Dock layout
A tab that saves the current arrangement of tool tabs under a name so you can re-apply it later. Saved layouts are stored per user, not per scene, so a layout you save while editing one scene can be applied to any other scene in any project.
Tab characteristics
- Open by default: No
- Allow multiple instances: No
How to open
Open it from the menu bar via View → Manage dock layouts, or via View → Tools → Dock layout.
Layout
- Save the current layout (
+button, top): Opens a name field prefilled with a suggested name and saves the current arrangement under it. Saving with the name of an existing layout overwrites it. - Reset dock layout (top): Restores the tab arrangement of the current scene to its initial state, the same as View → Reset dock layout.
- Layout list: One row per saved layout. Hover a row (or select it) to reveal the Apply, Rename, and Remove buttons.
Apply a layout
Click the row's Apply dock layout button, or double-click the row. Saved layouts also appear under View → Apply dock layout, so you can switch without opening this tab; that menu entry is hidden while no layouts have been saved.
Applying a layout replaces the tabs of the current editor: the tabs that were open are closed and the ones the layout names are opened fresh.
Only the arrangement is stored — which tabs are open, where they are docked, and how the panes are split. Per-tab state such as the selected element or a search box's contents belongs to the scene it was captured from and is not saved with the layout.
Storage
Saved layouts are written to dock-layout-presets.json in the Beutl home directory (~/.beutl by default), so they are shared by every project on the machine.
Default layout
A new scene starts from one of two default arrangements, chosen from the scene's frame size: a landscape layout, or a portrait-specific one when the frame is taller than it is wide.