Application Builder Tools > Starting the Application Builder > The Home Toolbar
The Home Toolbar
The Home toolbar is always available and contains buttons for accessing the most common functionality in the Application Builder.
The Main Section
This section contains buttons for moving to various windows and creating new forms and methods.
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Click the Model Builder button () to switch from the Application Builder to the Model Builder windows and the standard COMSOL Desktop.
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Click the New Form button () to create a new form using the New Form wizard. See Working with a Form and Using the New Form Wizard.
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Click the New Method button () to create a new Method node in the model and open its code in a new editor tab. See The Method Nodes and Method Editor Windows.
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Click the Record a New Method button () to create a new method start a recording session of operations on the embedded model that you can later use as code in that method. When the recording starts, the button changes to the Stop Recording button (), which you click to end the recording. See Recording Code.
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Click the Settings button () to move, open, or close the Settings window.
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Click the Preview button () to show or hide the Preview window for a live preview of the forms and methods in the application. In the Preview window, you can scroll to get a preview of the forms and methods in the application, which can be useful, for example, if you are working on a method that interacts with a form. To show a preview of a form in the Preview window, select a form or method node in the Application Builder window.
The Events Section
This section contains a button for creating events.
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Click the Events button () to add an Event node for defining an event. See The Events Branch.
The Declarations Section
This section contains buttons for creating variable, file, and choice list declarations. See The Declarations Branch.
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Click the Scalar button () to open a menu where you can choose to add a string, Boolean, integer, or double scalar.
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Click the Array 1D button () to open a menu where you can choose to add a string, Boolean, integer, or double 1D array.
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Click the Array 2D button () to open a menu where you can choose to add a string, Boolean, integer, or double 2D array (matrix).
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Click the File button () to add a file declaration.
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Click the Choice List button () to add a choice list.
The Libraries Section
This section contains buttons for opening the images, sounds, and file libraries and for adding external code and utility classes.
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Click the Images button () to open the Images library. See Images.
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Click the Sounds button () to open the Sounds library. See Sounds.
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Click the Files button () to open the Files library. See Files.
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Click the Utility Class button () to add a Java utility class. See The Utility Class Node.
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Click the External Java Library button () to add an external Java library. See The External Java Library Node.
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Click the External C Library button () to add a dynamically linked native code library. See The External C Library Node.
The Main Window Section
This section contains buttons for adding menus and toolbars to the application’s main window. The buttons are only available when they are possible to add (depending on which menu type you use and which is the current node under Main Window).
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Click the Menu Bar button () to add a menu bar. See The Menu Bar Node.
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Click the Toolbar button () to add a toolbar. See The Toolbar Node.
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Click the File Menu button () to add a file menu. See The File Menu Node.
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Click the Ribbon Tab button () to add a ribbon tab to a ribbon. See The Ribbon Tab Node.
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Click the Ribbon Section button () to add a ribbon section to a ribbon. See The Ribbon Section Node.
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Click the Menu button () to add a menu. See The Menu Node.
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Click the Item button () to add a menu item. See The Item Node.
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Click the Toggle Item button () to add a toggle item. See The Toggle Item Node.
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Click the Separator button () to add a separator to separate groups of related menu items in a menu. See The Separator Node.
The Test Section
This section contains tools for testing the application.
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Click the Test Application button () to launch the application in a separate window so that you can test it. See Testing the Application.
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Click the Apply Changes button () to compile and apply code changes to the running application (a so-called hot code swap). See Applying Changes to a Running Application.
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Click the Test in Web Browser button () to test run the application in a web browser. See Testing the Application.
The View Section
The View section contains buttons for rearranging the views in the Application Builder desktop window.
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Click the Tile () and Move To () buttons to rearrange the windows in the Application Builder.
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Click the Reset Desktop button () to reset the desktop layout to the default state.