The Impact Graphical User Interface (GUI) is composed of many parts, and you can customise most of these components to suit your needs.
Interface Components
This section outlines some of the fundamental components.
Title Bar
As with all Windows programs, the title bar at the top of the window shows the program name. It also shows the current drawing name, whether it is a project, template, or symbol and the viewed face.
Menu Bar
The menus give you access to all the Impact tools.
Design Bar
Shows the Palette Group and Palette for the current Drawing, plus a pulldown list showing the currently running tools. The active tool will be shown at the top of this list, and you can pick any tool within the list to cancel all the tools above it and go back to running that tool. You can configure the Design Bar using the Customize tool, which allows you to remove any of these items. Customize also allows you to display the current layer on this bar, together with any tool buttons or icons you may wish to include. (The example below shows a selection of tool buttons, including New Project, New Standard, Browser, Save, Import, Print and Plot).
Edit Bar
When a tool is running, the Edit Bar normally shows the options for that tool.
Part of the Impact window, showing (from top) the Title Bar, Menu Bar, Design Bar, Edit Bar and Window Area (with rulers and the Main Toolbar docked on the left).
These three bars can be moved by clicking on the handle 
and dragging them. They can be docked at the top or bottom of the main window, or they can be left floating. However, if you wish the toolbars to be locked, so they can’t be dragged by mistake; simply right click on the handle and choose Lock Positions.
Status Bar
This is always displayed at the bottom of the main window. The main purpose of the Status bar is for the current tool to tell you what it expects you to do next.
Main Toolbox
This allows access to all the tools via their toolbars. Click on one of the buttons and hold it down to reveal all the tool buttons for a particular tool set. Click on a tool button to start the tool.
Toolbars
The toolbars can be torn off the Main Toolbox and left floating or docked onto the sides of the window. When docked, you can choose to lock the toolbar into position to stop it from being dragged out by accident when a tool is selected. Pull out one of the toolbars, as described above, then click on the handle 
and drag it away from the Main Toolbox. Now click on the toolbar's title and drag it to where you want it. To lock the toolbar into position, right click the toolbar and choose Lock Positions from the context menu.
The Main Toolbox (undocked) and one of the toolbars.
You can click on the arrow (
or 
for a docked toolbar or 
for an undocked toolbar) to hide/show selected tool buttons from any toolbar.
Standard Toolboxes
These toolboxes can be opened using Window > Standard Toolboxes and docked or left floating. See Notes On Standard Toolboxes for more information.
The Impact Explorer (one of the Standard Toolboxes) docked on the right side of the main window.
Window Area
This is the main part of the Impact screen, where the designs are displayed. Normally it shows one window, maximised, but you can use the Windows button 
on the right-hand side of the Menu Bar to Restore (unmaximise) it.
Every time you open a drawing, a new window is created for it. You can see a list of the windows at the bottom of the Windows menu - click on one to bring it to the front.
Each Window can display:
Drawing Area
This is where the geometry is shown (also referred to as the "canvas")
Layer Tabs
These allow you to quickly change your current layer. You can choose whether or not to display these from Options > Environment > Display.
The Layer Tabs (with menu, previous and next buttons to the right of them).
Scroll Bars
These allow you to move around the drawing. You can choose whether or not to display these from Options > Environment > Display.
Rulers
These allow you to quickly estimate the size or position of the design. You can choose whether or not to display these from Options > Environment > Display. You can also double-click on a ruler to quickly draw a horizontal or vertical construction line, automatically snapped to the ruler's marks. At the top left corner of the rulers is the current units display (either mm or inch). You can double-click on this button 
to quickly switch units from one to the other.
Direction Indicators
These are Constraint Manager / Machine Direction / Flute Direction / Visible Face and are grouped together with the Grid Coordinates (absolute or relative) and Grid Type (Cartesian or Polar) indicators.
The Direction Indicators, showing a tooltip, with the Scroll Bar to the right of them and the Status Bar below them.
If the window is displaying a 3D layer, it shows an Animation Frame Slider instead of Scroll Bars.
Animation Frame Slider
Example Window layout:
Two windows (unmaximised) displaying different layers of the same project.
Context Menus
In many parts of the interface you can right-click to display a Context menu, offering tools or options relevant to that component.
For example, right-click on:
- the Menu Bar, Design Bar, Edit Bar or any of the toolbars to allow:
- displaying or hiding the Main toolbox, Design Bar or Edit Bar
- displaying or hiding any of the toolbars
- managing Appearances
- customising the interface
- the Drawing Area to allow:
- cancelling the current tool
- restarting the last tool
- changing your Visibility settings
- a Layer Tabto
- delete the layer
- change the layer properties
- many of the Standard Toolboxes to
- change the properties of the toolbox
- quickly start other tools
- a 3D layer to allow access to most of the common 3D tools, including:
- folding settings
- moving objects
- rotating the camera
- visibility settings
- object properties
- the 3D Animation Frame Slider to
- use the animation tools
- change the animation properties
Customising the Interface
Many of the components can be shown or hidden using Options > Environment > Display.
You can also use the Customize form to choose which toolbars are shown, create custom toolbars, choose which tools are shown on the menus, create new menus, change the size of the icons (buttons) and choose whether or not to display tooltips. To open this form, right-click on any of the Menu, Design or Edit Bars and choose Customize from the context menu.
Appearances
You can save many of your interface settings using the Appearances option. From the same context menu as above, you can use the Appearance Manager to save or restore your appearance settings. You can also use Reset Appearance to return to the default settings.