Your first deck

Five steps from an empty dashboard to a slide with an equation that computes, a chart that follows its table and a circuit that solves; then present it.

Try one connected update first#

Open the Signal Conditioning sample: it starts on the filter slide, where changing R moves the cutoff readout, and needs no account or Python.

1. The sample opens on “A first-order low-pass”, slide 12 in the complete deck.
2. Keep capacitance C fixed and increase resistance R in The pole panel.
3. Watch the fc readout decrease and the linked circuit’s resistor value change. The readout uses fc = 1 / (2πRC); C is displayed in µF, so its formula converts units.

This task uses a derived readout and supported circuit bindings; it does not require Python. Slide 13’s response chart is a fixed baseline at R = 16 kΩ and C = 10 µF; it does not follow your slider changes.

On phones and narrow screens, the sample opens a control preview with R/C and pendulum controls, readouts, slide selection and reset. Use a desktop browser for the full editor and presenter. Edits are temporary: reset or reopen the original sample link to start fresh. Copying a desktop link preserves the selected slide, not your temporary values.

Sign in#

The rest of this page is for an account of your own. Create a free account for a personal cloud workspace, or describe a specific evaluation if you need to confirm tools before starting.

Open app.quodra.app and create your account with your email, with Google or with an email link, or sign in if you already have one. If someone invited you to their workspace, follow the link in that email so you join it.

The first time you sign in, Quodra shows Welcome to the Quodra beta, a short, honest note about what you are joining, including that analytics stay off unless you turn them on. Read it and press Agree and start.

The checklist on Home#

A new account finds a card on Home, under the greeting, headed Your first technical deck. It lists five steps and counts them off as you do them:

1. Create a deck
2. Add an equation that computes
3. Add a chart bound to a table
4. Add a circuit or a scientific object
5. Present it or share it

Nothing on the card is a checkbox. Each step ticks itself when the thing happens, in the editor or anywhere else: a deck listed in your library ticks the first, an equation with its values filled in ticks the second, and so on. The next thing to do is drawn as the current step; pressing it opens the editor with the right guide ready. The count beside the heading reads 2 of 5 done and is announced by a screen reader as it changes.

Not now removes the card for good. It does not come back, and the guides it pointed at stay in the editor under Guides in the Insert palette. When the fifth step ticks, the card shows once more in its done state, and Close takes it away.

If your library already holds three decks with technical objects in them, the card never appears: the path is for a first deck.

The dashboard also plays a short tour the first time; it names the furniture and ends by telling you the editor has a tour of its own. Replay either from Settings › Preferences › Product tour, or from Take the tour in the editor's ⋯ menu.

Step 1: create a deck#

Press Create a deck on the card, or Blank presentation in the create strip beneath it, or New presentation in the top bar. All three make a deck called Untitled presentation and open the editor. A deck made from a template, or a sample you edited, counts too.

The deck's name sits in the middle of the editor's top bar. Double-click it and type to rename the deck; a single click opens the deck menu, with Rename among the rest. On the right of the bar is a status chip that reads Saved, Saving…, Syncing…, Offline, Conflict, or Error; clicking it opens Revision history.

The insert toolbar runs along the bottom of the slide; every button carries its key in the tooltip. Press H for a heading, T for a paragraph. Double-clicking empty paper also starts a text block. Drag objects to move them; guides line them up with their neighbours; ⌘Z undoes anything here. The full anatomy is in The editor.

Step 2: an equation that computes#

From the card, Add an equation that computes opens your latest deck with the Insert palette already on the guide. From inside the editor, press / on the slide (or + Insert), and choose Guide me: an equation that computes under Guides.

Five formulas are listed, each with its values already filled in: Ohm's law, power in a resistor, the RC cutoff frequency, kinetic energy, the pendulum period. Choose one and press ⏎. The equation lands on the slide, selected, showing the notation and its result together (V = I R with 4.4 V beside it), and the status bar says what to do next: Change a value in the inspector; the result follows.

Open the inspector's Variables section, change R from 220 to 470, and read the new result. That is the step: an equation whose numbers are live, not a picture of one.

Typing one yourself works the same way. Press E for the visual equation editor, write V = I R, then give I and R values in the inspector and switch calculation on; the card ticks when the calculator has a result. See Equations for the editor, the structures and the LaTeX path.

Step 3: a chart bound to a table#

From the card, Add a chart bound to a table, or / then Guide me: a chart bound to a table. Three starter tables are offered: a thermistor's resistance against temperature, a reaction rate against temperature, measured against predicted. Choose one and press ⏎.

A six-row table lands with a chart drawn from it beside it (to the right when there is room, below it when not). The chart is selected and the status bar says Edit a cell in the table; the chart follows. Select the table, change a number, and watch the line move. One ⌘Z removes both, because they arrived as one step.

A chart in Quodra always reads from something: a table, a function, an equation, or a code cell's output. Pasting cells from a spreadsheet onto the slide offers the same table-and-chart pair. See Charts, tables and diagrams.

Step 4: a circuit or a scientific object#

From the card, Add a circuit or a scientific object opens the palette on both lists at once. From the palette, choose Guide me: a circuit from a sample or Guide me: a scientific object from the gallery.

• Circuits: the anti-alias low-pass, the common-emitter stage, or the full-wave supply, each from the Signal Conditioning lecture. The schematic lands solved; the hint is Select a part to change its value; the readings re-solve. Circuit Studio, for building one from parts, is described in Circuit Studio.
• Scientific objects: a crystal (α-iron), a diffraction pattern (copper), a Raman spectrum (silicon), a stress-strain curve (steel), a molecule (caffeine), or a pendulum simulation. Each lands with its own data and a one-line hint. The Matter Lab entries appear only when Matter Lab is enabled for your account.

Any of these ticks the step; so does a circuit dropped in from the Studio, a molecule from the molecule library, or a simulation from the toolbar (S).

Step 5: present it or share it#

Press Present (top right), or Present it or share it on the card. Your slides go full screen, your speaker notes and the next slide stay on your side, and the equation, the chart and the circuit stay live: change a value in front of the room.

• → or Space advances, ← goes back.
• B blacks the screen, L toggles the laser, P the pen, W the whiteboard.
• Esc backs out one layer at a time: the ink panel, then the pen, then the talk.

Sharing counts too: Share… in the editor's header adds a collaborator by email or makes a view link. Either ticks the step. For a call, use the Present to Meet / Zoom button in the presenter toolbar; it opens a clean audience window, and you share that window rather than your screen. See Presenting and Present to Meet & Zoom.

Connect a parameter to text, no code needed#

Once the five steps are done, this is the next thing worth learning: it is what makes a Quodra deck different from a picture of one.

1. Press P. A panel appears titled Parameters, with a reactive badge.
2. In the inspector, name one variable gain, set its range to 0–10, and choose a starting value.
3. Edit a text block to read Gain: {{gain}}.
4. Drag the slider and watch the number in that sentence change.

The doubled braces insert a parameter value; they do not evaluate arbitrary equations. Variables can also drive a property on another object directly: a resistor's resistance, a phase diagram's temperature. See Reactive documents.

Optional: run a code cell#

If Python is enabled for your account, press C for a Code cell and write some Python. Press ⌘↩ to run it; that runs the selected cell, or auto-run cells when nothing is selected.

A corner chip tells you where the run is: queued, then preparing… while packages download, then running…. The first run of a session is the slow one; later runs reuse what is already loaded. If it fails, the cell shows Python could not run with the traceback underneath. Python executes in your browser, not on a server. Full detail in Python & code.

Save, tag, and file it#

Quodra autosaves. ⌘S forces a save now, and Revision history in the deck menu (click the deck's name) shows every saved version of the deck, by day, to look at and restore; restoring asks first and adds a new revision rather than overwriting one.

Back on the dashboard, the card's kebab menu carries Open, Rename…, Tags…, Duplicate, Export JSON, Move to folder, and Move to trash. Tags are typed comma-separated and travel inside the document; folders are a filing scheme this browser keeps. In the editor, the deck menu files the open deck the same way: Make a copy, Move to folder, and Move to trash.

Where to go next#

• Try one slide from your own work: test fit before importing a complete talk.
• The editor: the full tour of objects, panels, and views.
• Reactive documents: how the dependency model works.
• Keyboard shortcuts: go faster.
• Templates & samples: start from a finished deck instead.