Interface Tour
A guided tour of the JW Slope workspace: canvas, panels, and the modeling-to-results workflow.
The JW Slope workspace is built around a central drawing canvas with a left sidebar for tools and panels, a top bar for file actions, and a set of modal dialogs for detailed property editing. This page describes each region and how they fit together.
Workspace layout
- Top bar — file operations (new project, open, save, import, export) and project-level controls.
- Left sidebar — the workspace-mode tabs and the geometry dock (the toolset used to build and edit the model).
- Central canvas — the HTML5 drawing surface where geometry is created, edited, and where results are displayed.
- Modals — dialogs for material properties, support properties, search settings, and solver progress.
Workspace tabs
Two top-level tabs switch the workspace mode:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Geometry | Build and edit the model: boundary, regions, water, loads, supports, and analysis settings. |
| Results | View the computed critical surface and factor of safety after running an analysis. |
The geometry dock
In Geometry mode, the sidebar presents the geometry dock — a grouped list of tools. The groups follow the natural modeling order:
| Group | Contents |
|---|---|
| External Boundary | Draw, expand/shrink, and clear the external boundary. |
| Material Regions | Draw internal material boundaries (or use a soil profile). |
| Water Table | Add a water table or piezometric line. |
| Weak Layer | Add weak-layer paths. |
| Anisotropy | Add anisotropic surfaces and vector fields. |
| Tension Crack | Add a tension crack. |
| Materials | Define and assign material properties. |
| Loading | Add distributed, line, and seismic loads. |
| Ground Support | Add ground support and edit support properties. |
| Limit State | Configure slip-surface search, slope limits, and advanced options. |
| Finite Element | Experimental FEA meshing and solvers. |
| Compute | Run the analysis and open parametric / solver tools. |
The Finite Element group and its solvers are experimental. Treat their output as preliminary.
The canvas
The canvas is where all geometry is drawn and edited. It supports standard CAD navigation:
| Action | Input |
|---|---|
| Pan | Middle-click and drag. |
| Zoom | Scroll wheel (zooms toward the cursor). |
| Suppress snapping | Hold Alt while drawing or editing. |
| Context menu | Right-click on or near an entity. |
The right-click context menu provides in-place editing actions such as Move Vertex, Insert Vertex, Delete Vertex, Move Segment, Move Entity, Assign Material, and Edit Materials, depending on what is under the cursor.
Snapping
A status bar along the canvas exposes snapping toggles, including snap to object vertices and segments, snap to configured angles, ortho snapping, grid-point snapping, and grid-line snapping. Holding Alt temporarily disables snapping without changing these toggles, which is useful for placing a point freely.
Modals
Detailed editing happens in modal dialogs opened from the dock or context menu:
| Modal | Opened from | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Define Material Properties | Materials group | Edit strength, unit weight, and water properties for each material. |
| Support Properties | Ground Support group | Choose support type and capacities. |
| Slip Search / Slope Limits / Advanced | Limit State group | Configure the surface search. |
| LEM Solver | Compute | Shows live search progress while the analysis runs. |
Typical workflow
- Draw the external boundary.
- Add material regions and assign materials.
- (Optional) Add a water table, loads, and support.
- Configure the search method and analysis method under Limit State and Compute.
- Press Compute and read the critical factor of safety on the Results tab.
See the Quick Start for a concrete, step-by-step walkthrough.