Basics

Layout

Loading a Project

• Under Project on the right panel, click Open and select a folder with PLA files in it (or a new folder)
• A list of namespaces will be loaded along with the default namespace _misc

Namespace Creation

• Under Project on the right panel, input the namespace's name and click +
• Remember to do this before adding anything to the namespace, in case you forget (it does not have a way to mass-move components between namespaces yet)

Component Creation

Points

• Click Point on the toolbar or press 4 on the keyboard
• Left-click on the map where you want your point to be

Lines and Areas

• Click Line on the toolbar or press 5 on the keyboard for lines; or
• Click Area on the toolbar or press 6 on the keyboard for areas
• Left-click on the map where you want the line/area to start. This is your first node
• Continue left-clicking to place more nodes and continue the line/area
  • Hold down the left alt key for angle-snapping
• If you had made a mistake with the previous node, left-click on the previous node to remove it
• Right-click to complete the line/area at the last node placed
  • For areas, left-clicking on the first node completes it too

Component Editing

• Click Select on the toolbar or 1 on the keyboard, then left-click the component you want to edit

Editing Component Information

• A panel of text boxes and sliders should appear on the left of the screen
  • ns. is the namespace that the component belongs to. It should be a three-letter code that your project organisers have assigned, or that you have registered
    • If you have just created a namespace, remember to set it (before)
    • This field should be automatically prefilled the next time you edit a component's information
  • id should be prefilled automatically with a randomly-generated ID
  • Displayed as is the text that would appear on the final map
  • Description is a brief description of the component
  • Component type is what the component would show up as on the final map
  • Tags is a comma-separated list of tags on the component
    • e.g. oneWay makes a line one-directional
  • Layer controls whether the component appears below or above other components
  • In lines, Reverse direction reverses the order of the nodes. This is useful for one-directional components
  • A list of coordinates is shown as well below the information fields
    • In lines, the green coordinate points to the start of the line and the red coordinate points to the end of the line. Both these coloured coordinates point to coloured handles on the component on the tilemap

Moving Components

• Right-click and drag the component to move it

Editing Individual Nodes

• Click Edit Nodes on the toolbar or 2 on the keyboard
• For the large circles:
  • right-click and drag to move the node
  • right-click without dragging to delete the node
• For the small circles:
  • right-click to create a node

Deleting Components

• Click Delete on the toolbar or 3 on the keyboard
• Left-click a component to delete it

Undo & Redo

• Click Edit > Undo on the menu, u on the keyboard, or Undo under History on the right panel to undo
• Click Edit > Redo on the menu, y on the keyboard, or Redo under History on the right panel to undo

View All Components

• You can do this under Component List on the right panel
• Click Move to next to a component in the list to shift the viewport to the first node of the component

Saving the project

• Under Project on the right panel, Click Save
• There is also an autosave every 1 minute

Deleting a namespace

• Under Project on the right panel, hide the namespace and then click X
  • Namespaces can only be removed when it has no components

Quitting

• Click Stencil v(version) > Quit on the menu or esc on the keyboard to quit