Quick Start

Quick Start

Five minutes from first launch to first edit. This guide assumes you've already installed Signex.

1. Launch Signex

From the Start menu (Windows), Applications (macOS), or your app launcher (Linux). First launch shows an empty workspace and a small Welcome to Signex card in the bottom-right with the three gestures you need immediately: right-click + drag to pan, scroll to zoom, F1 for keyboard shortcuts. Dismiss it with the ✕ when you're done with it.

2. Get a project open

Signex edits its own native formats — .snxprj (project), .snxsch (schematic), .snxsym (symbol), .snxfpt (footprint), .snxlib (library), .snxpcb (PCB). The design files — .snxsch, .snxpcb, .snxsym, .snxfpt, .snxlib — are TOML with TSV bulk blocks: one file per design, line-diffable in git, and about 5× smaller than the equivalent JSON. The .snxprj project file is a separate, smaller thing: a JSON index of the sheets, PCB, libraries and variants that make up the project.

There is no bundled sample project — nothing ships in the installer for you to open. You have two ways to get started:

Create one — File → New Project. A save dialog opens titled New Signex Project, pre-filled with Untitled.snxprj: you pick the name and location up front, and the project is created there. (The menu row shows Ctrl+N, but that key is only bound in the Classic profile — on the default Altium profile use the menu.)

Migrate a KiCad project — Signex does not open .kicad_sch / .kicad_pcb / .kicad_pro. Convert them once with the separate signex-kicad-import companion tool, then open the resulting .snxprj. The conversion is one-way and leaves your KiCad originals untouched — see KiCad Compatibility.

To open an existing project: File → Open... (Ctrl+O), which accepts .snxprj and .snxsch. The Windows installer, the macOS DMG and the Linux .deb register the .snx* file types so they carry Signex icons in your file manager — but Signex does not yet open a file handed to it on the command line, so double-clicking one launches an empty workspace. Use File → Open....

3. Pan and zoom

Action	Gesture
Pan	Right-click + drag, or middle-mouse drag
Zoom	Scroll wheel (cursor-centred)
Fit All	Home (also View → Fit All)

Zoom ranges from 25% to 1600%. The grid defaults to 1.27 mm (50 mil) with snap on; G opens the grid picker — an Altium-standard ladder of 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 / 25 / 50 / 100 mil, then 0.025 / 0.100 / 0.250 / 0.500 / 1.000 / 2.500 mm — and View → Toggle Grid (Ctrl+Shift+G) hides it.

Right-drag pans, so it does not open a context menu on the canvas — that's Altium behaviour, and it's deliberate.

4. Know your shortcut profile

Signex ships two built-in keyboard profiles, and Altium is the default:

Action	Altium (default)	Classic
Wire	P W or Ctrl+W	W
Bus	—	B
Net label	P N	L
Component tool	P P	A
Rotate 90°	Space or Shift+Space	R or Shift+R
Mirror	X (horizontal), Y (vertical)	X / Y

The Altium entries with two keys are chords: tap P, release, then tap W. Both rotate bindings currently apply the same 90° step — Shift does not yet reverse the direction. Rotate and mirror act on a single selected symbol. If you'd rather have single-key tools, switch profile in Tools → Preferences... (Ctrl+,) → Keyboard Shortcuts, where you can also copy a built-in profile and edit the bindings. Custom profiles are saved to signex/keyboard_shortcuts.toml in your OS config directory.

Everything below uses the default Altium profile. Press F1 any time for the live list from your active profile — that's the authority, not this page.

5. Make your first edit

Select and move a component:

1. Click any component.
2. Drag it.
3. Press Space while dragging to rotate, X / Y to mirror.

Place a wire:

1. Press P then W (or Ctrl+W, or click Wire in the Active Bar).
2. Click to start, click to turn, Esc to finish.

Place a component:

1. Pick the component you want in the Components panel (View → Components) — the Component tool places whatever is selected there, so a click with nothing picked does nothing.
2. Press P then P to arm the Component tool (also Place → Component...).
3. Click on the canvas to drop it at the cursor.
4. File → Library → Place Component... opens the picker instead.
5. Esc cancels the placement tool at any point.

Component libraries mount from the project's own library list, so a brand-new project has none until you add one. Either File → Library → Open Library... to mount an existing .snxlib, or right-click a library node in the Projects panel → Add New ▸ Component.

Undo / redo — Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y. Signex keeps 100 history entries per document.

6. Save

Ctrl+S writes the document back to its native .snxsch / .snxprj file. Saves are atomic and fsync'd, so an interrupted write can't leave you with a truncated file. Because the format is TOML + TSV text, git diff on a saved schematic shows the rows you actually changed.

The window title shows Signex <version>, and switches to • Signex <version> — N unsaved when documents are dirty. Closing the main window prompts if anything is unsaved.

7. What to try next

• Schematic Editing — selection modes, copy/paste, the full drag-move story.
• Placement Tools — lines / rectangles / circles / arcs / polygons, bus and label placement, hierarchical sheets.
• ERC and Validation — press F8 to run the electrical rule checker and see what Signex catches.
• Multi-window Editing — drag a tab out of the tab bar to edit it in a separate OS window.
• Keyboard Shortcuts — the complete reference.

Common first-time gotchas

• "I can't see anything" — press Home (Fit All). New projects sometimes open far from the origin.
• "My shortcuts are all wrong" — you're probably expecting single-key tools. The default profile is Altium (chords); switch to Classic in Tools → Preferences... → Keyboard Shortcuts.
• "Shortcuts don't work" — a focused text field or an open dialog takes the keys first. Tool shortcuts also resolve against the active tab, so a schematic binding does nothing while a symbol or footprint tab is in front.
• "My theme changed" — Tools → Preferences... → Appearance. The default is Signex; the other built-ins are Alp Lab, VS Code Dark, Catppuccin Mocha, GitHub Dark, Solarized Light, and Nord.
• "Right-click doesn't open a menu on the canvas" — right-drag is pan. Right-click without moving still opens the context menu.