Workbench

The Workbench page is used to create and modify a lab’s topology and to interact with the lab simulation. To open a lab in the Workbench, find the lab in the Dashboard page and, depending on the Dashboard’s view, click the tile (in tiles view) or the Open Lab link or lab preview (in list view) associated with the lab.

The Workbench page contains a graphical canvas where you can create, modify, and interact with the lab topology. The canvas is displayed permanently.

There is also a Sidebar pane that provides a view of different details and actions for the selected topology element. If no element is selected in the lab, for example, when you click the canvas background, the Sidebar is hidden. If you select a node, link or annotation in the canvas, the tabs and details in the Sidebar will show information about the selected topology element.

There is also a bottom pane that is displayed when you click one of:

• Nodes - the bottom pane shows a list of all lab nodes with available actions.

• Panes - the bottom pane shows one or multiple panes where you can open console, VNC or PCAP sessions (see Panes).

• Guide - the bottom pane shows an editor with lab notes.

Otherwise, the bottom pane is hidden.

The CML Workbench

Workbench Toolbar

The toolbar at the top-left of the upper pane of the Workbench provides buttons for the following actions:

Toolbar Button	Description
Select	Click in the Workbench canvas to select and move elements.
Rectangle	Draw a rectangle in the Workbench canvas.
Ellipse	Draw an ellipse in the Workbench canvas.
Text	Add text in the Workbench canvas.
Line	Draw a line in the Workbench canvas.
Add Nodes	Drag-and-drop a node from the Add Nodes pane into the Workbench canvas.
Center Canvas	Center the topology in the canvas.
Fit Canvas	Fit the topology to the current canvas dimensions.
Zoom Out	Zoom out of the topology in the canvas. For a continuous zoom, click and hold.
Zoom In	Zoom in on the topology in the canvas. For a continuous zoom, click and hold.
Canvas Settings	Display the Canvas Settings toolbar.

Canvas Settings Toolbar

You can customize the appearance of the Workbench canvas by toggling the following buttons in the canvas settings toolbar:

Canvas Setting	Description
Grid Lines	Show / Hide grid lines.
Snap To Grid	Enable / Disable snap-to-grid for node and annotation positioning.
Show Link Labels	Show / Hide interface names on each side of the link in the canvas.
Link Bundling between Nodes	Toggle the canvas-wide preference for how to display multiple links between the same two nodes. Enables / disables bundling of links between all nodes in the lab. See also Hiding Links.
Annotations	Show / Hide annotations. When annotations are hidden, the four annotations toolbar buttons in the Workbench toolbar are also disabled.

Grid Lines and Snap-To-Grid

The Workbench canvas incorporates a background grid, which supports snap-to-grid for positioning elements in the canvas. You can show or hide the grid lines in the Workbench canvas by toggling the setting in the Canvas Settings toolbar.

Nodes and annotations automatically snap to the nearest grid intersection when you draw or move them in the canvas. Snap-to-grid makes it easy to align the elements in your lab. You can enable or disable the snap-to-grid functionality by toggling the setting in the Canvas Settings toolbar.

You can also temporarily disable snap-to-grid functionality by holding the Alt key while moving a lab element or while resizing an annotation. Temporarily disabling snap-to-grid allows you to manually place an item in an off-grid position without having to disable snap-to-grid for the whole Workbench.

Other Canvas Actions

In addition to the actions available on the toolbar, the Workbench provides double click actions for hiding links in the canvas. See Hiding Links.