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Time, machines, arms and cycles

Describes RotoScheduler 0.2.1 · checked 2026-09-14 D5

The ruler shows working time. The overnight gap between one date's working window and the next is folded away. At a close view you read clock times; at a wider view you read dates. A short working window takes less width than a long one.

Machines, arms, cycles, runs

Open a machine to see its arms. Open an arm and its row grows to the size of its spider, with a named band for each mounted mold. A cycle is one production turn on that arm. A mold run is one mold copy over a range of consecutive cycles. The machine-day is all the work and capacity of one machine on one date.

As you zoom out, cycles become plain boxes, then day boxes, then week boxes when dates themselves become too narrow. Rows can show different amounts of detail at the same span. Hover or zoom in when a label no longer fits. A single click on a day box selects its facts; a double-click opens that date in detail.

Zoom and pan

• Day, Week and Month are shortcuts on the same board. Zooming changes the detail, not the plan.
• Dragging the slider right zooms in; left zooms out. The left edge stays in place.
• With the slider focused, Right or Up zooms in, Left or Down zooms out. Home is the widest span, which can extend beyond the plan's dates; End is the finest.
• With the board focused, + zooms in and - zooms out.
• Hold Ctrl and turn the wheel over the board to zoom around the pointer.
• Drag empty board space or the ruler to pan along time; the timeline follows the pointer. A drag on a mold run moves that run instead.
• With the board focused, Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right pan to the previous and the next date.
• To return to a date, double-click its day box, or focus it and press Enter.

Mouse and keyboard has the full table.