User Interface Guide

360 Hextile is a desktop app (Tauri + local CUDA backend). This page describes the live shell as shipped — not a fixed multi-tab encyclopedia from early builds.

Where things live

There is no separate “Dashboard of twelve locked tabs.” Config modules appear when relevant to the active pipeline; use Add Module to surface optional modules that are not on by default.

Journey 1 — Create

1. Click Create.
2. Choose a source: Import Image, 360 LoRA, Patterns, Fractals, Solid Color, or Sequence (Pro).
3. Configure and start — the result opens on Renders with a derivation graph node.

Detail: Creating Renders · Input Sources.

Journey 2 — Modules (not a fixed 12-tab strip)

Modules (Input, Hextile, Diffusion, Prompt, ControlNet, IP-Adapter, LoRA, Sequence, Post Process, Upscale, Output, Coverage, …) are schema- and pipeline-aware. What you see depends on the selected pipeline and what you add.

• Add Module (header) enables modules that are valid for the current pipeline but not currently visible.
• Unavailable modules for a pipeline stay out of the way — they are not a wall of lock icons on every screen.
• Compatibility matrix: Modules.

Actionable next step: open Add Module once on Create/config and note which optional modules your pipeline exposes.

Journey 3 — Projects & library

• Projects isolate libraries on disk — switch projects from the header project control.
• On Renders, use lifecycle buckets (Active / Archived / Trashed) — Library Lifecycle.
• Empty Trash permanently deletes trashed items (including 360-LoRA pool items when they share trash).

Journey 4 — Open a render & viewer tools

Open any render from the library. The 360 viewer is the workspace for transform and edit tools under viewer/tools:

The far-left Resize control is one popover with two jobs. Size chooses an absolute destination such as 4K, 8K, or a custom width. Upscale applies a native-relative 2×, 4×, 8×, or 16× Real-ESRGAN Alpha step, subject to the 16K edge cap. Projection-Aware Upscale is available for 2:1 equirectangular images. Resize and Upscale remain separate graph operations even though they share one toolbar control; there is no separate Upscale toolbar button.

Tools are not a separate product “tool palette home.” They live on the open render.

Generation passes are not a viewer toolbar tool. Configure the stack with Multi-Pass and the left-side Pass panel, then use the header RENDER menu: Current pass appends the selected configuration and All passes appends the enabled stack. Select the resulting graph nodes to inspect their images, tiles, recipes, and stored parameters. See Multi-Pass Rendering.

Actionable next step: open a finished render → Spot Edit → place and select one spot. Use Cutout if you want the subject itself to define the inpaint mask, then Preview → confirm a draft on the Graph tab → Commit to promote (or Discard to kill). For multi-roll: Lock position → Preview twice → filmstrip Variations → Commit the active frame.

Render in progress panel

While the open render is actively painting tiles, the 360 viewer shows Render in progress. Lock on current rendering image is on by default and turns the camera toward each completed tile after a 1500 ms delay. Set the delay from 0 to 5000 ms, or turn the lock off.

Your own camera input wins. Follow pauses while you drag or steer the camera, use another viewer tool, track a Reframe target, or enable auto-rotate. The panel leaves when the render is no longer live.

Journey 5 — Derivation graph: head vs active

On the render detail Graph tab:

• Head — the current tip of the derivation chain (what “current result” means for many follow-on ops).
• Active — the node you have selected for inspection or as the parent of a new edit.

Edits (Spot, De-Pinch, and the Resize popover's Size or Upscale actions, etc.) create nodes; they do not silently overwrite history. See Derivation Graph.

Actionable next step: after a Spot commit, select the parent node vs the new spot node and confirm which is active vs head before the next edit.

Prompt & directional tools

Directional prompt interpolation (product language: Directional, Alpha) lives under Prompt / Worlds. Double-click a posed row in the Prompt Tiles list or the Spot companion list to glide the 360 viewer to that direction (Camera smoothing; FOV unchanged). See Directional Tiles and Prompt System.

GPU & updates

• VRAM pressure, unload, quant: GPU Management.
• Desktop updates: Settings / update channel — Updates. Public notes: release notes.

License (UI implications)

Any valid license: full resolution, Real-ESRGAN Alpha, post-process. Pro unlocks sequences and 4 machine activations (Standard: 2). No STD-8K / PRO-16K license gate — License Activation.

Keyboard & help

• Keyboard Shortcuts
• In-app: menu → Documentation (contextual when wired) · Learning Mode toggle · Copilot

See also: Getting Started · Creating Renders · Spot Editing · GPU Management