Power tools · The fastest tool on the bench

Command Palette

⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) opens a palette over whatever you're doing. Every page, every create dialog and every library tool sits a few keystrokes away, and you can rebind every chord. The palette below carries the app's real command list; try it.

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↑↓ to navigate ↵ to run

Navigation

Every page, two words away

Ten destinations, each a Go to command: Symbols, Footprints, Components, Boards, Manufacturers, Suppliers, Inventory, Library Import, Tools and Settings. The list narrows as you type and Enter takes you there. After a week you stop reaching for the sidebar.

go to
  • Go to Symbols
  • Go to Footprints
  • Go to Components
  • Go to Boards
  • Go to Manufacturers
  • Go to Suppliers
  • Go to Inventory
  • Go to Library Import
  • Go to Tools
  • Go to Settings

Create

Start a record from anywhere

Notice a missing part while reading a board's BOM? New Component opens the create dialog right where you are, with no detour through the Components page first. Six create commands cover the library, and each one hides itself when you're already on its page, so the palette never offers a slower route to what's in front of you.

  • New Symbol
  • New Footprint
  • New Component
  • New Board
  • New Manufacturer
  • New Supplier

Tools

Library maintenance as typed commands

The batch tools are commands too, filed under a Tool: prefix: Restyle symbols, Regenerate thumbnails, Validate layers, Validate parameters, Extract libraries. A library-wide cleanup starts with four letters from wherever you are.

tool
  • Tool: Restyle symbols
  • Tool: Regenerate thumbnails
  • Tool: Validate layers
  • Tool: Validate parameters
  • Tool: Extract libraries

Context

Commands follow your focus

The palette lists only the commands from surfaces currently on screen. Open a part's detail sheet over the Components list and the sheet's commands outrank the page beneath it; close the sheet and the list takes over again.

You only ever see what can run right now.

Components: list page

live
  • Focus search /
  • Add new item A
  • Print labels for selected P

LM358DR: detail sheet

live
  • Save changes ⌘S
  • Duplicate item ⌘D
  • Switch tab ⌘1–6

Detail sheets

Six tabs, ⌘1 to ⌘6

Inside a detail sheet, ⌘1 through ⌘6 jump straight between its tabs: Footprints, Pin Mapping, MPNs, Parameters, Attachments, Locations. Checking a part's pin mapping and then where it's stocked is two chords from the keyboard.

LM358DR: detail sheet

Footprints ⌘1
Pin Mapping ⌘2
MPNs ⌘3
Parameters ⌘4
Attachments ⌘5
Locations ⌘6

⌘1 to ⌘6 (Ctrl on Windows) while the sheet is open.

Fuzzy search

Say it your way

Commands carry keywords alongside their names, and the palette's fuzzy search reads both. You don't have to remember that Sideband says component where you'd say part; type add part and New Component surfaces anyway.

add part
New Component add · create · part

Neither word is in the command's name. Its keywords carry the match.

Keybindings

Bind every chord to suit you

You can rebind every keybinding. Overrides live in settings and sit over the defaults, so you change only the chords that fight your muscle memory and leave the rest as shipped.

Settings: keyboard

  • Open command palette ⌘K default
  • Save changes ⌘S default
  • Add new item A N override
  • Focus search / default

Overrides live in settings and layer over the defaults; the bindings you never touch stay as shipped.

Explore related features

Symbol Restyler

One look for the whole library

Search

Type it how you think it

Takeout

Your data leaves when you do

Put every part on one data model

Download Sideband for Windows and give your whole team one source of truth. Free 30-day trial — no card required.

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Beta 1.0.0-beta.4 · Windows · free