Quick start

Your first 3D design in ten minutes. No sign-in needed. Designs save automatically in this computer's browser.

1. Create a design Click "Create" at the top left of the home page. Pick "3D modeling". Enter a name, choose a unit (metres, centimetres, millimetres, feet, inches) and optionally a project. Click "Create and open".

   For a 2D drawing pick "2D drafting". The template dropdown offers AutoCAD templates or "Vector design: A4 artboard (Illustrator)".

2. Pick an input style The first time you enter 3D a small card appears at the top right: "Which software do you usually work in?"
   • SketchUp: Ctrl adds to selection, Ctrl copies, single-letter shortcuts (L = line).
   • Rhino: Shift adds, Ctrl removes, Alt copies, type command names.
   • Revit: Ctrl adds, Shift removes, two-letter shortcuts (WA = wall).
   • Custom: pick each modifier and mouse button yourself.
   Closing the card keeps SketchUp. Change it later under Account › Settings on the home page. Floor plans always use Revit controls.
3. Get to know the screen
   • The toolbar is at the top. Below it is the Options Bar (it shows draw shape, height and so on while drawing walls).
   • The middle is four viewports by default: Top, Front, Right, Perspective. The "Viewport layout" dropdown at the right of the toolbar switches to "3D only". Press 4 to return to four views. Double-click a viewport title to maximize it.
   • The left column holds the outliner and properties. Select an object to edit its parameters here.
   • The status bar at the bottom shows the hint for the current tool, for example "Rectangle created · press P to push/pull".
   • The node graph panel at the bottom toggles with Ctrl+`. You can keep it collapsed at first.
4. Draw a rectangle Press R. Click the first corner in the Top or 3D pane, then the second. Or click the first corner and type 10,8 then Enter for a 10 × 8 rectangle. Numbers use the design unit. You can add a suffix such as 4m, 500mm or 10'. After finishing, type length,width again to correct it.
5. Push it up Press P. Click the rectangle's face, move up, click again. Or click the face and type 12 then Enter. After finishing, type a number again to correct the height. Double-click another face to repeat the last distance.
6. Orbit, zoom, pan The wheel zooms at the cursor. Which mouse button orbits or pans depends on your input style; see 3D modeling › Mouse and views. Press Shift+Z any time to fit the whole model. The toolbar also has Orbit O and Pan H.
7. Edit Press V to return to Select. Click to select, drag a box to select several. M move, Q rotate, S scale, F offset, E eraser. With a selection, Delete deletes it. Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo.
8. Paint Press B to pick up the paint bucket. The materials tray opens on the right. Pick a material and click an object to paint the whole object. Hold Shift to replace that material everywhere in the model. Hold Alt to sample. Double-click an object to enter it and paint face by face. Details in Paint bucket.
9. Save There is no save button. Every change is stored in this computer's browser. The design appears as a card on the home page.
   • To take the file with you: toolbar "File ▾ › Download graph JSON". Open it later with "Load graph JSON…".
   • For other software: "File ▾" exports OBJ, DXF, glTF, STL and a PNG image. It can also export IFC, or make 2D line drawings with Make2D (SVG, DXF, PDF).
   • If you see a "browser storage is full" warning, download the graph JSON first. See the FAQ.
10. Share Back on the home page, click "Share" on the design card. Choose "Shared (anyone with the link)", then a permission: view only, can comment, can edit. Copy the link for classmates or teachers. Every save updates the linked version automatically.

    Without signing in, share links are limited to 256 KB and expire after 7 days. Links created while signed in do not expire. Details in Sharing and player.

Getting started: templates, tours and the Help menu

• Which software are you coming from? The first time you open the home page with no designs yet, Synhedra asks whether you come from SketchUp, Rhino, Revit, AutoCAD or Illustrator. SketchUp, Rhino or Revit also sets your 3D input style; AutoCAD or Illustrator is only remembered, and the tours add a short comparison. Your pick opens a matching template. Skip opens nothing. You can change the input style later under Account › Settings on the home page.
• Template gallery: "Start from a template…" at the bottom left of the Create design dialog, or the button of the same name on an empty home page. Click a card to create a new design from it and open it; the template itself never changes. 3D: Taiwanese townhouse massing (SketchUp), Five-storey RC apartment (Revit), Office floor plate with curtain wall (Revit), Parametric facade fins (Grasshopper, Rhino), Structural grid starter (Revit), Sunlight and shadow study (SketchUp, Rhino). 2D: AutoCAD plan with layers and dimensions, A1 sheet with title block, Illustrator presentation board (A2 landscape). Thumbnails are drawn the first time you open the gallery. The nodes, layers, global parameters, design options and the text of 2D templates are named in the interface language at the time you create the design; existing designs do not change language.
• Tours: the first time you open the 3D modeler, the node graph, 2D drafting, vector design or the mobile viewer, a few coach marks point out the toolbar, command line and panels. In 3D the wording follows your input style, for example "Project Browser & Properties" for Revit users. → and ← go to the next and previous step; Esc closes. After the last step, or if you tick "Don't show this tour again", the tour no longer starts by itself; if you only press Esc, it comes back once the next time you open the browser.
• Help menu ?: the ? button at the top right of a design (also in the mobile viewer). "Tour" restarts the tour for the current workspace; "Help center" opens this site in a new tab. Keyboard: ↓ opens the menu and moves into it, ↑ and ↓ move, Esc closes and returns to the button.

Studio starter templates

Starting points for architecture students and architects: each opens as a design you can review straight away, and the guide checklist gets you to a first presentation board quickly. Open them from Studio templates… on the home page’s “Example, no sign-in” card, or switch to the Studio starter templates tab in the “Start from a template…” dialog.

• Categories: house studio; housing, code and sunlight; school / community centre; office; urban renewal / reconstruction bonus; Japanese house (shadow and sky factor); Singapore GPR massing; interior fit-out plan. Use the category buttons at the top to filter.
• Cards: a thumbnail, a one-line description, the rule pack it uses (Taiwan, Japan, Singapore or Generic), an estimated time and the guide steps.
• What is inside: every template has a site and code inputs (coverage, floor area ratio, height, the legal envelope and checks), masses or walls and rooms, area schemes, the regulation review report’s basic data, project information (latitude and longitude for sunlight) and a presentation board. Names and content follow the interface language at the time you create the design.
• Creating: clicking a card creates a new local design and opens it; the template itself never changes, and you can create the same template as often as you like.
• Guide checklist: the card at the lower left of the modeler, with 3–6 steps; tick each step when done (remembered on this computer). Press × to close it; reopen it with Reopen the studio guide in the Help menu ? at the top right. The house and interior templates are modelled with walls and rooms, so the Code checks node only counts masses; coverage and floor area follow the regulation review report (area schemes).
• Presentation board: opening the design never changes the model; press Create the presentation board on the guide card and the one-click presentation board lays it out (main 3D view, plans, a section, the area table and the code summary), after which the button becomes Open the presentation board. After changing the model, press Update on the board. The sun map is added only after Sun Hours has been computed.
• Code values: the zones and numbers in the templates are teaching examples, not any real site; the reconstruction bonus is an estimate, and the authority’s approval prevails.

Home: folders, drag and drop, moving

The home page organizes designs in folders. A folder can hold other folders, up to 16 levels deep.

• Create: "New folder" in the left list or on a folder page. Type a name and press Enter.
• Drag and drop: drag a design or folder card onto a folder in the left list, or onto another folder card. Hold it over a collapsed folder for a moment and it expands.
• Multi-select: Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) click toggles a card, Shift click selects a range, and the space bar toggles the current card. A "N selected" bar appears on top so you can move the whole batch. Esc clears the selection.
• Move to…: "Move to…" in a card menu, or the "Move to…" button on the selection bar, opens a dialog where you pick the destination. Use it when you do not want to drag, or when you work with the keyboard.
• Undo: after a move a message appears at the bottom. Press "Undo" within 8 seconds, or press Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac). The undo history lives only in the open page and is cleared when you reload.
• Limits: a folder cannot move into itself or one of its subfolders, or past 16 levels. Nothing moves in that case. If a design you move has a component that other designs use, you are asked once first. After the move those designs keep the last snapshot and stop updating.

Keyboard and accessibility

• While a dialog is open, Tab cycles inside it; Esc closes it and focus returns to the button that opened it.
• Folder list on the left of the home page: → expands, ← collapses, F2 renames. In a card's "⋯" menu, ↑, ↓, Home and End move; Tab leaves and closes it.
• Tabs (for example the cloud drive providers) switch with ←, →, Home and End; in the cloud drive file list, ↑ and ↓ select and Enter opens.
• Screen readers announce status such as the number of selected items and sync results. Notices at the bottom of the screen stay while the pointer is over them or focus is inside, so you have time to press Undo.
• The help center reads at 320 px wide without horizontal scrolling.

Next steps

• Draw walls, doors and windows the Revit way: Plan mode.
• See the parameters behind every action and do parametric design: Node graph.
• Construction drawings or floor layouts: 2D drafting.
• Turn a design into a web page with sliders: Player page.