Boxshot User Interface Layout

When you start Boxshot the first time you will see the default main window (you may also see the demo–version notification, but this tutorial is not about the demo). You will probably see something like this:

Boxshot 5 window on startup

Boxshot looks and works absolutely the same way on Windows and Mac, so all the information you get here works for both platforms.

Boxshot Toolbar

The toolbar is at the top of the window and has three parts. The left part controls panels on the left, the right part controls panels on the right and the middle part controls the mouse cursor mode and provides some shortcuts.

Boxshot 5 toolbar and panels layout

By clicking the left and right icons you switch the panels on the left and right sides of the window. If you click the active icon, you toggle the panel on or off. The right panel may hide automatically when nothing is selected. It will appear again when you select something. However, if you hide the panel first, it will not reappear automatically.

The left set of icons is permanent. You may see fewer icons depending on your Boxshot edition, but they never change while you work in Boxshot. The right icons depend on the current selection and may change if you select, for instance, a light object instead of a shape.

Panels on the Left

From left to right, the icons at the left part of the toolbar give you access to these panels:

Panels on the Right

Buttons in the right part of the toolbar are visible only when something is selected. The number of buttons depends on the type of the selected object. For shapes you will see up to four buttons; for objects like lights or groups you will see fewer buttons, as not all the properties are relevant to them.

From left to right, the icons at the right part of the toolbar on the screenshot give you access to these panels:

Buttons in the Middle

The middle part of the toolbar has three parts. The left part controls the mouse cursor mode, the middle part has some shortcuts to most used functions, and the right part has rendering buttons. Here is what the buttons do:

The middle buttons of Boxshot 5 toolbar

Note that there is no book in the scene anymore, nothing is selected and the right part of the toolbar is empty. You see buttons on the right side only when something is selected in the scene.

The labels of the buttons describe their functions. Read more about these functions in these tutorials:

Conclusion

You have learned about the Boxshot toolbar, its left and right panels and what is available there. You also learned what the middle buttons mean in the toolbar and where to look for more details about them. Now please continue to the following topics: