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Arrange the editor in tabs

The bar under the editor's title bar holds tabs, each a whole layout of panels. The editor starts with a 3D tab: the Scene panel and the panels around it.

Open a tab​

Press + on the bar, choose File > New Tab... or press Ctrl+T, then pick:

  • 3D Scene opens a new tab laid out like the first: the Scene in the middle, the Hierarchy on its left, the Inspector on its right, and the Console, Assets and Animation below it.
  • 2D Scene opens the 2D Scene panel: the world seen flat from the front, X to the right and Y up, as a 2D game sees it. Scroll to zoom, drag with the right or middle button to pan, and click an entity to select it. Drag it to move it; with Snap on it lands on the grid. Ctrl+Z undoes a move.
  • UI Scene opens the UI Designer (see UI scenes).

File > New 3D Scene Tab, New 2D Scene Tab and New UI Scene Tab do the same. Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab step through the tabs.

You can open as many of each as you like. Each one keeps its own view: every 3D tab its own camera, every 2D tab its own place and zoom, and every UI tab its own UI scene. Opening a UI scene from Assets shows it in the UI tab you used last.

Each tab has its own copy of these panels, and the copies all show the same project and the same selection. The editor draws one copy of each panel at a time: the one in the tab shown. When a tab's copy is also in sight somewhere else, such as in a tab popped out into a window, it shows Show here. Press it to draw it there instead.

Make a tab of any panels​

Drag a panel by its tab up onto the bar. Let go on a tab to move the panel into it, or on Drop here for a new tab to give it a tab of its own. You could, for example, give the Inspector a whole tab. Hold the panel over a tab for a moment to show that tab, then drop the panel exactly where you want it in its layout. A tab closes by itself when its last panel leaves.

Open a file or a scene in a tab​

Drag a file from Assets up onto the bar to give it a tab of its own, showing it in an Asset Preview. The tab is named after the file. Double-click a file in Assets to open it the same way in a window of its own. Closing that window closes only its tab.

Drag a scene onto the bar to open it in a new 3D tab, beside the scene you have open. Each 3D tab keeps its own scene. Showing another tab opens its scene in its place, with any changes you haven't saved, and showing the first tab again brings yours back as you left it. Ctrl+Z goes back to the scene you had before.

Move a tab​

Drag a tab along the bar and let go where you want it.

To put a tab's panels into another tab, drag it onto that tab and hold it there for a moment. The other tab is shown. Then drop it into that tab's layout, just as you would a panel: beside a panel, or onto a row of panel tabs, between two of them. The tab you dragged closes, and its panels stay where you dropped them.

Pin a tab​

Right-click a tab and choose Pin tab. Pinned tabs sit at the start of the bar with a pin instead of a close button, and can't be closed until you choose Unpin tab.

Pop a tab out​

Right-click a tab and choose Pop out into window, or drag it down off the bar into its own layout. The tab becomes a window of its own that you can dock panels in, like the main one. Click its tab on the bar to bring it back.

Close a tab​

Close tab (or the tab's x, or a middle-click) closes the tab and its panels, the 3D tab included. Close them all and the editor is empty, ready for a new tab. Ctrl+Z brings a closed tab back, and Window reopens any panel.

Your tabs are kept with the rest of the layout, so they are there the next time you open the editor.