec or a proposal to add canvas-based editing. The netlist, parts, and routing all still come from your .tsx, the UI just renders and inspects what the code declares.

I'd love feedback on the directions below. Pick them apart individually, none of this is locked.

What's changed

Left tool rail — replaces the cramped horizontal toolbar with a vertical icon rail. Pruned down to the things you actually do on the canvas: Select, Move, Rotate, Ratsnest, Measure, DRC.

Real Layers panel — instead of a dropdown, a proper panel with grouped layers (Copper / Technical / Mechanical), per-layer visibility + lock toggles, color swatches, and object counts.

Context-aware panels, the rail and the left sidebar adapt to whichever view you're focused on:

PCB → Layers
Schematic → Nets
3D → Display (toggle components, silkscreen, soldermask…)

Modernized canvas, kept the traditional EDA color language (red = top copper, blue = bottom copper, yellow silkscreen, copper annular rings, crosshatched pours) but rendered it as soft semi-transparent soldermask over a neutral dark grid instead of the harsh flat green. Infinite edge-to-edge grid. Light/dark chrome toggle.

Redesigned Import modal, themed source tabs (tscircuit.com / JLCPCB / KiCad), live search, footprint thumbnails, and source-appropriate metadata (installs, price/stock, pad counts).

Layout options, I prototyped a few shells so we can decide how much UI is the right amount:

• Multi-pane splits (JSFiddle-style: PCB / Schematic / 3D / bottom layer side-by-side)
• A streamlined single-view version
• A minimal blank-canvas version

Open questions

How much chrome? Full multi-pane workspace, or a lean single-view default with splits as opt-in?
Board rendering — does the "traditional but softened" palette feel right, or do you want it closer to classic KiCad colors?
Layers panel — what controls matter most for a code-first board? (visibility/lock are in; opacity is debatable.)

Notes

Purely a visual concept — no real renderer wired in; the board shown is an illustrative example. I am of course happy to inplement the changes required, I not requesting anything other than some input. I am also not demanding a change just suggestions. I also understand that the teams priorities are else where atm with bug fixing and improvements.
Apologies for poor pcb images AI designed, not my thing as can't do that kind of thing
Code-first workflow is unchanged; nothing here implies drawing traces/parts by hand.
Screenshots below 👇

[rushabhcodes]

This is incredible work, the thoughtfulness here is really clear.

Multi-view is a great idea, especially for tscircuit. Being able to see code, PCB, schematic, and 3D together is one of the most important parts of the workflow.

One question: where would the code section live in these snapshots? Since tscircuit is code-first, the editor needs the code pane to remain a first-class part of the layout, not something implied off-
screen.

Also worth noting that we already have a lot of this implemented. And we intentionally avoid a dark theme for the main editor experience, so I would probably steer the visual direction closer to our existing light UI rather than Shapr3D-style dark chrome.

Still, this is a really strong concept and super useful for thinking through the UI direction.

[anil08607]

That is a really great idea.

[anil08607]

Can you share any reference of already working on this?

[matthewhardern]

I have started working on it across multiple forks, So far only working outer shell, the designs were done on claude design spent some time spec-ing things out, another discussions comment about JS fiddle got me thinking about quad view. Happy to share all files if people want

[matthewhardern]

nothing concrete though i just was enjoying having a play tbh

[matthewhardern]

Sorry forgot to upload the code editor view apologies, also it has light mode or dark mode, letting users have a choice. Again not requirement, just common these days.

[rushabhcodes]

you can join our discord to share your idea

[seveibar]

wow this is cool