Tabs: Several Files at Once
Paid plans (Advanced and Pro) can keep several files open together, each in its own tab. The tab strip sits just under the ribbon and appears when you open a second file; with one file open it stays out of the way. Free accounts, and shared pages, open one file at a time.
Step by Step: Open a Second File Beside the First
- With a file open, click File, Open (or the + at the end of the tab strip once it shows).
- In the Open window, tick Open in new tab.
- Pick a model from your saved models, or from your computer.
- The file opens in a new tab and the tab strip appears. Your first file waits in its own tab.
- Click a tab to switch. Everything in the other tab is just as you left it.
Step by Step: Start a New Part in a New Tab
- With a part open, click File, New, Part (Pro).
- A new tab opens and the Top, Front and Right planes are offered, as they are when nothing is open. Pick one and sketch.
- Your first part stays in its own tab, untouched. The viewer does not ask about unsaved changes, because nothing in that tab changes. Use this to build an assembly from several parts.
- The new tab is named New tab until its first feature makes the part, then it is named New part.step. Save it from its own tab.
If nothing is open yet, File, New, Part starts the part in the tab you are in. If the viewer cannot open another tab (new tabs are not available on this page, or the device is short of memory), it says so and starts the part in this tab instead, asking first if you have unsaved changes. New Part in Assembly is a different command and works as before.
Opening a File in a Tab
- Open (File menu, or the start screen) is the one command for opening a file. The Open window has an Open in new tab box, unchecked until you check it. Checked, the file you pick lands in a new tab. Unchecked, it replaces the file in the tab you are looking at, and if that file has unsaved changes the viewer asks first. The viewer remembers your choice on your account.
- The + button at the end of the tab strip brings up the Open window for a new tab.
- In a models list on the same page, hold Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) while you click a model, or click it with the middle button, to always open it in a new tab. A plain click follows the Open in new tab box.
Working with Tabs
Each tab keeps its own camera, selection, sketches, measurements, notes and undo history, so switching is instant and nothing is lost on the way back.
- A dot on a tab means that file has unsaved changes.
- Click a tab to switch to it. Drag a tab left or right to reorder. When there are too many to fit, the tabs shrink and then scroll.
- Alt+PageDown goes to the next tab and Alt+PageUp to the previous one.
- Only the tab you are looking at takes keyboard shortcuts and your 3D mouse, and only that tab draws. The others rest until you come back.
On a phone the strip becomes one button showing the current file and the number of tabs. Tap it for the list, where each file has its own close button.
Step by Step: Close a Tab
- Click the X on the tab, or choose File, Close tab.
- If the file has unsaved changes, pick one answer: Save (saves, then closes), Don't save (closes and drops the changes), or Cancel (leaves the tab as it was).
- To save every tab at once instead, choose File, Save all. It saves each tab that has unsaved changes, one after another.
How Many Tabs
How many tabs fit depends on your computer. The viewer checks how much memory your device has and how much the open files are using. When another file might not fit, it tells you that opening it could make your browser unstable and asks what you want to do: Open anyway, or Close a tab first.
Some browsers do not report memory. There, the viewer asks after 6 tabs on a computer and 2 on a phone.
Tips and Common Problems
- There is no Open in new tab box. Tabs are for paid plans. On Free, Open replaces the file in view.
- Shortcuts did nothing. Only the tab you are looking at takes them. Click into the 3D view first.
- The browser feels slow. Close tabs you are not using. Each open file uses memory.
- A shared link does not make tabs. Shared pages open one file at a time.