Your Machinations Workspace is where you’ll craft game systems, set parameters, play simulations, and plot results.

Header Bar

From the header, you can easily access:

Main Menu: Manage your diagrams by creating new ones, opening files, and accessing settings
File Management: Set the diagram name and add an informative description;
Tags: Add tags to group and identify types of diagrams across your team and our extensive community;
Set Sharing Options for Diagrams and generate the API token (for game engine integration)
Global Settings: Set your preferred characteristics for the Machinations workspace;
Notifications: View information about your diagram functionalities and updates on your public diagrams;
User Profile: Change account settings, manage team members, and set preferences;

Clicking on the diagram’s Name reveals the file management setting. Here you can set and update the title and the description of your diagram. Adding a detailed description helps visiting users understand the core functionalities of your model from the get-go.

Global Settings

The Global Settings panel allows you to adjust the settings for your diagrams, such as Background color, Grid color, Guides, your favorite connection style, toolbar position, and Results Decimals.

From this dropdown, you can:

Set a background color for your diagram
Show/Hide Tooltips, Grid, Guides and Zoom Controls
Set your preferred connection style
Choose the position of your components bar or hide it
Show Labels / Show Formula on Registers
Choose how many decimals are shown on the diagram

Notifications

This area will provide important information about your diagrams, such as potential errors or issues. In the same panel, you will see community updates.

In the Main Menu, you will find everything you could expect from a Docs suite.

Diagrams – all your diagrams split by:
1. My Diagrams – all diagrams created by you
2. Shared with me – all diagrams that were shared with you
3. Team Folder – your team’s diagrams
4. Google Drive – previously exported diagrams
Community – discover diagrams publicly shared in the community
1. Activity Feed – latest updates and trends
2. Diagrams – browse diagrams published on the community
3. Designers – browse all designers’ public profiles
Templates – a repository of ready-made deconstructions of games and game mechanics
Tutorials

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Templates should be interesting for both beginner and advanced users. Quickly access a ready-built diagram and investigate how it works.

🧙 It’s a nice way of getting over the empty canvas block every one of us may experience.

💡 Templates can also be accessed from Menu > Open a Template

Every diagram will consist of several nodes and connections. The Components Panel is where you can find them.

Select the Node or connections you wish to add with your mouse, then click on the canvas to place it where you want. No worries, you can always move them once added.

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🦸 Pro-tip: Double click Nodes to automatically place & connect them.

Libraries

Public

Access a searchable repository of ready-made subsystems. Drag and drop them onto the canvas to get you started.

Private

The section in which you’ll find public, ready-made systems to get you started. Just drag and drop them onto the Canvas.

Add systems for easy drag-and-drop access:

Select the Nodes and Connections you’d like added right-click and select Add to private library OR
Select the Nodes and Connections you’d like added and use the Add to private library button that appears in the Properties Panel upon selection

Team

This is a PRO feature, available with paid plans. For anyone working in teams, you can save library items and easily make them available to all team members.

Properties Panel

When a diagram component is selected, this panel displays the properties for the selected component(s) and allows you to adjust their Functions & Style set-up. You can select multiple components on the canvas and edit the properties they have in common (e.g. color, text, position).

The Properties Panel can also be collapsed using the arrows in the top left corner of the panel.

Check out the documentation for each Node/Connection to learn about each available setting.

If no components are selected in the diagram, the proprieties panel will display the following general details of the diagram: Title, Description, Thumbnail, applied diagram tags, the owner’s name, number of components, and the creation and last edit dates. On this panel, you can directly modify the diagram name, description, and tags.

info

You can minimize the proprieties panel at any time by pressing the arrow toggle found next to the view controls.

Play Bar and Chart

Play Modes (simulations)

Once you have modeled a system, at the bottom of the canvas, you can find the diagram’s Play Modes. Read all about it here:

Play Modes

Execution Chart

The Execution Chart makes it possible to plot multiple variables while running your diagrams, visualize possible outcomes, and help you monitor certain parameters either standalone or in relationship to others.

To unfold the Chart area, click the Open Chart button in the Run Bar. Learn all about Charts at the link below.

Charts

View Controller

You can use the + and – icons to zoom in and out. When hovering over the View Controller, you will also be able to adjust your diagram layers, display the Outliner (kind of a mini-map), as well as fitting all selected components to the center of your screen.

Hover over the View Controller to reveal all options:

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