Projects

360 Hextile uses a project-based workflow to keep your work organised. Each project is a folder on disk that contains its own renders, sequences, 360 LoRA outputs, and settings — completely separate from every other project.

Think of projects like folders in VS Code: you open one at a time, and everything you create lives inside it. This keeps related work together and makes it easy to switch between different workflows without mixing outputs.

What are Projects?

A project is a folder on your computer that 360 Hextile treats as a self-contained workspace. Every project shares the same output root directory structure — but the contents are unique to that project:

• Renders generated within a project stay in that project's output tree
• Sequences and animations are scoped to the project they were created in
• 360 LoRA outputs (panorama generation history) live inside the project folder
• Configs are stored at <project>/configs/ and are not shared between projects

Switching projects does not re-download AI models or LoRA weights — those are shared globally. Only the output tree changes.

Creating a Project

Create a project from the Dashboard:

1. Click New Project and choose a folder location on your computer
2. Give the project a name (defaults to the folder name)
3. 360 Hextile creates a 360-project.index.json file at the folder root to track its contents
4. The project opens immediately and becomes your active workspace

You can create as many projects as you like. Each is completely independent — renders in one project are never mixed with renders in another.

The create action is idempotent: if you point it at a folder that already has a project index, it recognises the existing project rather than overwriting it.

Opening and Switching Projects

Open a different project from the Dashboard recents list or the File menu:

• The recents list (up to 12 projects) appears on the Dashboard for quick access
• Switching projects re-roots the app's output tree to the new project's folder
• The render list, 360 LoRA history, and any open viewer surfaces refresh to reflect the new project

You cannot switch projects while a render, sequence, or 360 LoRA generation is actively running. A 409 guard blocks the switch and shows a toast: finish or cancel the active job first. The canSwitch check prevents this proactively, so you will rarely see the 409 in practice.

The last active project reopens automatically when you launch the app. If the project folder has moved or is missing, 360 Hextile starts in global mode and shows a warning.

What's Global vs Per-Project

Some things are shared across all projects, some are unique to each one:

Global (shared across all projects): - AI models and pipeline installations - LoRA model weights - GPU cache and VRAM state - Application preferences and settings - HuggingFace authentication token

Per-Project (unique to each project): - Renders and render history - Sequences and animation outputs - 360 LoRA generation history - Project configs (<project>/configs/) - Project cover image - Tags (each project maintains its own tag list)

This separation means you can switch between a landscape photography project and an interior design project without re-downloading models or re-configuring the app. Only the output context changes.

Project Index

Every project folder contains a 360-project.index.json file at its root. This file tracks:

• The project name and unique ID
• The output subfolder configuration
• Cover image reference
• Tags (each project has its own tag list, starting with the built-in "Favorite" tag)

The index is automatically maintained by 360 Hextile. You never need to edit it by hand. It uses atomic writes (temp file + rename) to prevent corruption.

If the index file becomes corrupt, 360 Hextile self-heals on next open — backing up the corrupt file to <project>/.360hextile/backups/ and creating a fresh index. A warning toast lets you know this happened.

Output Subfolder

Each project can route its output into a subfolder within the project root. This lets you keep the project folder clean or separate output by purpose:

• Default: output goes directly into the project root
• Custom: set an output subfolder name (e.g., "output" or "renders-v2") from the project settings

The output subfolder is validated to prevent unsafe paths — no absolute paths, no path traversal (..), no reserved names.

Migrating Renders

Move renders between projects using the migration tool:

• Select one or more renders in any project and choose Migrate
• Pick a target project from the list
• Migration moves the render files on disk (not copies) — they relocate to the new project's output tree
• Renders keep their graph history, metadata, and tags through the move
• Sequences migrate after their frame renders to maintain consistency

Migration is an atomic transaction per item: if a problem occurs mid-migration, the destination stays consistent and the source render remains where it is.

Deleting a Project

When you delete a project from the recents list:

• The project's Hextile output tree is removed
• The project folder itself is not deleted — cover images, backups, and the index file are preserved
• The project is removed from the recents list
• If the deleted project was the active one, the app returns to global mode

This means you can safely delete a project's output data while keeping the folder structure and cover image intact for later reference or re-use.

If the project is still active when you delete it, the close-and-delete is handled atomically — the active project clears to null and all views refresh.

Next: Learn about creating renders or explore the interface overview.