- What is the canvas in TuringDock?
- The canvas is the home screen of TuringDock. It shows every supplier, part, subassembly, end product, and customer in your shop as a connected graph. You navigate, edit, and act on your operations from the canvas instead of clicking through forms and menus. Drag an edge between two nodes to add a relationship (a supplier supplies a part, a part goes into a subassembly, a customer buys an end product). Click any node to see Alan's one-line summary of what's going on right now.
- How is the TuringDock canvas different from a BOM tree?
- A BOM tree shows one product at a time, expanded vertically. The TuringDock canvas shows your entire shop in one view: every supplier on the left, components in the middle, subassemblies and end products to the right, customers on the far right. Shortages propagate visually (a red dashed edge points from the missing component all the way to the affected end products and the customers waiting on them). Edge animations show stage of work: a brand-green flowing edge means a scheduled task uses it; a saturated edge means a task is in progress right now.
- How do I add a new part or supplier to the canvas?
- Two paths. The fastest: click '+ New node' and describe what you're adding in plain English ('ATmega328p microcontroller from Digi-Key, $4.50 each, 1000 in stock'). Alan creates the part, the supplier (if it didn't exist), and the supply link in one tap. Alternative: pick a node type (Supplier, Component, Subassembly, End product, Customer) and fill in the form. Both paths land in the same shape on the canvas.
- Can I select and move multiple nodes at once?
- Yes. Hold left-mouse and drag on empty canvas to draw a selection rectangle. Hold Shift to add to the selection. Drag any selected node and the whole group moves together. All positions persist. Pan with right-click or middle-click since left-drag is now the selection gesture.
- Does the canvas work on touch screens / tablets?
- Today the canvas is desktop-first; touch is functional but not polished. Production teams typically use the canvas on a laptop or large monitor at the desk and rely on Alan in Slack for the bench. A touch-optimized canvas is on the roadmap for the operator-tablet use case.