# Quick Tour

## Introduction

&ktechlab; is an IDE for electronic circuits and microcontrollers. It can perform simulation a variety of components (logic, integrated, linear, nonlinear and reactive), simulation and debugging of PIC microcontrollers via gpsim, and comes with its own closely-linked and complementary high level languages: &flowcode; and &microbe;.

It has been designed to be as easy to use and unintrusive as possible; all components and FlowParts have context sensitive help, and simulating electronics is as simple as dragging components onto the work area and creating connectors that autoroute themselves between their pins. &flowcode; allows users new to PICs to instantly create their own programs, while the electronic simulation allows stepping through a PIC's assembly program inside a circuit.

## Documents

To get started in &ktechlab;, you will need to create a new document, whose type will depend on your task:

- &flowcode; Document - Construct a PIC program via flowcharting.

- Circuit Document - Simulate electronics circuits and microcontrollers.

- &microbe; Document - High level language for PICs, also used by &flowcode; to generate assembly.

- Assembly Document - Start writing a PIC assembly program.

&ktechlab; uses a Document-View model, in that the Document logic is completely separate from open views of the document. This allows several views of the same file.

On creating a new document, the view is created in a separate tab. Each tab can support any number of views, tiled in any arbitrary pattern. This allows, for example, simulating a PIC program in circuit, while stepping through the program in an assembly document in the same tab.

The contents of tabs can be duplicated by dragging the tab to an empty area on the tab bar. They can be inserted into an existing tab by dragging it onto that tab.

Detailed instructions on the above documents can be found in their own respective chapters.

## Drawing

In Circuit and &flowcode; documents, there are several drawing tools available, including text. These are available by clicking on the paintbrush icon in the toolbar. To draw, drag the mouse to form either a shape or a line appropriate to the drawing tool in use.

When a drawing is selected, it can be resized by dragging its handles. Holding down &Shift; while dragging will snap the handle to the underlying grid. Each tool has basic options accessible from the toolbar, such as colors. There are also more advanced options found in the Item Editor sidebar, such as line and cap styles.